Panini's grammar and Boolean logic

[l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no]

>On Oct 6,  8:01pm, you wrote:
>
>>       In the April, 1993 newsletter of Motilal Banarsidass, it
>> states that Rick Briggs (who works for NASA) has argued that Panini's
>> grammar is based on Boolean logic.  
>
>Tell Briggs that Boole (1815-1864) lived after Panini (c. 4th-5th cent. BC).
>
>Dominik
>
> 
I don't know if I am the right guy to get involved in this discussion, but
Boolean logic was discovered by Boole, not invented by him. In other words,
someone just may have beat him to it - e.g. Panini, just like integral
mathematics were discovered independently by both Leibnitz and Newton.
There is therefore no reason why Panini's logic should not have a "boolean"
character. But if this is *really* the case, I don't know. That discussion
I leave to others.

Lars Martin


Lars Martin Fosse
Department of East European
and Oriental Studies
P. O. Box 1030, Blindern
N-0315 OSLO Norway

Tel: +47 22 85 68 48
Fax: +47 22 85 41 40

E-mail: l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no