[SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: IHPST NEWSLETTER: November 28, 2014

Andrew Russell arussell at stevens.edu
Thu Dec 4 05:08:25 PST 2014


Dear Melanie - 

I think you are making a very important point here.  

While SIGCISers often complain - with some justification - that others ignore existing scholarship by historians of computing, the fact is that we live on a two-way street.  Actually, it’s more like a very busy intersection, where lots of people with diverse training and disciplinary/professional commitments (media studies, media archaeology, journalists, museum professionals, computer scientists, historians in various other subfields, etc.) are researching writing about topics related to computers and history.  We often zoom past one another without noticing.

In my view, you are absolutely right that SIGCIS and specialists in the history of computing will (and do) benefit from greater openness to and engagement with those areas.  Those who attended the recent SIGCIS workshop in Dearborn will recall that this was a central message of the keynote address by Prof. Jen Light.  In the other presentations I was able to see, the younger scholars who presented at SIGCIS and SHOT also engaged deeply with a variety of literatures.  As always, there are very interesting things going on at the intersections and boundaries.

Cheers,

Andy  



On Dec 2, 2014, at 6:54 PM, Melanie Swalwell <melanie.swalwell at flinders.edu.au> wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> Willard mentions Digital Humanities (interestingly, "from the sidelines").  To this I would add the rich vein of work in Media Studies -- and associated interdisciplinary subfields like Media Histories and Media Archaeology -- that often take up philosophical questions of/associated with computing and the digital.  
> 
> Actually, I find it puzzling that the relevance of philosophy to histories of computing would be questioned on this list.  I suppose I see the answers the question elicits as a kind of referendum on how open and interdisciplinary different venues in the History of Computing field are.  As someone working in these media history subfields, I'm of the view that SIGCIS and the field more generally would benefit from a much greater openness to, and engagement with, such cognate areas.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Melanie
> 
> 
> -- 
> Assoc. Prof. Melanie Swalwell
> ARC Future Fellow
> 
> Screen and Media,
> Flinders University
> GPO Box 2100
> Adelaide SA 5001
> 
> Ph: +61 8 8201 2619
> 278 Humanities Bldg
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> 
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> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Willard McCarty
> Sent: Tuesday, 2 December 2014 9:40 PM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: IHPST NEWSLETTER: November 28, 2014
> 
> Dear all (from the sidelines),
> 
> I agree that the history and philosophy of computing belong in close proximity to each other, that both are rich and important fields -- and I'd like to see the usually far too utilitarian digital humanities (at the intersection of computing and the humanities) brought into the discussion. It's the intersecting that makes it valuable here. I particularly like Mike Mahoney's comment that the question "is computer science a science" is actually two questions: "what happens to computing if you call it a science?" and "what do you mean by 'science' if computing is one?"
> 
> Yours,
> WM
> 
> On 02/12/2014 10:23, Liesbeth De Mol wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> I think that the field of philosophy of computing is certainly much 
>> wider than cognitive science and AI and in fact, several fundamentally 
>> philosophical questions, such as:
>> 
>> * what is a computation
>> * what is the difference between a program and an algorithm
>> * Is computer science a science?
>> * ...
>> 
>> are, I think, at the core of (the history of) modern computing. This 
>> is also reflected within the philosophy of computing. For instance, 
>> there used to be a regular track on the philosophy of computer science 
>> (organized by Ray Turner) in the IACAP conference series for a couple 
>> of years (this changed when the format of the conference changed)
>> 
>> William Rapaport is one important name that comes to my mind with 
>> respect to teaching the philosophy of computer science: he wrote a 
>> syllabus of over 700 pages on the topic 
>> (http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/Papers/phics.pdf).
>> 
>> I am very much convinced that both historians and philosophers of 
>> computing can benefit from an increased interaction and it is for this 
>> reason that I was involved in the past few years in the organization 
>> of several so-called HaPoC-events, including the bi-annual conference 
>> on the history and philosophy of computing (the next one will be held 
>> in Pisa and we hope to send out the CfP soon). The idea here is to 
>> bring together several communities -- historians and philosophers but 
>> also computer scientists, mathematicians, etc -- and stimulate an open 
>> discussion accross these communities. See www.hapoc.org for more details.
>> 
>> Finally, I would like to mention that since 2013 a commission for the 
>> history and philosophy of computing was approved by the general 
>> assembly of the DHST (Division for the History of Science and 
>> Technology) during the Manchester ICHSTM conference. The next step 
>> will be the approval by the DLMPS in 2015, which is the philosophy sister division of DHST.
>> 
>> best wishes,
>> Liesbeth.
>> 
>> Andrew J Iliadis schreef op 1/12/14 17:19:
>>> Also related to "philosophy of computing" is the Society for the 
>>> Philosophy of Information (SPI): http://socphilinfo.org/ Luciano 
>>> Floridi (Oxford) has produced a lot of interesting work in this field.
>>> The SPI just released a CFP for the Seventh Workshop on the 
>>> Philosophy of Information on "Conceptual challenges of data in 
