History and Philosophy of Logic

摘要

Henry Maurice Sheffer's name is an inherent part of the history of logic. Almost everybody who has come into closer contact with logic is familiar with the ambitious aim of practicing logic with the smallest possible set of primitives and axioms. The introduction of the "Sheffer Stroke" to the system of Principia Mathematica in 1913 - replacing the primitive symbols for adjunction and negation - marks an important contribution to modern formal logic in the early 20th century. No less a figure than Bertrand Russell supported Sheffer throughout his lifetime. But apart from Sheffer's most basic propositional connective, most of us know almost nothing about his further scientific work.