__NOTOC__ Joseph Amadee Goguen ( ; June 28, 1941 – July 3, 2006) was an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

. He was professor of Computer Science at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

and

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and held research positions at

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

and

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. It was established in 1946 by trustees of Stanford Univer ...

. In the 1960s, along with Lotfi Zadeh, Goguen was one of the earliest researchers in

fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...

and made profound contributions to

fuzzy set theory Fuzzy or Fuzzies may refer to: Music * Fuzzy (band), a 1990s Boston indie pop band * Fuzzy (composer), Danish composer Jens Vilhelm Pedersen (born 1939) * ''Fuzzy'' (album), 1993 debut album of American rock band Grant Lee Buffalo * "Fuzzy", a ...

. In the 1970s Goguen's work was one of the earliest approaches to the algebraic characterisation of

abstract data types In computer science, an abstract data type (ADT) is a mathematical model for data types, defined by its behavior (semantics) from the point of view of a '' user'' of the data, specifically in terms of possible values, possible operations on data ...

and he originated and helped develop the OBJ family of

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

s. He was author of ''A Categorical Manifesto'' and founderBurstall R., "My friend Joseph Goguen", in ''Goguen Festschrift'', K. Futatsugi et al. (Eds.),

Lecture Notes in Computer Science ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'' is a series of computer science books published by Springer Science+Business Media since 1973. Overview The series contains proceedings, post-proceedings, monographs, and Festschrifts. In addition, tutorials ...

4060,

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, pp. 25–30 (2006). and Editor-in-Chief of the '' Journal of Consciousness Studies''. His development of institution theory impacted the field of

universal logic Universal Logic is an emerging interdisciplinary field involving logic, non-classical logic, categorical logic, set theory, foundation of logic, and the philosophy and history of logic. The goal of the field is to develop an understanding of the n ...

. Standard implication in product fuzzy logic is often called "Goguen implication". Goguen categories are named after him.Michael Winter, "Goguen Categories: A Categorical Approach to L-fuzzy Relations",

(2007). .Michael Winter, "Representation theory of Goguen categories", '' Fuzzy Sets and Systems'' 138 (1): 85–126 (2003). He was married to Ryoko Amadee Goguen, who is a composer, pianist, and vocalist.

Education and academic career

Goguen received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1963, and his PhD in mathematics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1968, where he was a student of the founder of

, Lotfi Zadeh.Zadeh L.A., "Joseph Amadee Goguen (1941–2006): A personal tribute", '' Fuzzy Sets and Systems'' 158: 809–810 (2007). . He taught at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, where he was a full professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

. He held a Research Fellowship in the Mathematical Sciences at the

IBM Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for IBM Research. Its main laboratory is in Yorktown Heights, New York, 38 miles (61 km) north of New York City. It also operates facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Albany, N ...

, where he organised the "ADJ" group. Also He also visited the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in Scotland on three Senior Visiting Fellowships. From 1979 to 1988, Goguen worked at

in Menlo Park, California. From 1988 to 1996, he was a professor at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory (now the

Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford The Department of Computer Science is the computer science department of the University of Oxford, England, which is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. It was founded in 1957 as the Computing Laboratory. ...

) in England and a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...

. In 1996 he became professor of Computer Science at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Research areas

Goguen's research interests included

category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations. It was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Category theory ...

(a branch of

software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

, algebraic semantics,

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

design, algebraic semiotics, and the

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

and

ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...

aspects of science and technology. In the preface to a book dedicated to Goguen, Futatsugi, Jouannaud and Meseguer stated that Goguen's work changed the way we think about concepts such as data types, programming languages and software specification.K. Futatsugi, J. Jouannaud, and J. Meseguer "Algebra, Meaning, and Computation" Springer, 2006, ISBN 978-3540354628, pp vii In a review of Goguen's work on fuzzy sets Radim Belohlavek wrote that In the early stages of the development of fuzzy systems, Goguen made profound contributions with lasting influence.Radim Belohlavek "Goguen's contributions to fuzzy logic in retrospect" International Journal of General Systems. Volume 48, 2019 - Issue 8 Lotfi Zadeh viewed Goguen's 1968 approach to "The Logic of Inexact Concepts" as seminal in the field of

