The volume is based on the papers that were presented at the Interna tional Conference Model-Based Reasoning in Scientific Discovery (MBR'98), held at the Collegio Ghislieri, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, in December 1998. The papers explore how scientific thinking uses models and explanatory reasoning to produce creative changes in theories and concepts. The study of diagnostic, visual, spatial, analogical, and temporal rea soning has demonstrated that there are many ways of performing intelligent and creative reasoning that cannot be described with the help only of tradi tional notions...

This volume explores abduction (inference to explanatory hypotheses), an important but neglected topic in scientific reasoning. My aim is to inte grate philosophical, cognitive, and computational issues, while also discuss ing some cases of reasoning in science and medicine. The main thesis is that abduction is a significant kind of scientific reasoning, helpful in delineating the first principles of a new theory of science. The status of abduction is very controversial. When dealing with abduc tive reasoning misinterpretations and equivocations are common. What are the differences between...

There are several key ingredients common to the various forms of model-based reasoning considered in this book. The term model comprises both internal and external representations. The models are intended as interpretations of target physical systems, processes, phenomena, or situations and are retrieved or constructed on the basis of potentially satisfying salient constraints of the target domain. The book s contributors are researchers active in the area of creative reasoning in science and technology.

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The technological advances of contemporary society have outpaced our moral understanding of the problems that they create. How will we deal with profound ecological changes, human cloning, hybrid people, and eroding cyberprivacy, just to name a few issues? In this book, Lorenzo Magnani argues that existing moral constructs often can not be applied to new technology. He proposes an entirely new ethical approach, one that blends epistemology with cognitive science.

Questo numero delle Note, curato da Lorenzo Magnani e da Riccardo Dossena, dedicato alla ripresentazione del programma di Erlangen, nella classica traduzione italiana di Gino Fano, arricchita da un'introduzione di Jean Dieudonn e da un saggio di Fran ois Russo. Quest'ultimo contributo in particolare presenta la genesi del programma, a partire dai primi decenni dell' Ottocento, concentrando la propria attenzione sulla costituzione - con Poncelet - della Geometria proiettiva in forma di dottrina e sulla scoperta delle Geometrie non euclidee. Fu questa una vera e propria "avventura"...

Thisvolumeexploresabductivecognition, animportantbut, atleastuntilthe third quarter of the last century, neglected topic in cognition. It integrates and further develops ideas already introduced in a previous book, which I published in 2001 (Abduction, Reason, and Science. Processes of Discovery and Explanation, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York). Thestatusofabductionisverycontroversial. Whendealingwithabductive reasoning misinterpretations and equivocations are common. What are the di?erences between abduction and induction? What are the di?erences - tween abduction and the...

The technological advances of contemporary society have outpaced our moral understanding of the problems that they create. How will we deal with profound ecological changes, human cloning, hybrid people, and eroding cyberprivacy, just to name a few issues? In this book, Lorenzo Magnani argues that existing moral constructs often can not be applied to new technology. He proposes an entirely new ethical approach, one that blends epistemology with cognitive science.

This volume is a collection of selected papers that were presented at the international conference Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Abduction, Logic, and Computational Discovery (MBR09 BRAZIL), held at the University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil in December 2009. A previous volume, Model-Based Reasoning in Scienti?c Discovery, edited by L. Magnani, N.J. Nersessian, and P. Thagard (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 1999; Chinese edition, China Science and Techn- ogy Press, Beijing, 2000), was based on the papers presented at the ?rst model-based reasoning...

The volume is based on papers presented at the international conference on Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Medicine held in China in 2006. The presentations explore how scientific thinking uses models and explanatory reasoning to produce creative changes in theories and concepts. The contributions to the book are written by researchers active in the area of creative reasoning in science and technology. They include the subject area's most recent results and achievements.

Philosophers have studied geometry since ancient times. Geometrical knowledge has often played the role of a laboratory for the philosopher's conceptual experiments dedicated to the ideation of powerful theories of knowledge. Lorenzo Magnani's new book Philosophy and Geometry illustrates the rich intrigue of this fascinating story of human knowledge, providing a new analysis of the ideas of many scholars (including Plato, Proclus, Kant, and Poincare), and discussing conventionalist and neopositivist perspectives and the problem of the origins of geometry. The book also ties...