On Fuzziness and Ordinary Reasoning

In 1685, in The Art of Discovery, Leibniz set down an extraordinary idea: “The only way to rectify our reasonings is to make them as tangible as those of the Mathematicians, so that we can find our error at a glance, and when there are disputes among persons, we can simply say: Let us calculate [calculemus], without further ado, to see who is right.” Calculemus. Much has been written about that celebrated expression, but if I had to remember the moment when the famous Leibnizian motto once again brought back to mind, in a way, artefacts of the present and the future, that moment would be connected with a seminar organised by Verónica Sanz at the Philosophy Institute of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), when she was the coordinator of the Seminario Internacional de Jóvenes Investigadores (the International Seminar for Young Researchers). At that seminar, Sergio Guadarrama presented the challenge of computing with words.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, CSIC, Instituto de Filosofía, Madrid, Spain

   María G. Navarro

Editors and Affiliations

1. , Edificio de Investigación, European Centre for Soft Computing, C Gonzalo Gutiérrez Quirós S/N, Mieres, 33600, Spain

   Rudolf Seising

2. Edificio de Investigación, 3ª Planta., European Centre for Soft Computing, C Gonzalo Gutiérrez Quirós S/N, Mieres, 33600, Asturias, Spain

   Enric Trillas

3. Edificio de Investigación, 3ª Planta., European Centre for Soft Computing, Asturias, Mieres, 33600, Spain

   Claudio Moraga

4. , Department of Mathematic and Informatics, Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi 34, Palermo, 90123, Italy

   Settimo Termini

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