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Boole’s mathematical blindness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Michael A. B. Deakin
Michael A. B. Deakin*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Monash University, Clayton 3168, Australia
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Abstract

George Boole, who very clearly rates as a mathematician of the very first rank, set out to solve a mathematical problem and his efforts to do so continued throughout the whole of his professional life. He never succeeded, despite the fact that he held the key to the solution for a good deal of this time. How and why he came to fail in his attempt is the subject of this paper. The difficulties encountered by students may be better understood if we realise that even the very greatest of mathematicians experience the same limitations and that they arise from the same causes.

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Type
Articles
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The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 80 , Issue 489 , November 1996, pp. 511 - 518
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1996

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