Vallverdú J. Thinking Machines and the Philosophy of Computer Science. Concepts and Principles

IGI Global, 2008. — 462 p.Philosophy of computer science is a very young, healthy and productive research field, as we can infer from the great number of academic events and publications held every year all around the world. Besides, it offers a high interdisciplinary exchange of ideas: from philosophical and mathematical logic to epistemology, engineering, ethics or neuroscience experts. New problems are faced with new tools, instrumental as well as theoretical.
For all the previous and next reasons this volume is a very special work: first of all, because it includes the ideas of some of the world leading experts on the field; secondly, because all these experts are not only the established knowledge in the field but also the leading and ongoing research force, they are working in the future of the Philosophy of Computer Science (this is not contemporary scholastics!); third, because young and new researchers shape new directions into the current investigations; fourth, because it includes some brave attempts to change our ideas about human and non-human relationships with the environment.Philosophy of Information.
How to Account for Information.
The Fundamental Properties of Information-Carrying Relations.
Biological Information and Natural Computation.
On Biological Computing, Information and Molecular Networks.
Philosophy of Computer Science.
Programming Languages as Mathematical Theories.
The Hypercomputational Case for Substance Dualism.
Identity in the Real World.
Knowledge, Truth, and Values in Computer Science.
Logic and Abstraction as Capabilities of the Mind: Reconceptualizations of Computational Approaches to the Mind.
Applying Lakatos-Style Reasoning to AI Domains.
Computer and Information Ethics.
Deconstructive Design as an Approach for Opening Trading Zones.
Scientific Authorship and E-Commons.
Armchair Warfare ‘on Terrorism’: On Robots, Targeted Assassinations and Strategic Violations of International Law.
Information Technology: The Good and Modernity.
Simulating Reality?.
Computing, Philosophy and Reality: A Novel Logical Approach.
Computational Space, Time and Quantum Mechanics.
Seeing for Knowing: The Thomas Effect and Computational Science.
Computer Simulations and Traditional Experimentation: From a Material Point of View.
Intersections.
What is it Like to be a Robot?
Why AI and Robotics are Going Nowhere Fast.
Embodying Cognition: A Morphological Perspective.
Challenges of Complex Systems in Cognitive and Complex Systems.