Most computer database searches — where you use key words to retrieve documents — are based on something called Boolean logic. What you may not know is that the term refers to a 19th century mathematician named George Boole, who developed his now indispensable theory in the 1854 book “The Laws of Thought.”
Boole is one of the Victorians who inspired Dan Cohen, a historian at George Mason University, whose work I discuss in an article today, the second part of a series on how technology is transforming humanities scholarship.
Mr. Cohen and a fellow historian have been relying on Boolean logic a lot these days, as they mine Google’s vast database of English books published in the 19th century to search for new insights into the Victorian mind.
In a keynote address at the Victorians Institute conference held at the University of Virginia in October, Mr. Cohen presented preliminary findings of that research. He also shared anecdotes about Boole, mathematical logic, and the sectarian conflict of his day.
” ‘The Laws of Thought,’ ” Mr. Cohen said, “is as much a work of literary criticism as it is of mathematics.”
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