The development of symbolism in logic and its philosophical background (Q1897478)

Suitable formalisms are of primary importance for many fields of mathematics and logic. Starting from some sketchy remarks on the development of mathematical symbolism, the authors give a short explanation of the early logical formalism from Aristotle via the scholastic logicians and Lullus till Leibniz and his idea of characteristica universalis. Then they take a closer look at Boole and de Morgan and their algebraization of logic, continue with explaining Peano's symbolism and his tendency toward a total symbolization of mathematics, mention the influence of Russell, discuss the two-dimensional logical symbolism of Frege, describe the principles of the Polish notation, and close their survey with a consideration of the notation of Schönfinkel which led to the notation of combinatory logic. A few philosophical remarks close this interesting survey.