Sixth BSHM–CSHPM Joint Meeting

Abstract

spreading the word amongst those without an educated background but with a thirst for knowledge. In being a very determined educator, De Morgan published intelligent comments and made suggestions, particularly in logic. In this way he was one of the first people to bring to general attention some things that we now regard as fundamental, for example mathematical induction (which he called ‘Successive Induction’ (1838)), the De Morgan laws and Boolean duality, quantifiers and their domains of relational logic. He championed a move to decimal currency in the 1850s (witness the introduction of the florin, two shillings, or a tenth of a pound) a move which at the time went nowhere. De Morgan’s ideas were explained in non-technical terms, how these things are important, and what they owe to him. According to Wilfrid Hodges, De Morgan was not to be compared with Boole whose work in logic was fresh, new, and full of insights, or even to Avicenna, an Islamic scholar of the early eleventh century. Primarily a teacher, De Morgan published widely in such journals as The Athenæum and the Penny Cyclopaedia, and was ready to give a helping hand to his students whether in mathematics or acting as wise tutor. As to De Morgan’s mathematical influence, the speaker neatly turned the question around and wondered what developments of today De Morgan would approve. Tony Crilly http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2015.1055089