. Goguen's PhD dissertation "Categories of fuzzy sets" was the first work to apply category theory to fuzzy logic, and led to Goguen categories being named after him. Goguen's research in the 1970s was one of the earliest approaches to the characterisation of computational automata from a categorical perspective.Bart Jacobs, "A Bialgebraic Review of Regular Expressions, Deterministic Automata and Languages", in ''Algebra, Meaning, and Computation'',

, pp. 375 (2006). . Goguen's research with Thatcher, Wagner and Wright (also in the 1970s) was one of the earliest works to formalise the algebraic basis for data abstraction.V. S. Alagar, "Specification of Software Systems",

, pp. 216 (1999). . In the early 1990s Goguen and

Rod Burstall Rodney Martineau Burstall (11 November 1934 – 13 February 2025) was a British computer scientist who was one of four founders of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh. Biography Burstall studied p ...

developed the theory of

institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

s, a category-theoretic description of logical systems in computer science. Institution theory impacted the development of

and became one of its most studied aspects. The term " Carnapian Goguenism" is used to refer to the application of institutions to ontologies. Goguen also studied the philosophy of computation and information,

formal methods In computer science, formal methods are mathematics, mathematically rigorous techniques for the formal specification, specification, development, Program analysis, analysis, and formal verification, verification of software and computer hardware, ...

(especially hidden algebra and

theorem proving Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a majo ...

), and relational and

functional programming In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm where programs are constructed by Function application, applying and Function composition (computer science), composing Function (computer science), functions. It is a declarat ...

. He wrote a retrospective of his work and its context, ''Tossing Algebraic Flowers Down the Great Divide''.Goguen, J. A.
"Tossing Algebraic Flowers Down the Great Divide"
''

''.

Personal views

Goguen was a practitioner of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

. Specifically, since the early 1970s he was a student of

Chögyam Trungpa Chögyam Trungpa (Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''Chos rgyam Drung pa''; March 5, 1939 – April 4, 1987), formally named the 11th Zurmang Trungpa, Chokyi Gyatso, was a Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist master and holder of both Kagyu and Nyingm ...

and, after his death in 1987, of his son

Sakyong Mipham Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, Jampal Trinley Dradül, born Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo (November 1962), is a Tibetan Buddhist master and holder of the Sakyong Lineage of Mukpodong, his family lineage. The Sakyong was recognized by Penor Rinpoche i ...

. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a faculty member of the science program at the

Naropa Institute Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named after the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university desc ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

Books

* Goguen, Joseph A., ''Algebraic Semantics of Imperative Programs'',

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

(1996). . * Goguen, Joseph A., and Malcolm, Grant, ''Software Engineering with OBJ'',

(2000). . * Kokichi Futatsugi et al., ''Algebra, Meaning, and Computation: Essays Dedicated to Joseph A. Goguen'',

(2006). .

Selected publications

* Goguen, J.A., "''L''-fuzzy sets", ''Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications'' 18 (1): 145–174 (1967). * Goguen, J.A., "The logic of inexact concepts", ''Synthese'' 19 (3/4): 325–373 (1969). * Goguen, J.A. and J.W. Thatcher. "Initial algebra semantics", in ''Proceedings, Fifteenth Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory'',

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, pages 63–77 (1974). * Goguen, J.A., J. Thatcher, and E. Wagner. "An initial algebra approach to the specification, correctness and implementation of abstract data types", in ''Current Trends in Programming Methodology'', vol. IV: Data Structuring, Raymond T. Yeh (Ed.),

Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was a major American publishing#Textbook_publishing, educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth cen ...

, pp. 80–149 (1978). * Goguen, J.A., "A Categorical Manifesto", ''Mathematical Structures in Computer Science'' 1 (1): 49–67 (1991). * Goguen, J.A. (Ed.), ''Art and the Brain'', ''Journal of Consciousness Studies'' 6 (6/7) (1999).

References

External links

Home page

Publications
*
Algebra, Meaning, and Computation. A Festschrift in Honor of Joseph Goguen

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070619234802/http://cseclassic.ucsd.edu/~goguen/images/jgoguen.jpg Photograph {{DEFAULTSORT:Goguen, Joseph 1941 births 2006 deaths Harvard College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American computer scientists Formal methods people Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford American academic journal editors University of California, Los Angeles faculty Academics of the University of Edinburgh Members of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford University of California, San Diego faculty Naropa University faculty IBM Fellows Tibetan Buddhists from the United States 20th-century American Buddhists 21st-century American Buddhists American Buddhists