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Tylman (Found Sci, 2017) has recently pointed out some striking conceptual and methodological analogies between philosophy and computer science. In this paper, I focus on one of Tylman’s most convincing… Click to show full abstract
Tylman (Found Sci, 2017) has recently pointed out some striking conceptual and methodological analogies between philosophy and computer science. In this paper, I focus on one of Tylman’s most convincing cases, viz. the similarity between Plato’s theory of Ideas and the object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigm, and analyze it in some more detail. In particular, I argue that the (Neo)platonic doctrine of the Porphyrian tree corresponds to the fact that most object-oriented programming languages do not support multiple inheritance. This analysis further reinforces Tylman’s point regarding the conceptual continuity between classical metaphysical theorizing and contemporary computer science.
Journal Title: Foundations of Science
Year Published: 2018
Link to full text (if available)
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