Relational Methods in Computer Science (Paperback)

Chris Brink

ISBN 10: 3211829717 / ISBN 13: 9783211829714

Published by Springer Verlag GmbH, Vienna, 1997

About this Item

Paperback. The calculus of relations turned into an important conceptual and methodological tool in computer science. The methods presented in this book include questions of relational databases, applications to program specification, resource-conscious linear logic, semantic and refinement consideration, nonclassical logics for reasoning about programs, tabular methods in software construction, algorithm development, linguistic problems, followed by a comprehensive bibliography. The reader gets an overview of the wide-ranging applicability of relational methods in computer science. The calculus of relations has been an important component of the development of logic and algebra since the middle of the nineteenth century, when Augustus De Morgan observed that since a horse is an animal we should be able to infer that the head of a horse is the head of an animal. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9783211829714

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Relational Methods in Computer Science (Paperback)
• Publisher: Springer Verlag GmbH, Vienna
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3211829717
• ISBN 13: 9783211829714
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The calculus of relations has been an important component of the development of logic and algebra since the middle of the nineteenth century, when Augustus De Morgan observed that since a horse is an animal we should be able to infer that the head of a horse is the head of an animal. For this, Aristotelian syllogistic does not suffice: We require relational reasoning. George Boole, in his Mathematical Analysis of Logic of 1847, initiated the treatment of logic as part of mathematics, specifically as part of algebra. Quite the opposite conviction was put forward early this century by Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead in their Principia Mathematica (1910 - 1913): that mathematics was essentially grounded in logic. Logic thus developed in two streams. On the one hand algebraic logic, in which the calculus of relations played a particularly prominent part, was taken up from Boole by Charles Sanders Peirce, who wished to do for the "calculus of relatives" what Boole had done for the calculus of sets. Peirce's work was in turn taken up by Schroder in his Algebra und Logik der Relative of 1895 (the third part of a massive work on the algebra of logic). Schroder's work, however, lay dormant for more than 40 years, until revived by Alfred Tarski in his seminal paper "On the calculus of binary relations" of 1941 (actually his presidential address to the Association for Symbolic Logic).