Abstract
LONDON
Royal Society, January 20.—The following papers were read:— “On the mechanical performance of logical inference,” by W. Stanley jevonS, M.A. Lond., Professor of Logic, & a, in Owens College; communicated by Professor E. Roscoe, F.R.S. The author first referred to the general use of mechanical contrivances for the purpose of mathematical computation, and then contrasted this fact with the utter absence of machines for aiding logical operations. This absence he attributed to.the incompleteness of the old logical doctrines. The problem of logical science in its complete generality was first solved by Boole. His logical views, when simplified and corrected, give us a method of indirect deduction of extreme generality and power, founded directly upon the fundamental laws of thought. A proof of the truthfulness and power of this system is to be found in the fact that it can be embodied in a machine just as the calculus of differences is embodied in Mr. Babbage's calculating machine. To explain the nature of the logical machine alluded to, it may be pointed out that the third of the fundamental laws of thought allow us to affirm of any object one or the other of two contradictory attributes, and that we are thus enabled to develope a series of alternatives which must contain the description of a given class or object. Thus, if we are considering the propositions,
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Societies and Academies . Nature 1, 343–348 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001343b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001343b0