"The general laws of Nature are not, for the most part, immediate objects of perception. They are either inductive inferences from a large body of facts, the common truth in which they express, or, in their origin at least, physical hypotheses of a causal nature serving to explain phenomena with undeviating precision, and to enable us to predict new combinations of them. They are in all cases, and in the strictest sense of the term, probable conclusions, approaching, indeed, ever and ever nearer to certainty, as they receive more and more of the confirmation of experience. But of the character of probability, in the strict and proper sense of that term, they are never wholly divested. On the other hand, the knowledge of the laws of the mind does not require as its basis any extensive collection of observations. The general truth is seen in the particular instance, and it is not confirmed by the repetition of instances."
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Philosophers from EnglandMathematicians from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomNon-fiction authors from EnglandLogicians from England
Original Language: English
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p. 4; Ch. 1. Nature And Design Of This Work
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George Boole
George Boole (2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was an English mathematician, logician and philosopher. As the inventor of Boolean logic, which is the basis of modern digital computer logic, he is regarded in hindsight as one of the founders of the field of computer science.
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