Computational Philosophy

Studying Possibility of a Convergent Interpretation of Empirical Sciences on the Basis of the Concepts of Computation and Information

by Alireza Seghatoleslami

Extended Abstract of MA Thesis

Recent Developments in Computing and Philosophy

by Anthony Beavers

First Paragraph: Because the label "computing and philosophy" can seem like an ad hoc attempt to tie... more First Paragraph: Because the label "computing and philosophy" can seem like an ad hoc attempt to tie computing to philosophy, it is important to explain why it is not, what it studies (or does) and how it differs from research in, say, "computing and history," or "computing and biology". The American Association for History and Computing is "dedicated to the reasonable and productive marriage of history andcomputer technology for teaching, researching and representing history through scholarship and public history" (http://theaahc.org). More pervasive, work in computing and biology enjoys the convenient name of "bioinformatics...the science of using information to understand biology..., a subset of the larger field of computational biology, the application of quantitative analytical techniques in modeling biological systems (http://oreilly.com/catalog/bioskills/ chapter/ch01.html). The recent venture of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to publish the Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB) bears witness to the reach of computing and biology and underscores its objective. TCBB intends to report" archival research results related to the algorithmic, mathematical, statistical, and computational methods that are central in bioinformatics and computational biology; the development and testing of effective computer programs in bioinformatics; the development and optimization of biological databases; and important biological results that are obtained from the use of these methods, programs, and databases" (http://tcbb.acm.org).

The Scope of Turing's Analysis of Effective Procedures

by Jeremy Seligman

SELIGMAN, J. ‘The Scope of Turing’s Analysis of Effective Procedures’ Minds and Machines, Vol 12, 203-220, 2002.

Turing’s (1936) analysis of effective symbolic procedures is a model of conceptual clarity that plays an essential... more Turing’s (1936) analysis of effective symbolic procedures is a model of conceptual clarity that plays an essential role in the philosophy of mathematics. Yet appeal is often made to the effectiveness of human procedures in other areas of philosophy. This paper addresses the question of whether Turing’s analysis can be applied to a broader class of effective human procedures. We use Sieg’s (1994) presentation of Turing’s Thesis to argue against Cleland’s (1995) objections to Turing machines and we evaluate her proposal to understand the effectiveness of procedures in terms of their reliability and precision. A number of conditions for effectiveness are identified and these are used to provide a general argument against the possibility of a Leibnizian decision procedure.

An Imagined Drama of Competitive Opposition in Carter's Scrivo in Vento, with Notes on Narrative, Symmetry, Quantitative Flux and Heraclitus

by Joshua B. Mailman

Music Analysis, v.28, ii-ii (2009)

Carter's music poses struggles of opposition, for instance in timbre (Double Concerto), space (String Quartet No. 3)... more Carter's music poses struggles of opposition, for instance in timbre (Double Concerto), space (String Quartet No. 3) or pulse (String Quartet No. 5). His preference for the all-interval tetrachords, 4–Z15 [0, 1, 4, 6] and 4–Z29 [0, 1, 3, 7], is also well known. From these facets of Carter's music, I develop a narrative interpretation of his Petrarch sonnet–inspired solo flute piece, Scrivo in Vento (1991). Specifically, I forge narrative pathways by imagining the two tetrachords as active agents opposed in competition. Previous Scrivo analyses (Capuzzo 2002; Childs 2006) stress continuity by revealing Q-transforms and common-note voice leading between the tetrachords. While acknowledging such features, my analysis emphasises oppositional struggle by tracing the tetrachords as separate entities which cooperate and conflict as they manoeuvre to outdo each other.

The analysis advances three theses: (1) it guides listening to and reading Scrivo in a way which resonates with Carter's concern for the aesthetics of oppositional struggle, his choice of a sonnet as inspiration and his affinity for all-interval tetrachords; (2) it shows that music-analytical detail can be organised into dramatic narratives by (a) projecting dramatic roles onto categories asserted by a formal theory and (b) treating the formal theory's relations metaphorically as actions performed by each role as the musical work unfolds; and (3) it shows how detailed pc-set analysis can support a Heraclitean view of music: a flux of opposing forces seeking and resisting unity.

Temporal Dynamic Form in Music: Atonal, Tonal, and Other

by Joshua B. Mailman

Ph.D. Doctoral dissertation in Music Theory

http://www.joshuabanksmailman.com/dissertation/abstract/J.Mailman_Dynamic_Form_abstract.pdf

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AS MATHEMATICAL THEORIES

by Raymond Turner

Author(s): Ray Turner (University of Essex, United Kingdom)
Pages: 66-82 pp.
Source Title: Thinking Machines and the Philosophy of Computer Science: Concepts and Principles
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Jordi Vallverdú (Ed.) (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)
Copyright: 2010

That computer science is somehow a mathematical activity was a view held by many of the pioneers of the subject,... more That computer science is somehow a mathematical activity was a view held by many of the pioneers of the subject, especially those who were concerned with its foundations. At face value it might mean that the actual activity of programming is a mathematical one. Indeed, at least in some form, this has been held. But here we explore a different gloss on it. We explore the claim that programming languages are (semantically) mathematical theories. This will force us to discuss the normative nature of semantics, the nature of mathematical theories, the role of theoretical computer science and the relationship between semantic theory and language design.