CHAPTER 2
Boole Turns Logic
into Algebra
George Boole’s Hard Life
The beautiful and intelligent Princess Caroline von Ensbach, one day to
be Queen of England as the wife of George II, met Leibniz in Berlin in
1704 when she was 18. After she went to England with the court, their
friendship continued by correspondence. She tried to persuade her father-
in-law, now George I of England, to bring Leibniz to England, but as we
have seen, the king insisted that Leibniz remain in Germany to complete
the Hanovarian family history.
Caroline found herself entangled in the foolish continuing dispute be-
tween Leibniz and Newton and his followers, each side accusing the other of
plagiarism over the invention of the calculus. She tried to convince Leibniz
that the