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Philosophical Influence on Computer Science

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Philosophy is deeply rooted in the History of Computers starting with Leibniz and his concept of binary. Leibniz's dream imagines the Armchair Philosopher to be left alone with his thoughts while machines take care of all the other menial tasks required for daily living. George Boole gives us logical operators. Whitehead and Russell give us the Predicate Calculus which is the precursor for computer language and syntax. Lots of different electronic variations of the electronic computer came to fruition during post World War II like the Eniac, Harvard Mark and the UNIVAC. It wasn't until Alan Turing did the modern computer come into existence as we know it today. After that it was up to Linguistics, Scientists and Mathematicians from Rand, IBM and Bell Laboratories to spearhead this new industry.

Does the influence of Philosophy end there?
How much of a disadvantage do computer scientists have considering all the other sciences like civil engineering, chemistry, physics, etc are hundreds of years old?

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Solution Summary

The solution discusses if there is a current philosophical influence on Computer Science and is the relatively young industry of Computer Engineering at a disadvantage.

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After server-side computing beat out mainframes and token ring technology, computers found their way in the hands of ordinary, non-scientific type, people. Once this product became widely available, the needs of the industry had changed. Lots of philosophical debates on pragmatism arose, along with the ethics of computing and online engagements. Meta-logic and ontology has found a new home in the fast growing world of Knowledge Based Systems which also brings ...

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