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Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 548.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
www.princeton.edu/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 08:30:25 +0000
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: new books
(1)
Philosophical Languages in the Seventeenth Century: Dalgarno, Wilkins, Leibniz
by
Jaap Maat
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
THE NEW SYNTHESE HISTORICAL LIBRARY -- 54
This book gives a clear and thorough description of three fascinating
linguistic projects that were carried out in the seventeenth century: the
philosophical languages of George Dalgarno (1661) and John Wilkins (1668),
as well as the work of Leibniz in this area. These projects combined
practical purposes, such as improving communication, with profound
theoretical insights concerning the representation of knowledge and the
nature of language. Rich in detail, this book provides all the material for
a proper understanding of the workings of these schemes, while illuminating
the intellectual context in which they took shape. It will be welcomed by
anyone interested in the history of linguistics and philosophy of language.
This book:
* offers in-depth analysis of the two most sophisticated universal
language schemes created in the seventeenth century: the philosophical
languages of Dalgarno and Wilkins, supplementing existing literature in
focusing on the internal details of the languages,
* highlights and documents the controversy between Dalgarno and
Wilkins, largely ignored in most other books on the subject, showing that
their schemes resulted from different, and in various respects antagonistic
approaches,
* presents a careful account of Leibniz's plans for a philosophical
language, and illustrates, in discussing his philosophy of language, how
his thought was formed in constant interaction with contemporaries,
* discusses at greater length than usual the extensive work Leibniz did
in carrying out his plans, and shows to what extent he was indebted to
Dalgarno and Wilkins,
* emphasizes the importance of the logical tradition for the structure
of artificial languages constructed in the seventeenth century, and
clarifies the role played by dominant views of the relation between spoken
and written language,
* maintains a fine balance between historical research and argument,
presenting what was said as accurately as possible and placing it within
its proper context, but also attempting to evaluate the views described,
* is of interest to linguists, philosophers and historians of ideas.
Hardbound ISBN: 1-4020-1758-8 Date: February 2004 Pages: 432 pp.
EURO 149.00 / USD 164.00 / GBP 102.00
(2)
Frontiers of Evolutionary Computation
edited by
Anil Menon
ProductSoft, Inc. Pittsburgh, PA, USA
GENETIC ALGORITHMS AND EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION -- 11
Frontiers of Evolutionary Computation brings together eleven contributions
by international leading researchers discussing what significant issues
still remain unresolved in the field of Evolutionary Computation (EC). They
explore such topics as the role of building blocks, the balancing of
exploration with exploitation, the modeling of EC algorithms, the
connection with optimization theory and the role of EC as a meta-heuristic
method, to name a few. The articles feature a mixture of informal
discussion interspersed with formal statements, thus providing the reader
an opportunity to observe a wide range of EC problems from the
investigative perspective of world-renowned researchers. These prominent
researchers include:
* Heinz Mühlenbein,
* Kenneth De Jong,
* Carlos Cotta and Pablo Moscato,
* Lee Altenberg,
* Gary A. Kochenberger, Fred Glover, Bahram Alidaee and Cesar Rego,
* William G. Macready,
* Christopher R. Stephens and Riccardo Poli,
* Lothar M. Schmitt,
* John R. Koza, Matthew J. Street and Martin A. Keane,
* Vivek Balaraman,
* Wolfgang Banzhaf and Julian Miller.
Frontiers of Evolutionary Computationis ideal for researchers and students
who want to follow the process of EC problem-solving and for those who want
to consider what frontiers still await their exploration.
Hardbound ISBN: 1-4020-7524-3 Date: February 2004 Pages: 296 pp.
EURO 100.00 / USD 109.00 / GBP 69.00
Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
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