Hugh MacColl (1837-1909) was a Scot who trained as a mathematician and evolved into a logician. The Scots people ( Scots Gaelic: Albannaich) are a Nation and an Ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. MacColl was the youngest son of a poor highland family which was at least in part Gaelic-speaking. The Scottish Highlands ( Scottish Gaelic: A' Ghàidhealtachd, Scots: Hielans) include the rugged and Mountainous Hugh's father died when he was still an infant and it is largely thanks to the efforts of his elder brother, Malcolm MacColl, an Anglican clergyman, and friend and political ally of William Ewart Gladstone. Malcolm MacColl (c 1838 - April 5, 1907) British clergyman and publicist was the son of a poor Scottish crofter or labourer in Glenfinnan who died when Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs Early in his acqaintanceship with Gladstone, Malcolm MacColl persuaded the Liberal politician to provide funds for Hugh's education at Oxford and it was proposed to send him to St Edmund Hall. The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s and a third party St Edmund Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. However Gladstone made this conditional on Hugh MacColl agreeing to take orders in the Church of England. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Hugh MacColl refused this condition and, as a result, never obtained a university education - a fact which perhaps limited his contribution to philosophy and certainly prevented him from ever obtaining a formal academic position. [1]
After a few years working in different areas of Great Britain, MacColl moved to Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, where he developed the greater part of his work and went on to become a French citizen. Boulogne-sur-Mer ( Bonen in Dutch is a City in Northern France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. French nationality law is historically based on the principle of Jus soli, according to Ernest Renan 's definition opposed to the German He is known for three main accomplishments:
- In 1877-79, while working out a problem involving integration, he published a four-part article setting out the first known variant of the propositional calculus, calling it the "calculus of equivalent statements", anteceding Gottlob Frege's Begriffschrifft. The European Space Agency 's INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory ( INTEGRAL) is detecting some of the most energetic radiation that comes from space This is a technical mathematical article about the area of mathematical logic variously known as "propositional calculus" or "propositional logic" Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege ( 8 November 1848, Wismar, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin &ndash 26 July 1925 He subsequently published 11 articles in Mind, 1880-1908, and a text,[2] in an effort to draw the attention of philosophers to his work.
- C. I. Lewis credited MacColl's late work on the nature of implication as the source of the basic ideas behind Lewis's pathbreaking work in modal logic. Clarence Irving Lewis ( April 12, 1883 Stoneham Massachusetts - February 3, 1964 Cambridge Massachusetts) usually A modal logic is any system of formal logic that attempts to deal with modalities.
- MacColl's work represents one of the first approaches to logical pluralism where he explores the possibilities of modal logic, logic of fictions, connexive logic, many-valued logic and probability logic. Probability is the likelihood or chance that something is the case or will happen
MacColl was not obscure in his day. He was a lifelong regular contributor to the Educational Times. His correspondents included the logicians William Stanley Jevons and Charles Peirce. William Stanley Jevons ( September 1, 1835 - August 13, 1882) English Economist and Logician, was born in Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse) (September 10 1839 &ndash April 19 1914 was an American Logician mathematician, philosopher He also corresponded, and argued in print, with the young Bertrand Russell, and reviewed Alfred North Whitehead's 1898 Universal Algebra for Mind. Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947, Nor is he forgotten now; there is an ongoing MacColl Project, a joint venture of Greifswald University in Germany and the University of Oslo, which intends to publish a critical edition of his work. The University of Oslo (Universitetet i Oslo Universitas Osloensis is the oldest and largest University in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital Furthermore, the group of logic and epistemology at the University of Lille (France) develop MacColl's suggestions for a dynamic free logic. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge The December 1999 issue of the Nordic Journal of Philosophical Logic published the proceedings of a 1998 conference devoted to MacColl's work.
MacColl published two novels, now forgotten yet containing elements of science fiction, that reveal social and moral values to which he gave full expression in his 1909 Man's Origin, Destiny, and Duty, an apology for Christianity. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings
References
- Rahman, S. & Redmond, J. , 2008. "Hugh MacColl and the Birth of Logical Pluralism". In: Handbook of History of Logic. Elsevier, vol. 4. Discusses MacColl's contributions to philosophy of language and logic including modal logic, logic of fictions and modal logic.
- Rahman, S. & Redmond, J. , 2007. Hugh MacColl. An Overview of his Logical Work with Anthology. College Publications. Contains a long introduction to MacColl's logic and reprints of his main logical work.
- Kneebone, G. , 2001 (1963). Mathematical Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics. Dover. Contains a brief introduction to the "calculus of equivalent statements. "
- Rahman, S. & Rückert, H. , 2001. "Dialogical Connexive Logic". In Synthese, vol. 127, 1-2, pp. 105-139.
- Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. Ivor Grattan-Guinness (Born 23 June 1941 Bakewell, England is a Historian of mathematics and Logic. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870-1940. Princeton Uni. Press.
External links
- Special Hugh MacColl issue of the Nordic Journal of Philosophical Logic.
- Hugh MacColl bibliography from that special issue, by the MacColl Project.
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