A Plea for Freedom

This chapter argues that the right to acquire knowledge, like every other right, involves a responsibility. It may be neglected or abused, but the right exists. It cites the need to choose representatives in the Committee with care, and having chosen them, confide to them in a free and generous spirit, the interests of one's Institution, abolishing all vexatious restraints upon the liberty of their decisions. The only restriction which is worthy of the Institution is that imposed by the good sense and right feeling of its members. As this is sufficient to prevent the introduction of immoral and licentious publications, so it would bar the admission of all work in either Politics or Religion, which should not be conceived in a spirit befitting the pursuit of Truth, and answering to the dignity of the subject.

The Social Aspect of Intellectual Culture

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on the social aspect of intellectual culture. He says that within proper limits and under proper conditions, intellectual tastes are not only compatible with social enjoyment, but tend to refine and enlarge that enjoyment. An interest in the progress of the arts and sciences and in the researches of the antiquary and the scholar is calculated not to destroy but to deepen our interest in humanity. He further says that the connection between intellectual discovery and the progressive history of our race gives to every stage of the former a deep human interest. Each new revelation, whether of the laws of the physical universe, of the principles of art, or of the great truths of morals and of politics, is a step not only in the progress of knowledge, but also in the history of our species.

The Claims of Science

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on the claims of the pursuit of science, He says that like all other claims with which we are concerned, these must ultimately rest upon some intrinsic excellency or special suitableness of the object. Qualities such as these can alone give to it an enduring title to our regard. He draws attention to the ground of those claims, in the immediate or implied relations of science to human nature; in its relations, namely, as an answer to some of the distinctive wants of the human mind, an exercise to its faculties, a discipline of the character and habits, and an instrument of conquest and dominion over the powers of surrounding Nature.

The Right Use of Leisure

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on the right use of leisure. He says that every right involves a responsibility. The greater our freedom from external restrictions, the more we become the rightful subjects of the moral law within us. The less our accountability to man, the greater our accountability to a higher power. Such a thing as irresponsible right has no existence in this world. Even in the formation of opinion, which is of all things the most free from human control, and for which something like irresponsible right has been claimed, we are deeply answerable for the use we make of our reason, our means of information, and our various opportunities of arriving at a correct judgment.

On the Character and Origin of the Ancient Mythologies

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on the origin of ancient mythologies. Very few ancient writers agree in the representations on this subject despite living in the country whose opinions they profess to relate. Comparison of the statements transmitted by Greek and Roman writers on the religious opinions of nations with which they were less immediately connected show discrepancies so great that the attempt to reconcile them is a hopeless task. Those who have written much on the subject generally started with some theory of their own to which they have endeavored to bend the facts they met with. The attempt to reduce to some single principle the various and discordant relations of mythology is, however, unlikely to meet with any success judging from the past.

On the Genius and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. The first subject of importance that engaged Newton's attention was the phenomena of prismatic colors. The results of his inquiries were communicated to the Royal Society in the year 1675, and afterwards published with most important additions in 1704. The production was entitled “Optics; or, a Treatise on the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light.” It is considered one of the most elaborate and original of his works, and carries on every page the traces of a powerful and comprehensive mind. Newton also discovered universal gravitation, which was announced to the world in 1687 through the publication of the “Principia, or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” The object of the “Principia” is twofold: to demonstrate the law of planetary influence, and to apply that law to the purposes of calculation.

On Education

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on education. He identifies three things to which the attention of the teacher must be chiefly directed: the imparting of knowledge, the production of a ready command and application of such knowledge by art and practice, and the formation of habits. In the accomplishment of each of these objects, he holds that the order of Nature is to be imitated and obeyed. The order of Nature as manifested both in the discovery and the acquisition of knowledge is an ascending and never a descending order. In imparting knowledge, we must not begin with words. As far as possible, we must acquaint the child with things, and it will then feel the want, and understand the use, of words as markers and tokens of the ideas which from things it has acquired.

On the Question: Are the Planets Inhabited?

This chapter presents George Boole's lecture on whether the planets are inhabited. He first considers the general conditions to which life here has manifested; second, the adaptations of the earth as the abode of life; and third, the presumptions in favor of such adaptation on the part of the remaining orbs of the planetary system. He says that if it is granted that the Author of nature acts consistently in all his works, that he accomplishes the purposes of his will by special means and adaptations, that his purpose with respect to the earth is that it should be an abode of life, and that the mass and adaptations by which that purpose is accomplished are employed in other worlds, then it appears that other worlds are also intended to be habitations of life.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the life and work of George Boole. Boole is known for developing the system of algebraic logic, which eventually found an unexpected engineering application in the design of switching circuits. He was also an early advocate of the mass distribution of knowledge, using the methods at his disposal in early Victorian times. In the classroom and lecture hall, he interpreted the results of recent discoveries and debates originating among specialists in numerous fields—history, psychology, ethnography, and much else—and communicated them to a broad audience. Less known and therefore less appreciated is Boole's role in the history of the making and organization of knowledge. A better understanding of this feature, may eventually provoke a more thoroughgoing reappraisal of the whole figure.