The popular literature on mathematical logic is rather extensive and written for the most varied categories of readers. College students or adults who read it in their free time may find here a vast number of thought-provoking logical problems. The reader who wishes to enrich his mathematical background in the hope that this will help him in his everyday life can discover detailed descriptions of practical (and quite often -- not so practical ) applications of logic. The large number of popular books on logic has given rise to the hope that by applying mathematical logic, students will finally learn how to distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions and other points of logic in the college course in mathematics. But the habit of teachers of mathematical analysis, for example, to stick to problems dealing with sequences without limit, uniformly continuous functions, etc. has, unfortunately, led to the writing of textbooks that present prescriptions for the mechanical construction of definitions of negative concepts which seem to obviate the need for any thinking on the reader's part. We are most certainly not able to enumerate everything the reader may draw out of existing books on mathematical logic, however.

I.M.Gelfand, one of the leading contemporary mathematicians, largely determined the modern view of functional analysis with its numerous relations to other branches of mathematics, including mathematical physics, algebra, topology, differential geometry and analysis. With the publication of these Collected Papers in three volumes Gelfand gives a representative choice of his papers written in the last fifty years. Gelfand's research led to the development of remarkable mathematical theories - most now classics - in the field of Banach algebras, infinite-dimensional representations of Lie groups, the inverse Sturm-Liouville problem, cohomology of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, integral geometry, generalized functions and general hypergeometric functions. The corresponding papers form the major part of the Collected Papers. Some articles on numerical methods and cybernetics as well as a few on biology are included. A substantial part of the papers have been translated into English especially for this edition. This edition is rounded off by a preface by S.G.Gindikin, a contribution by V.I.Arnold and an extensive bibliography with almost 500 references. Gelfand's Collected Papers will provide stimulating and serendipitous reading for researchers in a multitude of mathematical disciplines.

The popular literature on mathematical logic is rather extensive and written for the most varied categories of readers. College students or adults who read it in their free time may find here a vast number of thought-provoking logical problems. The reader who wishes to enrich his mathematical background in the hope that this will help him in his everyday life can discover detailed descriptions of practical (and quite often -- not so practical ) applications of logic. The large number of popular books on logic has given rise to the hope that by applying mathematical logic, students will finally learn how to distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions and other points of logic in the college course in mathematics. But the habit of teachers of mathematical analysis, for example, to stick to problems dealing with sequences without limit, uniformly continuous functions, etc. has, unfortunately, led to the writing of textbooks that present prescriptions for the mechanical construction of definitions of negative concepts which seem to obviate the need for any thinking on the reader's part. We are most certainly not able to enumerate everything the reader may draw out of existing books on mathematical logic, however.

This volume of the EMS contains four survey articles on analytic spaces. They are excellent introductions to each respective area. Starting from basic principles in several complex variables each article stretches out to current trends in research. Graduate students and researchers will find a useful addition in the extensive bibliography at the end of each article.

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