Philosophy of Computer Science: Online Resources

Further Readings for Chapter 1:

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Computer Science

Note 1: Many of these items are online; links are given where they are known. Other items may also be online; an internet search should help you find them.

Note 2: In general, works are listed in chronological order. (This makes it easier to follow the historical development of ideas.)

§1.1: What This Book Is About:

• General readings on the philosophy of computer science:
  • Anthologies:
    • Burkholder, L. (1992). Philosophy and the Computer. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
    • Longo, G., editor (1999). Philosophy of Computer Science. Special issue of The Monist 82(1).
    • Bynum, T. W. and Moor, J. H., editors (2000). The Digital Phoenix: How Computers Are Changing Philosophy, revised edition. Blackwell, Oxford.
    • Moor, J. H. and Bynum, T. W., editors (2002). Cyberphilosophy: The Intersection of Computing and Philosophy. Blackwell, Malden, MA.
    • Floridi, L. (2004). The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information. Blackwell, Malden, MA.
    • Turner, R. and Eden, A. H., editors (2007). Philosophy of Computer Science. Special issue of Minds and Machines 17(2) (Summer): 129–247.
    • Turner, R. and Eden, A. H., editors (2008). The Philosophy of Computer Science. Special issue of Journal of Applied Logic 6(4) (December): 459–552.
    • Eden, A. H. and Turner, R., editors (2011). The Philosophy of Computer Science. Special issue of Minds and Machines 21(2) (Summer).
    • Powers, T.M., editor (2017), Philosophy and Computing: Essays in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Logic, and Ethics. Springer, Cham, Switzerland

  • Monographs (i.e., single-topic books):
    • Sloman, A. (1978). The Computer Revolution in Philosophy: Philosophy, Science and Models of Mind. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ.
    • Smith, B. C. (1996). On the Origin of Objects. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
      • Reviewed in:
        • Koepsell, D.R. (1998), Review of Smith 1996. Philosophical Psychology 11(3):389–391
        • Loui, R.P. (1998), Review of Smith 1996. Artificial Intelligence 106:353–358.
    • Floridi, L. (1999). Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction. Routledge, London.
    • Colburn, T. R. (2000). Philosophy and Computer Science. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY.
    • Piccinini, G. (2015). Physical Computation: A Mechanistic Account. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
    • Tedre, M. (2015). The Science of Computing: Shaping a Discipline. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL.
    • Turner, R. (2018). Computational Artifacts: Towards a Philosophy of Computer Science. Springer, Berlin.
    • Primiero, G. (2020). On the Foundations of Computing. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
    • Shagrir, O. (2022). The Nature of Physical Computation. Oxford University Press, New York.

  • Encyclopedia Articles:
    • Scheutz, M. (2002). Computation, philosophical issues about. In Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, pages 604–610. Macmillan, London.
    • Angius, N., Primiero, G., and Turner, R. (2021). The Philosophy of Computer Science. In Zalta, E. N., editor, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, Spring 2021 edition.

  • Essays:
    • Smith, B. C. (2002). The foundations of computing. In Scheutz, M., editor, Computationalism: New Directions, pages 23–58. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
    • Rapaport, W. J. (2005b). Philosophy of computer science: An introductory course". Teaching Philosophy, 28(4):319–341.
    • Tedre, M. (2007). Know your discipline: Teaching the philosophy of computer science. Journal of Information Technology Education, 6:105–122.
    • Bynum, T. W. (2010). Philosophy in the information age. Metaphilosophy, 41(3):420–442.
    • Shagrir, O. (2016). Advertisement for the philosophy of the computational sciences. In Humphreys, P., editor, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science, pages 15–42. Oxford University Press, New York.

  • Websites:
    • Eden, A. H. and Turner, R. (2007, 9 July). Philosophy of computer science: Online and offline resources.
    • Price, C. B. (2007). Concepts and philosophy of computing".
    • Brey, P. and Søraker, J. H. (2008). Philosophy of computing and information technology.
    • Aaronson, S. (2011). Philosophy and theoretical computer science.
    • The Philosophy of Computing and Informatics Network
    • The Commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing

• On the epigraph from Steve Allen:
  • The " 'highly fascinating myth' about reading as a dialogue with the dead" can be traced back to Petrarch:
    " 'I daily listen to your words with more attention than one would believe, and perhaps I shall not be thought impertinent in wishing to be heard by you,' wrote the Italian poet Petrarch in 1348. His addresee was the Roman philosopher Seneca, who had died nearly thirteen centuries before."
    (Catherine Nicholson, "Livelier Than the Living", New York Review of Books 71(11) (20 June):6,8,10,12; quotations from p.6)

