Lorenzo Magnani
Encyclopedia
Lorenzo Magnani is an Italian
philosopher who teaches philosophy of science
in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pavia
, where he directs the Computational Philosophy Laboratory. Currently he is a visiting professor at the Sun Yat-sen University
in China
. In the event of the 50th anniversary of the re-building of the Philosophy Department of Sun Yat-sen University in 2010, an award was given to him to acknowledge his contributions; the department was incorporated into that of Beijing University (Peking University
) in 1952, it was rebuilt in 1960 at Sun Yat-sen University.
Magnani's primary research interests are the philosophy of science
, logic
, cognitive science
, artificial intelligence
, and philosophy of medicine
. His historical research has centered on 19th and 20th century geometry
and the philosophy
of geometry
.
Currently he is studying the processes of conceptual innovation and change in science also in the perspective of abductive reasoning
. A major objective of his research is to create a working synthesis between epistemological and historical perspectives and investigations of representations and reasoning in cognitive science
. Recently he addressed the problem of the relationships between morality
and technology
and the problem of violence
in a philosophical and cognitive perspective.
His previous positions have included visiting researcher (Carnegie Mellon University
, 1992; McGill University
, 1992–93; University of Waterloo
, 1993; and the Georgia Institute of Technology
, 1995 and 1998–99) and visiting professor (visiting professor of Philosophy of Science and Theories of Ethics at Georgia Institute of Technology
, 1999–2003; Weissman Distinguished Visiting Professor at Baruch College
, City University of New York
, 2003).
He has directed and directs many international academic programs in collaboration with USA, Chile, EU, and China
.
In Italian
In English
Edited Books
Book Series Editor: SAPERE - Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, Springer Science+Business Media.
Director: CPL Computational Philosophy Laboratory, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
Complete List of Publications: See Author's Web Page.
at the following International Conferences:
He also edited many books (see above) and many special issues of international journals deriving from the international MBR conferences indicated above.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
philosopher who teaches philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pavia
University of Pavia
The University of Pavia is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. It was founded in 1361 and is organized in 9 Faculties.-History:...
, where he directs the Computational Philosophy Laboratory. Currently he is a visiting professor at the Sun Yat-sen University
Sun Yat-sen University
Sun Yat-sen University, also unofficially referred to as Zhongshan University , is a prominent university located mainly in Guangzhou, China. The University is named after Dr...
in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. In the event of the 50th anniversary of the re-building of the Philosophy Department of Sun Yat-sen University in 2010, an award was given to him to acknowledge his contributions; the department was incorporated into that of Beijing University (Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
) in 1952, it was rebuilt in 1960 at Sun Yat-sen University.
Magnani's primary research interests are the philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
, logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, and philosophy of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. His historical research has centered on 19th and 20th century geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
and the philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
of geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
.
Currently he is studying the processes of conceptual innovation and change in science also in the perspective of abductive reasoning
Abductive reasoning
Abduction is a kind of logical inference described by Charles Sanders Peirce as "guessing". The term refers to the process of arriving at an explanatory hypothesis. Peirce said that to abduce a hypothetical explanation a from an observed surprising circumstance b is to surmise that a may be true...
. A major objective of his research is to create a working synthesis between epistemological and historical perspectives and investigations of representations and reasoning in cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
. Recently he addressed the problem of the relationships between morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and the problem of violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
in a philosophical and cognitive perspective.
His previous positions have included visiting researcher (Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, 1992; McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, 1992–93; University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
, 1993; and the Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, 1995 and 1998–99) and visiting professor (visiting professor of Philosophy of Science and Theories of Ethics at Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
, 1999–2003; Weissman Distinguished Visiting Professor at Baruch College
Baruch College
Bernard M. Baruch College, more commonly known as Baruch College, is a constituent college of the City University of New York, located in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, New York City. With an acceptance rate of just 23%, Baruch is among the most competitive and diverse colleges in the nation...
, City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
, 2003).
He has directed and directs many international academic programs in collaboration with USA, Chile, EU, and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Books and Edited Books
BooksIn Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
- Non-Euclidean Geometries (1978) (Anthology of classic texts)
- In Behalf of Architecture (with other co-authors) (1987)
- Applied Epistemology (1991)
- Philosophy and geometry (1991)
- Textbook of Logic: Classical Logic and Logic of Common Sense (co-author R. Gennari) (1997)
- Introduction to Computational Philosophy (1997)
- Knowledge as a Duty. Distributed Morality in a Technological World (2006)
In English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
- Abduction, Reason, and Science. Processes of Discovery and Explanation (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2001). Chinese Edition [意] 洛伦佐•玛格纳尼 / 著；李大超，任远 / 译，《溯因、理由与科学——发现和解释的过程》，中国广州：广东人民出版社2006年, 2006;;
- Philosophy and Geometry. Theoretical and Historical Issues (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2001);
- Morality in a Technological World. Knowledge as a Duty (Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, Cambridge, 2007) develops a philosophical and cognitive theory of the relationships between ethics and technology in a naturalistic perspective. The book describes how modern technology has brought about consequences of such magnitude that old policies and ethics can no longer contain them; - Abductive Cognition. The Epistemological and Eco-Cognitive Dimensions of Hypothetical Reasoning (Springer Science+Business MediaSpringer Science+Business Media- Selected publications :* Encyclopaedia of Mathematics* Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete * Graduate Texts in Mathematics * Grothendieck's Séminaire de géométrie algébrique...
