Books published by College Publications

The book provides a self-contained mathematical introduction to linear optimization for  undergraduate students of Mathematics. This book is equally suitable for Science,  Engineering, and Economics students who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the mathematical aspects of the subject. The linear optimization problem is analyzed from different perspectives: topological, algebraic, geometrical, logical, and algorithmic. Nevertheless, no previous knowledge of these subjects is required. The essential details are always provided in a special section at the end of each chapter. The technical material is illustrated with multiple examples, problems with fully-worked solutions, and a range of proposed exercises. In Chapter 1, several formulations of the linear optimization problem are presented and related concerning admissible vectors and optimizers. Then, sufficient conditions for the existence of optimizers based on topological techniques are discussed in Chapter 2. The main objective of Chapter 3 is to provide a way for deciding whether or not an admissible vector is an optimizer, relying on Farkas' Lemma. In Chapter 4, linear algebra is used for computing optimizers via basic admissible vectors. A geometrical characterization of these vectors is the goal of Chapter 5. Duality is discussed in Chapter 6, giving yet a new technique for finding optimizers. An introduction to computational complexity is presented in Chapter 7 with the aim to analyze the efficiency of linear optimization algorithms. The complexity of a brute-force algorithm is shown not to be polynomial. Chapter 8 is targeted at the Simplex Algorithm. It includes the proof of its soundness and completeness and an explanation on its non-polynomial complexity. Finally, Chapter 9 concentrates on the integer optimization problem with an emphasis on totally unimodularity. An algorithm based on the Branch and Bound Technique is analyzed.

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

Logic is-arguably-all about proving, but proofs can be "costly," often impossibly so, and today most are delegated to (partly) automatic provers, namely by so-called SAT solvers, software based on the (Boolean) satisfiability problem, or SAT. This is the dual of the (Boolean) validity problem, or VAL, at the core of the conception of the digital computer via Hilbert's Entscheidungsproblem and the Universal Turing Machine. While these problems-VAL significantly less so than SAT-feature in introductory logic textbooks aimed at computer science students, they are largely or wholly absent from textbooks targeting a mathematical or philosophical studentship. Formal logic: Classic problems and proofs corrects this-in our view-misguided state of affairs by providing the basics of formal classical logic from the central viewpoint of a formal, or computer, language that distinguishes itself from the other formal or computer languages by its ability to preserve truth, thus potentially providing solutions to decision problems formulated in terms of VAL and/or SAT. This fundamental aspect of classical logic, truth-preservation, is elaborated on from three main formal semantics, to wit, Tarskian, Herbrand, and algebraic (Boolean) semantics, which, in turn, via the adequateness results for the standard first-order logic, underlie the main proof systems of direct and indirect, or refutation, proofs, associated to VAL and SAT, respectively.Not focusing on the history of classical logic, this book nevertheless provides discussions and quotes central passages on its origins and development, namely from a philosophical perspective. Not being a book in mathematical logic, it takes formal logic from an essentially mathematical perspective. Biased towards a computational approach, with SAT and VAL as its backbone, this is thus an introduction to logic that covers essential aspects of the three branches of logic, to wit, philosophical, mathematical, and computational.

This book is a collection of papers related to a workshop organized in Geneva in January 2017, part of a big event celebrating the centenary of Ferdinand de Saussure's famous "Cours de Linguistique Générale" (CLG). The topic of this workshop was THE FIRST PRINCIPLE stated in the second section of the first part of the CLG entitled: THE ABITRARINESS OF THE SIGN. Discussions are developed according to the three perspectives presented in the call for papers: (1) The details of the formulation of this principle in the CLG, its proper place (cf. the following sentence of section 2: "No one disputes the principle of the arbitrariness of the sign but it is often easier to discover a truth than to assign it its proper place"). Discussions about the question of arbitrariness of the sign in works by Saussure before the CLG are also welcome. (2) How the arbitrariness of the sign has been formulated and stressed before the CLG by other people than Saussure, in particular, but not exclusively, by people of the second part of the 19th century. Three important names: Boole, Peirce, Bréal. (3) The import and value of this principle and the criticisms it received after the publication of the CLG. Special focus will be given on the opposition between arbitrary sign and symbol (as characterized in the CLG: "the symbol is never arbitrary; it is not empty, for there is the rudiment of a natural bond between the signifier and the signified") in the context of mathematical and logical languages (visual reasoning), traffic signs and pictograms (cf. Neurath's Isotype), typefaces (cf. the work of Adrian Frutiger).

