Boole, Mary Everest | The Mathematical Psychology of Gatry and Boole

First edition, first printing.

Author Mary Everest Boole (1832-1916) was the daughter of a rector who encouraged her interest in mathematics. At eighteen the logician George Boole became her tutor, and she wrote later that it was his book on logic which made her fall in love with him. In 1855 they were married and moved to Cork, where he was teaching. George encouraged Mary “to attend his lectures and improve her knowledge of mathematics. He read his book on differential equations to her, altering it until the language was completely clear to her” (Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science).

Following George’s death, Mary became a matron at Queens College and developed an interested in mathematical education. “Her collected works, published after her death in 1931, reprinted interesting articles on mathematical education that include the idea that a child should construct mathematical table before he or she uses it, and emphasize the need for logical thinking” (BDWS). The present volume is “a detailed analysis of the philosophical writings of the French writer P. Gratry (whom George Boole had admired), comparing them with her husband’s mathematical concepts which she tried (not entirely successfully) to explain using simple geometric concepts. This book also tried to investigate what she termed ‘mathematical psychology’, the importance of logical thinking, and the nature of genius” (BDWS).