, Heidelberg/Berlin, 2009); - Understanding Violence. The Intertwining of Morality, Religion, and Violence: A Philosophical Stance (Springer Science+Business Media, Heidelberg/Berlin, 2011).
Edited Books
- L. Magnani, W. Carnielli, C. Pizzi (eds.) (2010) Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology Abduction, Logic, and Computational Discovery, Series “Studies in Computational Intelligence”, Vol. 314, Springer, Heidelberg/Berlin.
- S. Iwata, Y. Oshawa, S. Tsumoto, N. Zhong, Y. Shi, and L. Magnani (eds.) (2008). Communications and Discoveries from Multidisciplinary Data, Series “Studies in Computational Intelligence”, Springer, Berlin/New York.
- L. Magnani and P. Li (eds.) (2007), Model-Based Reasoning in Science, Technology, and Medicine, Series “Studies in Computational Intelligence”, Vol. 64, Springer, Berlin/New York.
- L. Magnani and P. Li (eds.) (2006), Philosophical Investigations from a Perspective of Cognition, Guangdong People’s Publishing House, Guangzhou, (published in Chinese: [意] 洛伦佐•玛格纳尼、李平主编，《认知视野中的哲学探究》，中国广州：广东人民出版社2006年).
- L. Magnani (2006) (ed.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Engineering. Cognitive Science, Epistemology, Logic, College Publications, London.
- L. Magnani (ed.) (2006), Computing and Philosophy, Associated International Academic Publishers, Pavia.
- L. Magnani and R. Dossena (eds.) (2005), Computing, Philosophy and Cognition, College Publications, London.
- L. Magnani and N. J. Nersessian (eds.) (2002), Model-Based Reasoning. Scientific Discovery, Technological Innovation, Values, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
- L. Magnani, N. J. Nersessian, and C. Pizzi (eds.) (2002), Logical and Computational Aspects of Model-Based Reasoning, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht.
- L. Magnani, N. J. Nersessian, and P. Thagard (eds.) (1999), Model-Based Reasoning in Scientific Discovery, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, (Chinese edition, translated and edited by Qiming Yu and Tianen Wang, China Science and Technology Press, Beijing, 2001: 《科学发现中的模型化推理》，于祺明、王天思主译，中国北京：中国科学技术出版社2001年 ),
- L. Magnani and R. Dossena (eds.) (2004), Felix Klein: the Erlanger Program, Pristem/Storia, Springer, Milan (in Italian).
Book Series Editor: SAPERE - Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, Springer Science+Business Media.
Director: CPL Computational Philosophy Laboratory, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
Complete List of Publications: See Author's Web Page.
MBR (Model-Based Reasoning) Conferences and Proceedings
Lorenzo Magnani has served as chairChair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
at the following International Conferences:
- MBR 98: Model-based reasoningModel-based reasoningIn artificial intelligence, model-based reasoning refers to an inference method used in expert systems based on a model of the physical world. With this approach, the main focus of application development is developing the model...
in Scientific Discovery, with Nancy J. NersessianNancy J. NersessianNancy J. Nersessian is the Regents' Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her work tends to be in the areas of the philosophy of science, the history of science, and the psychology of science.-Works:...
and Paul Thagard, in Italy. - MBR 01: Model-Based Reasoning: Scientific Discovery, Technological innovation, Values, with Nancy J. Nersessian, in Italy.
- E-CAP 2004: European Computing and Philosophy Conference, in Italy.
- MBR 04: Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Engineering, Abduction, Visualization, and Simulation, in Italy.
- MBR 06: Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Medicine, with P. Li, in China.
- MBR 09: Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology, with Walter CarnielliWalter CarnielliWalter Alexandre Carnielli is a Brazilian mathematician, logician, and philosopher, full professor of Logic at the . With a Bachelor and a Ms.C. degree in mathematics at the in Campinas he obtained his Ph.D. in 1984 in the same university under the supervision of Newton C...
, in Brazil. - MBR 012: Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Theoretical and Cognitive Issues, in Italy.
He also edited many books (see above) and many special issues of international journals deriving from the international MBR conferences indicated above.