Cet ouvrage propose une analyse épistémologique des modèles scientifiques et de leurs modes d'application, centrée sur la définition et l'identification des objets théoriques. La question des idéalisations en science y est traitée en examinant la portée des connaissances pouvant être tirées de modèles scientifiques idéalisés, et les conditions selon lesquelles elles peuvent concerner certains aspects du monde actuel. En discutant différentes approches courantes de cette question en philosophie des sciences, comme certaines formes de réalisme, de fictionnalisme, ou encore de structuralisme, cet ouvrage développe une épistémologie modale définissant notamment l'identité des propriétés et des relations scientifiques dans une perspective causale et nomologique

Languages, machines, and classical computation is a new undergraduate course book on the conjoined subjects of Formal Languages and Automata & Computability and Complexity. By new, we mean more than its recent publication: It is (more) clearly structured around the Chomsky hierarchy, which acts as its backbone; It has an overall algorithmic approach, with many central algorithms thoroughly and clearly described in a step-by-step manner; No programming language or software plays any role whatsoever in it, guaranteeing thus the (mathematical) generality of the diverse contents; It is to some extent a return to the original textbook approaches of the late 1970's / early 1980's, now often-wrongly-seen as too hard for an undergraduate audience; and, Last but not least, it takes into consideration the fact, largely or wholly ignored by other course books on the aforementioned subjects, that to speak of computation today turns out to be an extremely equivocal business, as many other forms of computation have developed outside what we can call the Turing-von Neumann paradigm.A vast selection of exercises is a crucial component to this course book, with exercises ranging from simple tasks to research projects and explorations of creative skills.All the mathematical topics necessary to the satisfactory grasping of the contents discussed are provided in an introductory chapter, making of this a largely self-contained course book.The present second edition corrects addenda and errata, has both improved and new figures, an additional algorithm, and redesigned exercises.

Is it possible to conceive two perfectly identical objects? Is identity even possible withoutindividuality? How would a perfectly symmetrical universe be? The current philosophical debate on identity, and in particular on the necessity of the Leibniz's principle of the identity of indiscernibles, is complex and multi-faceted. Recent works have indicated that the problem becomes increasingly complex if we apply it to mathematical objects. Is it possible to speak of 'identity' for numbers? How can we identify numbers?Drawing on philosophical accounts on identity and individuality in contemporary metaphysics (analytic and continental), this book explores a new path. The author argues that an identity without individuality is possible. By means of a critique of the idea of the identity of indiscernibles, the book formulates the concept of 'manifold identity', through the concept of 'iteration'. Iteration is a specific transgression of the identity of indiscernibles arising from the collision of two forms of identity: qualitative identity and numerical identity. Nonetheless, a pair of perfectly identical objects is still a paradox, a contradiction.The first thesis of the book is that iteration is a paraconsistent and dialethetical logical structure, which allows for true contradiction. The author applies recent works in non-standard logic and dialetheism (Priest, Routley, Berto) to illustrate how we can make sense of the idea that objects can be perfectly identical but discernible.The second thesis of the book is that iteration is the basis of enumerability and computability. A 'computable object' is an object constructed on the basis of an iterative logic. It is possible to re-interpret all the primary concepts of computability theory through the logic of iteration.

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

Does the Chinese academic discourse on human rights differ from the official one as put forward by the Chinese government? How do Chinese legal theories justify the attribution of human rights and their protection through the law in the context of an authoritarian state? Do Chinese academic theorisations on rights and the law have any capacity to influence the wider public debate in China despite the ideological constraints and censorship imposed on academics by the party in power? In order to answer these questions, this book explores the theories of law and rights by contemporary Chinese legal scholars, paying particular attention to their views on the rule of law and the explanation of rights. It investigates the ways in which legal scholars have made use of arguments from the rediscovered Chinese traditional jurisprudence, the liberal tradition, and the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist canon.

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

Justification logics are closely related to modal logics and can be viewed as a refinement of the latter with machinery for justification manipulation. Justifications are represented directly in the language by terms, which can be interpreted as formal proofs in a deductive system, evidence for knowledge, winning strategy in a game, etc. This more expressive language proved beneficial in both proof theory and epistemology and helped investigate problems ranging from a classical provability semantics for intuitionistic logic to the logical omniscience problem.Justification logic is a new and fast evolving field that offers unexpected new approaches and insights into old problems. Its position at the junction of mathematics, philosophy, and computer science makes it of interest to a wide audience.This book provides a rigorous introduction to justification logic. It covers the basic constructions of justification logic as well as epistemic models and provability semantics. Further it includes chapters on decidability and complexity of justification logics as well as a chapter on self-referentiality. It also contains detailed historic remarks on the subject.

