In 1513 the Spanish adventurer Balboa discovered an ocean three times bigger than any other ocean in the world. When he returned to Europe at the end of the year and told the Spaniards, they probably did not fully believe him. Like Balboa, the symbolic logicians have recently discovered a new vast ocean of thought, and like the Europeans of his day, many people are hardly aware of the discovery or its full implications.

The newly discovered ocean, symbolic logic, is, in its broadest sense, a new science which studies through use of efficient symbols the nature and properties of all nonnumerical relations, seeking precise meanings and necessary conclusions. As an applied science, it holds immense promise. For example, it may give us an unambiguous language for political, economic, and social fields, which will conveniently reflect the structure of these fields and make discussion and analysis easy.