Henry M. Sheffer

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Henry Maurice Sheffer (1882-1964) was an American logician.

Sheffer was a Polish Jew born in the Ukraine, who immigrated to the USA with his parents. He was educated at Harvard University, learning logic at Josiah Royce's feet. Sheffer spent most of his career teaching in Harvard's philosophy department.

Sheffer proved in 1913 that Boolean algebra could be defined using a single binary operation, NAND, or its dual NOR. Likewise, the propositional calculus could be formulated using a single connective, the Sheffer stroke, which has the same truth table as the logical nand. Charles Peirce had discovered these facts in 1880, but the relevant paper was not published until 1933.

A biographical essay is by Scanlan, Michael, 2000, "The Known and Unknown H. M. Sheffer," The Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society 36: 193-224.

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