Settimo Termini – författare

This book furthers the historical and technical debate by looking at reasoning as the action of language when it is devoted to explaining or foretelling, based on the authors’ centennial combined experience in fuzzy logic. A simple logical model mixing abductions and deductions is introduced in order to attain speculations, conjectures that may be responsible for induction, and creativity in reasoning. A central point and a dire hypothesis of the book are that such process can be implemented by computation and as such can lead to a new approach to automatic thinking and reasoning. On top of the technical approach, the relationship between reasoning and thinking is also analyzed trying to establish links with notions and concepts of thinkers from the European Middle Age to the current days.

The notion of Fuzziness stands as one of the really new concepts that have recently enriched the world of Science.  Science grows not only through technical and formal advances on one side and useful applications on the other side, but also as consequence of the introduction and assimilation of new concepts in its corpus. These, in turn, produce new developments and applications. And this is what Fuzziness, one of the few new concepts arisen in the XX Century, has been doing so far.

This book aims at paying homage to Professor Lotfi A. Zadeh, the “father of fuzzy logic” and also at giving credit to his exceptional work and personality. In a way, this is reflected in the variety of contributions collected in the book. In some of them the authors chose to speak of personal meetings with Lotfi; in others, they discussed how certain papers of Zadeh were able to open for them a new research horizon. Some contributions documented results obtained from the author/s after taking inspiration from a particular idea of Zadeh, thus implicitly acknowledging him.

Finally, there are contributions of several “third generation fuzzysists or softies” who were firstly led into the world of Fuzziness by a disciple of Lotfi Zadeh, who, following his example, took care of opening for them a new road in science.

Rudolf Seising is Adjoint Researcher at the European Centre for Soft Computing in Mieres, Asturias (Spain).

Enric Trillas and Claudio Moraga are Emeritus Researchers at the European Centre for Soft Computing, Mieres, Asturias (Spain).

Settimo Termini is Professor ofTheoretical Computer Science at the University of Palermo, Italy and Affiliated Researcher at the European Centre for Soft Computing, Mieres, Asturias (Spain)

The notion of Fuzziness stands as one of the really new concepts that have recently enriched the world of Science.  Science grows not only through technical and formal advances on one side and useful applications on the other side, but also as consequence of the introduction and assimilation of new concepts in its corpus. These, in turn, produce new developments and applications. And this is what Fuzziness, one of the few new concepts arisen in the XX Century, has been doing so far.

This book aims at paying homage to Professor Lotfi A. Zadeh, the “father of fuzzy logic” and also at giving credit to his exceptional work and personality. In a way, this is reflected in the variety of contributions collected in the book. In some of them the authors chose to speak of personal meetings with Lotfi; in others, they discussed how certain papers of Zadeh were able to open for them a new research horizon. Some contributions documented results obtained from the author/s after taking inspiration from a particular idea of Zadeh, thus implicitly acknowledging him.

Finally, there are contributions of several “third generation fuzzysists or softies” who were firstly led into the world of Fuzziness by a disciple of Lotfi Zadeh, who, following his example, took care of opening for them a new road in science.

Rudolf Seising is Adjoint Researcher at the European Centre for Soft Computing in Mieres, Asturias (Spain).

Enric Trillas and Claudio Moraga are Emeritus Researchers at the European Centre for Soft Computing, Mieres, Asturias (Spain).

The aim of this volume of scientific essays is twofold. On the one hand, by remembering the scientific figure of Eduardo R. Caianiello, it aims at focusing on his outstanding contributions – from theoretical physics to cybernetics – which after so many years still represent occasion of innovative paths to be fruitfully followed. It must be stressed the contribution that his interdisciplinary methodology can still be of great help in affording and solving present day complex problems. On the other hand, it aims at pinpointing with the help of the scientists contributing to the volume – some crucial problems in present day research in the fields of interest of Eduardo Caianiello and which are still among the main lines of investigation of some of the Institutes founded by Eduardo (Istituto di Cibernetica del CNR, IIAS, etc).

20 anni fa – anzi qualcuno in più – iniziava le sue pubblicazioni “Lettera Matematica PRISTEM”, espressione di un gruppo di ricerca della “Bocconi” cui aderiscono anche docenti e studiosi di altre Università. La “Lettera” ha rappresentato un tentativo coraggioso di svecchiare la comunicazione matematica, di renderla meno accademica e più giornalistica con l’uso delle immagini, del colore e di un linguaggio diretto. Un tentativo di inserire la Matematica nei più ampi processi che riguardano la scuola e la società.

In questo libro, i tre direttori della rivista sfogliano le sue annate per ricordare storie e personaggi (matematici e non) attorno a cui la “Lettera” è cresciuta e che di fatto hanno contribuito alla formazione della sua linea editoriale.

Le testimonianze, i ricordi e i commenti sono seguiti anno per anno da un articolo comparso quell’anno sulla “Lettera”. Ne esce una descrizione del mondo matematico, visto dall’interno, molto più vivace di quanto solitamente si pensa che sia. Altro che semplice calcolo! La Matematica va avanti e la “Lettera” racconta in quali direzioni. Talora procede con appassionate discussioni e qualche polemica che accompagna la ricerca o l’insegnamento o la gestione delle istituzioni scientifiche: anche di queste, in 20 anni, la “Lettera” ha cercato di dare puntualmente conto.