Computing and Philosophy: Selected Papers from IACAP 2014

279 Pages·2015·2.537 MB·English

by  Vincent C. Mueller

Synthese Library 375
Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology,
and Philosophy of Science
Vincent C. Müller Editor
Computing
and Philosophy
Selected Papers from IACAP 2014
Synthese Library
Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology,
and Philosophy of Science
Volume 375
Editor-in-Chief
OtávioBueno,UniversityofMiami,DepartmentofPhilosophy,USA
Editors
BeritBrogaard,UniversityofMiami,USA
AnjanChakravartty,UniversityofNotreDame,USA
StevenFrench,UniversityofLeeds,UK
CatarinaDutilhNovaes,UniversityofGroningen,TheNetherlands
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/6607
Vincent C. Müller
Editor
Computing and Philosophy
Selected Papers from IACAP 2014
123
Editor
VincentC.Müller
AnatoliaCollege/ACT
Thessaloniki,Greece
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4144-4957
http://www.sophia.de
SyntheseLibrary
ISBN978-3-319-23290-4 ISBN978-3-319-23291-1 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-23291-1
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Editorial
IACAP 2014
The conferences on ‘Computing and Philosophy’ (CAP) have a long tradition of
28years,andtheyarenoworganisedannuallybytheInternationalAssociationfor
Computing and Philosophy (IACAP, http://www.iacap.org/), alternating between
Europe and North America. The meeting took place in Thessaloniki, July 2–4,
2014, at the suggestion of the IACAP leadership, in particular of Mariarosaria
Taddeo (president) and Marcello Guarini (executive director). The academic and
organisational responsibility was given to this editor, who was supported by our
teaminThessaloniki,especiallyTheoGantinas.
Detailsofthemeeting,includingaprogramme,videosandslidesoftheinvited
papers, some photos and a list of participants, are available on the site of the
conference, which will remain on http://www.pt-ai.org/iacap. There was general
agreement that the conference ran smoothly and showed significantly higher
academiclevelthaninsomepreviousyears.
Review Process
We sent out a call for papers saying, ‘Computing technologies both raise philo-
sophical questions and shed light on traditional philosophical problems; it is this
two-wayrelationthatisthefocusofIACAPmeetingssince1986’.Intotalwehad
78 submissions by the deadline – which was note extended. Of these 34 (43 %)
were acceptedforthe maintrack and5 forthe ‘youngresearchers’track.We also
accepted14papersasposterpresentations.
We are verygratefulto the 42 membersof ourprogrammecommitteewhodid
allthehardreviewingwork,doubleblind.Togetherwiththeauthors,theyaretobe
thankedfortheacademicqualityofthemeeting:
Akman,Varol–BilkentUniversity
Beavers,Anthony–TheUniversityofEvansville
v
vi Editorial
Bello,Paul–OfficeofNavalResearch
Berkeley,Istvan–TheUniversityofLouisianaatLafayette
Bishop,Mark–Goldsmiths,UniversityofLondon
Bottis,Maria–IonianUniversity
Bryson,Joanna–UniversityofBath
Chrisley,Ron–UniversityofSussex
Coeckelbergh,Mark–UniversityofTwente
Danielson,Peter–UniversityofBritishColumbia
Dietrich,Eric–BinghamptonUniversity,StateUniversityNY
DodigCrnkovic,Gordana–MälardalenUniversity
Ess,Charles–AarhusUniversity
Franchi,Stefano–TexasA&MUniversity
Gomila,Antoni–UIB
Guarini,Marcello–UniversityofWindsor
Hongladarom,Soraj–ChulalongkornUniversity
Jones,Derek–UniversityofEvansville
Mcbride,Neil–DeMontfortUniversity
Miłkowski,Marcin–PolishAcademyofSciences
Piccinini,Gualtiero–UniversityofMissouri-St.Louis
Powers,Thomas–UniversityofDelaware
Preston,John–UniversityofReading
Primiero,Giuseppe–MiddlesexUniversity
Schiaffonati,Viola–PolitecnicodiMilano
Schmidt,Colin–UniversityLeMans
Shagrir,Oron–HebrewUniversity
Shanahan,Murray–ImperialCollegeLondon
Simon,Judith–UniversityofVienna
Søraker,Johnny–UniversityofTwente
Spence,Edward–CentreforAppliedPhilosophyandPublicEthics
Sprevak,Mark–TheUniversityofEdinburgh
Stahl,BerndCarsten–DeMontfortUniversity
Sullins,John–SonomaStateUniversity
Vallverdú,Jordi–UniversitatAutònomadeBarcelona
Vosgerau,Gottfried–InstitutfürPhilosophie,UniversitätDüsseldorf
Votsis,Ioannis–InstitutfürPhilosophie,UniversitätDüsseldorf
Waser,Mark–BooksInternational
Wheeler,Gregory–LMU,Munich
Wiedermann,Jiri–AcademyofSciences
Zambak,AzizF.–MiddleEastTechnicalUniversity,Ankara
Editorial vii