This book provides an introduction to several mathematical topics of importance in Computer Science but often considered to be outside the scope of traditional Discrete Methods courses. It offers basic treatments of Calculus, Complex Numbers, Statistics, and Linear Algebra with a particular emphasis on Spectral Methods.The presentation is intended for students with minimal mathematical background. Its principal aim being to emphasize the significant applications in modern CS for which some awareness of these fields is essential, e.g. Machine Learning, Data Science, Computational Game Theory, and Optimization. The focus is, therefore, directed towards applications in CS rather than detailed mathematical exposition.About the author: Paul Dunne is a Professor of CS at the University of Liverpool where he has worked since 1985. He studied CS at the University of Edinburgh (1977-1981) and completed his PhD research at Warwick University (1981-1984). In his time at Liverpool he has had experience in teaching all levels of undergraduate from first year through to Honours year presenting courses on Computability and Complexity Theory, Algorithms, Operating Systems, and the topic of the present book. He has published research in a range of fields from Boolean Function complexity, phase transition phenomena, AI and Law, complexity in multiagent systems, and has recently been most active in the area of models of Computational Argument.

This volume of the Logica Yearbook series brings together articles presented at the annual international symposium Logica 2018, Hejnice, the Czech Republic. The articles range over mathematical and philosophical logic, history and philosophy of logic, and the analysis of natural language.

This volume represents a homage to Cristina Burani. She dedicated her research activity mainly to the cognitive processes underlying single word recognition and reading, by exploring both the morpho-lexical and the sublexical variables involved. The contributions to this volume reflect the broad range of interests that have characterised Cristina's scientific life. Cristina Burani is Research Director at the ISTC (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies), CNR (National Research Council) in Rome. This volume arises from the scientific meeting held in June 2019 to honour her formal retirement. The program dealt with the main topics of Cristina Burani's scientific career, central to Italian Psycholinguistics. During her career, Cristina oriented, inspired and collaborated with many researchers and established the field of Psycholinguistics as an active research area in Italy. This book expresses the admiration and the acknowledgment of her influence on Italian research.

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

Logic and philosophy of logic have increasingly become areas of research and great interest in Latin America and Spain, where significant work has been done and continues to be done in both of these fields. The goal of this volume is to draw attention to this work through a collection of original and unpublished papers by specialists from Latin America and Spain.Some of the papers are of importance for set-theory and model theory. They cover topics such as the foundations of paraconsistency, the use of paraconsistent logic as a basis for set-theory, and the methodological aspects in both the justi¿cation of new axioms in set theory and the formalization of pre-theoretic notions. Other papers are related to epistemic logic. They deal with the issues of abduction and the choice of the simplest hypothesis, the definition of group probability, and the nature of explanation and understanding in such logic. There are also papers on logical paradoxes, the semantics of names (including fictional names), and the nature of relations. Max A. Freund is Professor of Logic and Philosophy at the University of Costa Rica and the National University of Costa Rica. He is co-author of the book Modal Logic: its syntax and semantics (Oxford University Press, 2008), as well as the author of Judicial Logic (Costa Rica Institute of Technology Press, 2007), and of a forthcoming book The Logic of Sortals (Springer, 2019).Max Fernandez de Castro is Professor of Logic and Philosophy at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico (at Iztapalapa). He is the author of the book Quine y la Ontología Abstracta (Porrúa, 2003) and co-author of the books Lógica Matemática I: lógica proposicional, intuicionista y modal (País, 2011), Lógica Matemática II: clásica, intuicionista y modal (País, 2011), Teoría de Conjuntos, Lógica y Temas Afines I (UAM Press, 2013). Marco Ruffino is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP, Brazil) and the editor of Manuscrito, the Brazilian international journal for Analytic Philosophy. He has many publications, in important philosophical journals, in the philosophy of language, of logic, and of mathematics; in the history of analytic philosophy, and on Frege and Wittgenstein.

Factual reasoning is reasoning with statements that are certain, called facts. Classical propositional logic is often used for such reasoning. However classical propositional logic has two faults. Its most serious fault is the irrational way it behaves when the statements are inconsistent. The second, less serious, fault is that there is an intuitive understanding of the meaning of 'follows from' that classical propositional logic does not capture. Various new consistent subsets of a set of inconsistent statements are investigated. This yields new more rational propositional logics for factual reasoning that capture the missing intuitive meaning of 'follows from'.Logics that do factual reasoning have properties that can be expressed by using consequence functions. A consequence function is meant to be a function whose input is a set of formulas and whose output is the set of consequences of those formulas. However, there is no adequate definition of what a consequence function is. A new definition of what a consequence function should be is proposed and shown to have many desirable properties.Plausible reasoning is reasoning with statements that are either facts, or are likely, called defeasible statements. Moreover all defeasible statements have the same likelihood; hence there are no numbers, like probabilities, involved. Many principles of plausible reasoning are suggested and several important plausible reasoning examples are considered. A propositional logic is defined that satisfies all the principles and reasons correctly with all the examples. As far as we are aware, this is the only such logic.

