This volume takes a reflective position with respect to the conference
series "Foundations of the Formal Sciences" (FotFS) and asks:
* What are the Formal Sciences?
* Can we develop a theoretical classification of the sciences that
juxtaposes the formal sciences to the natural sciences, social sciences,
and humanities? Can we do this solely by identifying common methodological
features?
* Can we identify changes of the notion of formal sciences over time?
How were the areas that we now conceived as the "Foundations of the Formal
Sciences" classified throughout history?
Investigating the "History of the Concept of the Formal Sciences" to find
answers to an array of questions with this wide scope, you need an
enthusiastic group of researchers interested in going beyond the
traditional boundaries of their subjects covering at once the
philosophical, historical and logical issues at hand, like the authors of
this volume.
The papers in this volume stand witness to our success in touching the
mentioned questions. It will be of interest to philosophers,
sociologists, historians, and logicians, and covers many aspects of the
history of the formal sciences from the Bronze Age to the early XXIst
century.