OurinvitedspeakerswereJudithSimon(ITUKopenhagen),‘Thechallengeofthe
computational:towardsa socio-technicalepistemology’;HectorZenil(Karolinska
Institute, Stockholm), ‘Information and Computation in Synthetic Biology’; Gre-
goryChaitin(HCTE/FederalUniversityofRiodeJaneiro),‘ConceptualComplexity
andAlgorithmicInformation’;SelmerBringsjord(RensselaerPolytechnicInstitute,
Troy,NY),CoveyAwardWinner2014,‘TwoRefutationsofHegemonicBayesian-
ism’; and Gualterio Piccinini (University of Missouri-St. Louis), Simon Award
Winner2014,‘ComputationandtheMetaphysicsofMind’.
Apart from papers, we also called for symposia and accepted five to be run at
IACAP – the organisersof these symposia were responsible for the presentations
there,andthesymposiumpapersarenotpublishedhereintheproceedings.Weare
verygratefulthatsomehigh-levelsymposiawererun,namely:
– “Anti-reductionistcomputationalmetaphorsinevolution,metamathematicsand
thecontemporaryhumanself-image”(organiser:GordanaDodig-Crnkovic)
– “Robotics:FromScienceFictiontoEthicalandLegalIssues”(organisers:Sabine
Thuermel,FiorellaBattaglia,BarbaraHenry)
– “History and philosophy of computing” (organisers: Giuseppe Primiero and
LiesbethDeMol)
– “SuchThatCast”(organiser:JohnnySøraker)
– “LightningRounds”(organiser:DonBerkich)
After the conference, the authors of accepted papers were invited to submit full
papers.We then ran a secondroundof online reviewsbetween authors,non-blind
this time, which resulted in fruitful and serious exchanges. In the light of these
exchangesandcommentsfromtheeditor,allfullpaperswererevised,mostlyseveral
times, and significantly improved – or so we like to think. The revision process
ended early November 2014, when each paper had been reviewed at least four
times and checked by the editor. As a result of the reviews of the full papers,
two submissions were withdrawn and three rejected, resulting in a total of 29
papers.ThenextreviewroundwasfromananonymousreviewerforSpringer,who
recommended further significant cuts, so after some negotiation we whittled this
downto18papers,intheend(23%ofthe78originalsubmissions).
Ofcourse,itissomewhatartificialtosorttheconferencepapersintocategories,
butafewareasofresearchcanbediscernedthatformthechaptersofthisvolume:
(1) philosophy of computing, (2) philosophy of computer science and discovery,
(3) philosophy of cognition and intelligence and (4) computing and society. To
this editor, it looks like IACAP is relocating itself, now that ‘computing’ has
become a nearly transparent technology and I tend to think that the reflection
on the philosophical basics of computing and computer science (Chaps. 1 and 2)
can make a useful core for the meetings, while cognition and ‘intelligence’ are
viii Editorial
quite separate concerns that call for different methods. This core can perhaps be
supplementedbysocietalandethicalconcerns(Chap.4)– eventhoughthese tend
tobeoversubscribedalready,withspecialistconferencesandassociations.Wetried
tomakeIACAPahigh-levelspecialistmeetingin2014andofferyouthefruitsof
thishardwork.Wheretheassociationwillgofromhere,thefuturewilltell.
Struggleandlearn!
AnatoliaCollege/ACT,Pylaia-Thessaloniki,Greece VincentC.Müller
Contents
PartI PhilosophyofComputing
1 WhatIsaComputationalConstraint? .................................. 3
CemBozs¸ahin
2 ComputingMechanismsandAutopoieticSystems ..................... 17
JoeDewhurst
3 AreGandyMachinesReallyLocal?...................................... 27
Vincenzo Fano, Pierluigi Graziani, Roberto Macrelli,
andGinoTarozzi
4 A Refutationofthe Church-TuringThesis According
toSomeInterpretationofWhattheThesisSays........................ 45
DoukasKapantaïs
5 InWhatSenseDoestheBrainCompute? ............................... 63
PaulSchweizer
PartII PhilosophyofComputerScience&Discovery
6 ComputationalScientificDiscoveryandCognitiveScience
Theories...................................................................... 83
Mark Addis, Peter D. Sozou, Peter C. Lane,
andFernandGobet
7 DiscoveringEmpiricalTheoriesofModularSoftware
Systems.AnAlgebraicApproach......................................... 99
NicolaAngiusandPetrosStefaneas
8 Introducing the DoxasticallyCenteredApproachto
FormalizingRelevanceBondsinConditionals.......................... 117
Selmer Bringsjord, John Licato, Daniel Arista,
NaveenSundarGovindarajulu,andPaulF.Bello
ix