Boole’s big contribution was turning logic into an algebra: “and”, “or”, “not”, etc. became mathematical operations for combining values (“true”/”false”), which we can quantify over, prove theorems about, etc. in a more abstract way than the sort of ‘sentence templates’ studied by the Greeks.
Important contributions were made by Shannon as well: in particular, his Masters thesis showed the equivalence of Boolean algebra, binary arithmetic, and digital circuits. Hence arithmetic and logic can be carried out by circuitry.
Boole’s big contribution was turning logic into an algebra: “and”, “or”, “not”, etc. became mathematical operations for combining values (“true”/”false”), which we can quantify over, prove theorems about, etc. in a more abstract way than the sort of ‘sentence templates’ studied by the Greeks.
Important contributions were made by Shannon as well: in particular, his Masters thesis showed the equivalence of Boolean algebra, binary arithmetic, and digital circuits. Hence arithmetic and logic can be carried out by circuitry.