Talk:Boolean algebra

From Citizendium
Revision as of 09:49, 18 July 2011 by imported>John R. Brews (→‎Relationship of Boolean algebra and formal logic: To Larry)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is developing and not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
To learn how to update the categories for this article, see here. To update categories, edit the metadata template.
 Definition A form of logical calculus with two binary operations AND (multiplication, •) and OR (addition, +) and one unary operation NOT (negation, ~) that reverses the truth value of any statement. [d] [e]
Checklist and Archives
 Workgroup categories Mathematics, Engineering and Philosophy [Editors asked to check categories]
 Talk Archive none  English language variant American English

Relationship of Boolean algebra and formal logic

Arguably, there is no difference between Boolean algebra and formal logic. But, as far as I know, only mathematicians and computer scientists talk about Boolean algebra per se, and their approach (including the symbols and the typical way of working out the deductive systems) is different from the philosophers' approach. ...And I can't say much more than that. I did add one sentence to this effect, but clearly, a lot more needs to be said in the article somewhere, somehow. --Larry Sanger 01:11, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Larry: I imagine that Peter Schmitt can be more definitive on this subject. However, my guess is that (i) Boolean algebra is in fact not equivalent to formal logic, but is one of several frameworks, and (ii) high school algebra may have elements in common with Boolean algebra, but algebra in the abstract is a much bigger subject than either of these. John R. Brews 02:10, 18 July 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for the reply. You're surely right, they aren't equivalent. Boolean algebra is definitely a branch of mathematics, using the tools of math to model (maybe that's the wrong word) the sorts of rules and inferences that are covered by formal logic. How to state this with the most accuracy and usefulness to the non-mathematician lay reader would be far beyond me... --Larry Sanger 02:20, 18 July 2011 (UTC)
I have tried to clarify the connection to algebra in general and elementary algebra in particular, and have included a source for further exploration of this topic. John R. Brews 14:49, 18 July 2011 (UTC)