Symbolic Logic

"The Sensitive Man."

Michael Tighe expounds the antecedents of psychodynamics:

"'Francis Bacon speculated about a genuine science of man. Boole did some work along those lines as well as inventing the symbolic logic which was to be such a major tool in solving the problem.'" (VIII, p. 187) 

I do not think that Boole did any work toward a science of man - but Tighe is merely stringing along his captors.

Did earlier generations have exaggerated expectations of symbolic logic? All that formal logic does is to formulate relationships of consistency and necessity between propositions, whatever the contents of those propositions. Thus:

If ((if it rains, then the street is wet) and it rains), then the street is wet.

Relationships of if, and and then. Abstracting from the content:

If ((if p, then q) and q), then q.

Thus, an algebra of propositions instead of numbers. The conclusion is consistent with and also necessarily follows from the premises. But reducing scientific propositions into logical symbols, deducing conclusions, then retranslating the conclusions back into scientific propositions would not develop the science - I do not think.

Other antecedents listed by Tighe are more substantial:

psychology

the biology, chemistry and physics of human bodies

comparative history

cybernetic concepts of homeostasis and feedback, applicable to individuals and to society

games theory

the principle of least effort

Haeml's (?) generalized epistemology 

However, he ends by saying that new logical and mathematical symbologies have enabled synthesis.