Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T17:09:51.483Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Conditions affecting the application of symbolic logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2014

Edmund C. Berkeley*
Affiliation:
The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, N. J.

Extract

In 1513 the Spanish adventurer Balboa discovered an ocean three times bigger than any other ocean in the world. When he returned to Europe at the end of the year and told the Spaniards, they probably did not fully believe him. Like Balboa, the symbolic logicians have recently discovered a new vast ocean of thought, and like the Europeans of his day, many people are hardly aware of the discovery or its full implications.

The newly discovered ocean, symbolic logic, is, in its broadest sense, a new science which studies through use of efficient symbols the nature and properties of all nonnumerical relations, seeking precise meanings and necessary conclusions. As an applied science, it holds immense promise. For example, it may give us an unambiguous language for political, economic, and social fields, which will conveniently reflect the structure of these fields and make discussion and analysis easy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Symbolic Logic 1943

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bell, E. T.. The queen of the sciences. Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore 1931.Google Scholar
Boole, George. The laws of thought. London 1854; reprinted by The Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago and London 1916, and 1940.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf. Abriss der Logistik. J. Springer, Vienna 1929.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einstein, Albert and Infeld, Leopold. The evolution of physics. Simon & Schuster, New York 1938.Google Scholar
Gamow, George. Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland; or stories of c, G, and h. The Macmillan Company, New York 1940.Google Scholar
Hogben, Lancelot. Mathematics for the million. W. W. Norton & Company, New York 1937.Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto. The philosophy of grammar. G. Allen & Unwin, London 1929.Google Scholar
Ogden, C. K.. The system of basic English. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York 1934.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman. Mathematical logic. W. W. Norton & Company, New York 1940.Google Scholar
Roget, P. M.. Thesaurus. Many editions, for example: C. O. Sylvester Mawson, Roget's International thesaurus of English words and phrases. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York 1929.Google Scholar
Whitehead, Alfred North and Russell, Bertrand. Principia mathematica. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 19101913; second edition, 1925–27.Google Scholar
Woodger, J. H.. The axiomatic method in biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1937.Google Scholar