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

This volume is a homage to the computer scientist and philosopher Tarcísio Haroldo Cavalcante Pequeno. Tarcísio dedicated his research to subjects ranging from logic to philosophy through artificial intelligence, theoretical computer science and language. His main contributions were in nonmonotonic and paraconsistent logics, especially the study of negation; algebraic approaches to the semantics of programming languages, applications of intuitions from game semantics to automatic theorem proving; tableaux methods for paraconsistent logics and the role of rule following and rule consciousness in cognition, motivated by his interest in philosophy and the problem of demarcation of rationality. The contributions to this volume reflect the broad range of interests characteristic of Tarcísio's scientific interests. Topics include relations between logic and category theory, specifications of model checkers, philosophy of paraconsistent logics, epistemic logic, abstract argumentation semantics, natural language processing, foundations of mathematics, philosophical aspects of natural language processing, philosophy of logic and language, metaphysics, philosophy of science. During the last forty years, Tarcísio oriented, inspired and collaborated with many researchers and established the field of logic as an active research area in Northeast Brazil. This book expresses the admiration of his colleagues and the recognition of his influence on their academic lives.

In a career that spans 60 years so far, W.W. Tait has made many highly influential contributions to logic, the philosophy of mathematics, and their history. The present collection of new essays - contributed by former students, colleagues, and friends - is a Festschrift, i.e., a celebration of his life and work. The essays address a variety of themes prominent in his work or related to it. The collection starts with an introduction in which Tait's contributions are sketched and put into context. The eleven essays that follow are arranged in three parts: Part I. Proof Theory and its History; Part II. Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics; and Part III. History of Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics. Each of the essays contributes substantially to one or several of these areas. The authors included are: Steve Awodey, Solomon Feferman, Michael Friedman, Warren Goldfarb, Geoffrey Hellman, William Howard, Stephen Menn, Rebecca Morris, Charles Parsons, Erich Reck, Thomas Ricketts, and Wilfried Sieg. The editor, Erich H. Reck is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Riverside.

An Introduction to Ontology Engineering introduces the student to a comprehensive overview of ontology engineering, and offers hands-on experience that illustrate the theory. The topics covered include: logic foundations for ontologies with languages and automated reasoning, developing good ontologies with methods and methodologies, the top-down approach with foundational ontologies, and the bottomup approach to extract content from legacy material, and a selection of advanced topics that includes Ontology-Based Data Access, the interaction between ontologies and natural languages, and advanced modelling with fuzzy and temporal ontologies. Each chapter contains review questions and exercises, and descriptions of two group assignments are provided as well.The textbook is aimed at advanced undergraduate/postgraduate level in computer science and could fi t a semester course in ontology engineering or a 2-week intensive course. Domain experts and philosophers may fi nd a subset of the chapters of interest, or work through the chapters in a different order.Maria Keet is an Associate Professor with the Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, South Africa. She received her PhD in Computer Science in 2008 at the KRDB Research Centre, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. Her research focus is on knowledge engineering with ontologies and Ontology, and their interaction with natural language and conceptual data modelling, which has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed publications. She has developed and taught multiple courses on ontology engineering and related courses at various universities since 2009.

This book is a Festschrift dedicated to Guillermo Ricardo Simari on the occasion of his 70th birthday. It contains contributions by his students, colleagues, and friends.The articles, written by computer scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers address recent research in the area of knowledge representation and reasoning, in particular in topics such as argumentation, belief revision, and non-monotonic reasoning.

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

The Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal of Logics and their Applications (FLAP) covers all areas of pure and applied logic, broadly construed. All papers published are open access, and available via the College Publications website. This Journal is open access, and available in both printed and electronic formats. It is published by College Publications, on behalf of IfCoLog (www.ifcolog.net).

Logic deals with the fundamental notions of truth and falsity. Modal logic arose from the philosophical study of "modes of truth" with the two most common modes being "necessarily true" and "possibly true". Research in modal logic now spans philosophy, computer science, and mathematics, using techniques from relational structures, universal algebra, topology, and proof theory. These proceedings record the papers presented at the 2018 conference on Advances in Modal Logic, a biennial conference series with the aim of reporting important new developments in pure and applied modal logic. The topics include decidability and complexity results, proof theory, model theory, interpolation, as well as other related problems in algebraic logic.