Philosophy 103 - Critical Thinking in Philosophy: Boolean Searching

Boolean searching uses AND, OR, or NOT to refine a search.

• connect your search words together to either narrow or broaden your set of results

• focus a search, particularly when your topic contains multiple search terms.

• connect various pieces of information to find exactly what you're looking for

George Boole (1815–1864) was an English mathematician and philosopher who came up with Boolean Logic. Boolean search connectors are a subset of Boolean Logic.

Use AND in a search to:

• narrow your results
• tell the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting records

Example: marijuana AND therapeutic use

Use OR in a search to:

• connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms)
• broaden your results, telling the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in the resulting records

Example:  marijuana OR cannabis

Use NOT in a search to:

• exclude words from your search
• narrow your search, telling the database to ignore concepts that may be implied by your search terms

Example:  drug therapy NOT prescription drugs