    

  • "But we must not always exhaust a subject, so as to leave no work at all for the reader. My business is not to make people read, but to make them think."
    — Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, Baron de (1748), The Spirit of Laws, trans. by Thomas Nugent (1752) (Kitchener, ON: Batoche Books, 2001), p.201
    

  • "For the union of two minds to occur and generate fruitful results through a book, the reader must become fully absorbed in what the master has written, must penetrate its meaning fully, and finally must develop an affection for the author."
    —Santiago Ramón y Cajal, as quoted on p. 34 of:
    Wilkinson, Alec (2023), "Illuminating the Brain's 'Utter Darkness'", New York Review of Books 70(2) (9 February): pp. 32,34–35.

• On analog computation and the analog-digital distinction:
  • von Neumann, J. (1948). The general and logical theory of automata. In Jeffress, L., editor, Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior: The Hixon Symposium, pages 1–41. John Wiley & Sons (1951)
  • Gerard, Ralph W., et al. (1951), Some of the Problems Concerning Digital Notions in the Central Nervous System, Cybernetics: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems. Transactions of the Seventh Conference (New York: Macy Foundation): 11–57.
  • Rubinoff, M. (1953). Analogue vs. digital computers — a comparison. Proceedings of the IRE, 41(10):1254–1262.
  • Samuel, A. L. (1953). Computing bit by bit, or digital computers made easy. Proceedings of the IRE, 41(10):1223–1230; esp. p. 1224, §"The Analogue Machine".
  • Jackson, A. S. (1960). Analog Computation. McGraw-Hill, New York.
  • Montague, R. (1960). Towards a general theory of computability. Synthese, 12(4):429–438.
  • Pour-El, M. B. (1974). Abstract computability and its relation to the general purpose analog computer (Some connections between logic, differential equations and analog computers). Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 199:1–28.
  • Moor, J. H. (1978). Three myths of computer science. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 29(3):213–222.
  • Haugeland, J. (1981). Analog and analog. Philosophical Topics, 12(1):213–225.
  • Copeland, B. J. (1997). The broad conception of computation. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(6):690–716; esp. pp. 699–704, §"Nonclassical Analog Computing Machines".
  • Shagrir, O. (1997). Two dogmas of computationalism. Minds and Machines, 7:321–344, esp. §§4.2, 4.3.
  • Shagrir, O. (1999). What is computer science about? The Monist, 82(1):131–149.
  • Holst, P. A. (2000). Analog computer. In Ralston, A., Reilly, E. D., and Hemmendinger, D., editors, Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 4th Edition, pages 53–59. Grove's Dictionaries, New York.
  • Piccinini, G. (2004). The first computational theory of mind and brain: A close look at McCulloch and Pitts's "Logical calculus of ideas immanent in nervous activity". Synthese, 141:175–215.
    • For a reply, see Aizawa, K. (2010). Computation in cognitive science: It is not all about Turing-equivalent computation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 41(3):227–236.
  • Care, C. (2007). Not only digital: A review of ACM's early involvement with analog computing technology. Communications of the ACM, 50(5):42–45.
  • Piccinini, G. (2007). Computing mechanisms. Philosophy of Science, 74(4):501–526.
  • Piccinini, G. (2008). Computers. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 89:32–73.
  • Piccinini, G. (2009). Computationalism in the philosophy of mind. Philosophy Compass, 4(3):515–532.
  • Fortnow, L. (2010). What is computation? Ubiquity, 2010. Article 5.
  • Piccinini, G. (2010). The resilience of computionalism. Philosophy of Science, 77(5):852–861.
  • Piccinini, G. (2011). The physical Church-Turing thesis: Modest or bold? British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 62:733–769.
  • Piccinini, G. and Craver, C. (2011). Integrating psychology and neuroscience: Functional analyses as mechanism sketches. Synthese, 183(3):283–311.
  • Piccinini, G. (2012). Computationalism. In Margolis, E., Samuels, R., and Stich, S. P., editors, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Cognitive Science. Oxford University
  • Corry, L. (2017). Turing's pre-war analog computers: The fatherhood of the modern computer revisited. Communications of the ACM, 60(8):50‐58.
  • Maley, Corey J. (2021), Analog Computation and Representation, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
  • Lee, A. Y., Myers, J., and Rabin, G. O. (2022). The structure of analog representation. Noûs.
  • Maley, Corey J. (2024), "Computation for Cognitive Science: Analog versus Digital", WIREs Cognitive Science, e1679