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Ewa Orłowska on relational methods in logic and computer science
Golińska-Pilarek J., Zawidzki M., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2018. 502 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319978-78-9)
Date Reviewed: Sep 3 2019

Today’s world seems to have little use for the grand traditions of yesteryear. All too often that means discarding the baby with the bathwater. In academia, a case in point is the festschrift. German for “festival of writing,” the term refers to a volume compiled as a tribute to a living scholar, typically incorporating submissions from former students and collaborators.

In this fine book, editors Golińska-Pilarek and Zawidzki revive the tradition to honor their mentor, Ewa Orłowska, on the 60th year of her scientific career. Professor Orłowska is a mathematical logician with a broad range of interests, including the rigorous theoretic proofs underpinning semantics, algorithms, and knowledge representation.

Parts 2 and 3 of the book present 14 papers on these topics, reflecting the scope of Orłowska’s life work, as well as the scholars whose lives and work she touched. That much is expected in a book on relational methods in logic and computer science, and from a technical perspective, these papers deliver as promised.

What sets this volume apart, however, and what makes it come alive, is Part 1, an introduction that includes Orłowska’s autobiography and an interview with the editors. These chapters tell the story of a young girl born in a tragic time: a childhood spent in Nazi-occupied Poland, a father executed as part of the Polish intelligentsia early in the war, and teen years and schooling under Soviet occupation. They tell the story of a young woman eager for freedom and unwilling to submit to mind control, who chose mathematics because it seemed apolitical--and who never looked back from that choice.

It is rare to hear a scholar’s own voice personalizing the context of her work. It is to their great credit that Golińska-Pilarek, Zawidzki, and Orłowska were willing to take that risk. It may seem odd to say that they have humanized a book on relational logic, in no small part because few people would view relational logic as a topic in need of humanization. Nevertheless, that is what they chose to do--and what they accomplished.

It has been nearly 20 years since The Chronicle of Higher Education published “The festschrift is dead. Long live the festschrift!” [1]. Sadly, there is little evidence that the Chronicle’s proclamation sparked a revival. Too bad. This book serves as a reminder that sometimes our discarded grand traditions are indeed still grand.

Reviewer:  Bruce D. Abramson Review #: CR146679 (1911-0381)
1) Monaghan, P. The festschrift is dead. Long live the festschrift! The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 13, 2001, https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Festschrift-Is-Dead-Long/24358/.
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