VAILLATI, GIOVANNI. — Mathematician and historian of the philosophy of science, born in Crema on 24 April 1863, died in Rome on 14 May 1909.
Endowed with a lively interest in philosophical problems, he approached the philosophy of pragmatism (v.), which in the early years of the century exerted a particular fascination over the epigones of positivism who did not accept idealist speculation yet wished to affirm the originality of the life of consciousness. Gifted also with profound humanistic culture, his scientific work is particularly connected with the problems of mathematical logic, where he continued the brilliant work of his teacher G. Peano, and with the philosophy of language.
Philosophical writings: *Gli strumenti della conoscenza* (Lanciano 1911); *Il pragmatismo* (ibid. 1912). His principal studies on science, the history of science, and the history of philosophy (213 in all) were collected and edited by M. Calderoni, U. Ricci, and G. Vacca in the volume *Scritti di G. V.* (Leipzig-Florence 1911).