Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was equally celebrated as a mathematician, a philosopher and a physicist. He collaborated with his former student Bertrand Russell on the first edition of Principia Mathematica (published in three volumes between 1910 and 1913), and after several years teaching and writing on physics and the philosophy of science at University College London and Imperial College, was invited to Harvard to teach philosophy and the theory of education. A Treatise on Universal Algebra was published in 1898, and was intended to be the first of two volumes, though the second (which was to cover quaternions, matrices and the general theory of linear algebras) was never published. This book discusses the general principles of the subject and covers the topics of the algebra of symbolic logic and of Grassmann's calculus of extension.

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was equally celebrated as a mathematician, a philosopher and a physicist. He collaborated with his former student Bertrand Russell on the first edition of Principia Mathematica (published in three volumes between 1910 and 1913), and after several years teaching and writing on physics and the philosophy of science at University College London and Imperial College, was invited to Harvard to teach philosophy and the theory of education. A Treatise on Universal Algebra was published in 1898, and was intended to be the first of two volumes, though the second (which was to cover quaternions, matrices and the general theory of linear algebras) was never published. This book discusses the general principles of the subject and covers the topics of the algebra of symbolic logic and of Grassmann's calculus of extension.

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The present book was conceived as an introduction for the user of universal algebra, rather than a handbook for the specialist, but when the first edition appeared in 1965, there were practically no other books entir~ly devoted to the subject, whether introductory or specialized. Today the specialist in the field is well provided for, but there is still a demand for an introduction to the subject to suit the user, and this seemed to justify a reissue of the book. Naturally some changes have had to be made; in particular, I have corrected all errors that have been brought to my notice. Besides errors, some obscurities in the text have been removed and the references brought up to date. I should like to express my thanks to a number of correspondents for their help, in particular C. G. d'Ambly, W. Felscher, P. Goralcik, P. J. Higgins, H.-J. Hoehnke, J. R. Isbell, A. H. Kruse, E. J. Peake, D. Suter, J. S. Wilson. But lowe a special debt to G. M. Bergman, who has provided me with extensive comments. particularly on Chapter VII and the supplementary chapters. I have also con sulted reviews of the first edition, as well as the Italian and Russian translations.