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JavaScript

Posted by jamescool
jamescool
44,592 Points

off-topic cogitation: philosophy and programming

There appears to be an interesting conceptual similarity between philosophy and programming. At the very least, some of the language is the same:

objects and their properties
instances of classes
object language / meta language
well-formed formulas
arguments
truth-values

Mathematics, logic, and programming languages certainly all share a formalized nature...so I'm wondering if the above similarities exist only insofar as all three rely on abstraction (or maybe truth-functionality), or if they exist because of propagating linguistic trends due to interdisciplinary disciplines such as Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps it's logic alone that is responsible for connecting philosophy with programming. Maybe it's grammar. Maybe philosophers just have a habit of hijacking otherwise useful terminology. When Hegel---in the Phenemenology of Spirit---asks "What is the 'THIS'?", is he talking about some nascent formulation of JavaScript?? Haha.

Anyone else see this connection? Could it be that formalization is snaking its way through the different domains of inquiry?

4 Answers

Andrew Molloy
Andrew Molloy
37,259 Points
Andrew Molloy
Andrew Molloy
37,259 Points

Both make my head hurt so it must be true. :)

Gary Jennings
Gary Jennings
22,408 Points
Gary Jennings
Gary Jennings
22,408 Points

Its just language, ways of forming structure. Don't get too carried away.

jamescool
jamescool
44,592 Points
jamescool
jamescool
44,592 Points

Haha! Yes, above I explicitly considered language (and grammar more specifically) as being involved in this similarity. I'll take your advice and never get carried away again.

Gary Jennings
Gary Jennings
22,408 Points
Gary Jennings
Gary Jennings
22,408 Points

aw man, now I feel bad for making my comment so harshly.

I am a big fan of philosophy as well. And it seems like (I am no expert) that language has become a very important topic in both analytical and continental philosophy in the last 100 years. Some would say that language is what makes thinking possible (language is not limited to speaking language).

One way in which analytical and continental philosophy differ, is that continental places a high emphases on narrative as forming our structure of understanding. We basically understand things in the form of a narrative, or we are unable to understand anything without one. Analytical philosophy seems less interested in narrative, and more interested in clarifying what our language means.

So in that respect, coding is very similar to Analytical philosophy because in both areas we are constantly clarifying what we mean

jamescool
jamescool
44,592 Points

haha. No worries. Don't get me wrong: I'm thoroughly skeptical about certain trends in philosophy (within both analytic and continental traditions). It's funny: I actually DO think that certain mistakes in philosophy were the result of some individual getting carried away.

I haven't paid much attention to what the analytic/continental divide consists of. What you've said about it is pretty interesting. And by the way, I was definitely kidding about the connection between Hegel and JavaScript.