>>> science and
>>> technology":
>>> http://socphilinfo.org/news/cfp/485-seventh-workshop-philosophy-infor
>>> mation-conceptual-challenges-data-science-and#.VHyNBS-ilPC.twitter
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Andrew
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Bjorn Westergard" <bjornw at gmail.com>
>>> To: "ANN JOHNSON" <AJOHNSON at mailbox.sc.edu>
>>> Cc: "members" <members at sigcis.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2014 9:59:17 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: IHPST NEWSLETTER: November 28, 
>>> 2014
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> As of August the SEP has a great entry by Raymond Turner on the 
>>> nascent "philosophy of computer science" in anglophone/analytic circles.
>>> 
>>> There were a few informal discussions about historicizing terms like 
>>> "information" and "computation" at SIGCIS, topics on which there is a 
>>> large philosophical literature, often emerging from philosophy of 
>>> mind or cognitive science. Lav Varshney's paper on block diagrams in 
>>> information theory and Ekaterina Babintseva's paper on some aspects 
>>> of the cybernetics milieu's thinking were both exemplary 
>>> contributions to the history of ideas current among philosophers. My 
>>> two cents as an
>>> outsider: philosophers are ahistorical to a greater degree than 
>>> historians are unphilosophical re: computing/information.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Nov 28, 2014 at 5:59 PM, JOHNSON, ANN < 
>>> AJOHNSON at mailbox.sc.edu > wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Dag,
>>> 
>>> Yes this is a field in philosophy. There is a Blackwell guide to the 
>>> subject and two international societies devoted to it--one focusing 
>>> more on ethics (INSEIT) and the other on more epistemic/cognitive 
>>> science/philosophy of mind sorts of issues (IACAP). There is a 
>>> biannual (I think) information ethics conference called CEPE. You'll 
>>> also find philosophers of computing and information in the Society 
>>> for Philosophy and Technology (SPT). People in these areas regularly 
>>> teach both broad spectrum and narrowly focus classes on philosophy of 
>>> computing. Exchange between philosophers and historians of computing 
>>> has been scarce but I think would benefit both groups.
>>> 
>>> Ann
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Nov 28, 2014, at 4:57 PM, "Dag Spicer" < 
>>> dspicer at computerhistory.org > wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Thought this might of interest… is anyone teaching the “philosophy 
>>>> of computing?” Should they? Does computing (outside of AI) involve 
>>>> philosophy?
>>>> 
>>>> Dag
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Dag Spicer
>>>> Senior Curator
>>>> Computer History Museum
>>>> Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
>>>> 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard
>>>> Mountain View, CA 94043-1311
>>>> 
>>>> Tel: +1 650 810 1035
>>>> Fax: +1 650 810 1055
>>>> 
>>>> Twitter: @ComputerHistory
>>>> 
>>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>> 
>>>> From: IHPST < ihpst.info at utoronto.ca <mailto: ihpst.info at utoronto.ca 
>>>>>> 
>>>> Subject: IHPST NEWSLETTER: November 28, 2014
>>>> Date: November 28, 2014 at 1:02:59 PM PST
>>>> To: IHPST < ihpst.info at utoronto.ca <mailto: ihpst.info at utoronto.ca 
>>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> IHPST NEWSLETTER
>>>> November 28, 2014
>>>> 
>>>> IHPST NEWS
>>>> 
>>>> COLLOQUIUM
>>>> 
>>>> Wednesday December 10, 4:00 p.m., Location – Victoria College, 2nd 
>>>> floor, Room 213
>>>> 
>>>> “Why did HPS Die?” Hakob Barseghyan, Assistant Professor, IHPST, 
>>>> University of Toronto
>>>> 
>>>> When HPS was born in the 1960s, its main rationale was that we could 
>>>> study the actual workings of science in order to use that knowledge 
>>>> to answer some key philosophical questions concerning science, such 
>>>> as “what makes science rational?”, “what is the demarcation between 
>>>> science and non-science?”, “what makes one theory better than 
>>>> another?” and ultimately “what is the logic of scientific change?”.
>>>> Kuhn and other founding fathers of HPS held that in order to get a 
>>>> better understanding of PS we must refer to HS. Lakatos’s famous 
>>>> dictum that “philosophy of science without history of science is 
>>>> empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind” 
>>>> was not just his own view; it was the guiding principle that was in 
>>>> the foundation of the original HPS.
>>>> Yet, what we observe nowadays is historians and philosophers 
>>>> pursuing their separate projects with essentially very little 
>>>> overlap. If we call things by their names, “HPS” has become a mere 
>>>> umbrella term these days.
>>>> So why did the original HPS die and how can it be revived?
>>>> 
>>>> If you have an accessibility or accommodation need for these events, 
>>>> please e-mail Denise Horsley directly at denise.horsley at utoronto.ca 
>>>> <mailto:
>>>> denise.horsley at utoronto.ca > to make appropriate arrangements.
>>>> 
>>>> * * * * * * * * **
>>>> 
>>>> OTHER NEWS
>>>> 
>>>> Stay current with the U of T community:
>>>> 
>>>> The Albert Memo:
>>>> http://www.vic.utoronto.ca/News___Events/Albert.htm
>>>> 
>>>> U of T News:
>>>> http://www.news.utoronto.ca/
>>>> 
>>>> * * * * * * * * * * *
>>>> 
>>>> ---
>>>> 
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>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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>> list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member 
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> 
> --
> Willard McCarty (www.mccarty.org.uk/), Professor, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, and Digital Humanities Research Group, University of Western Sydney _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.
Director, Program in Science & Technology Studies
Associate Professor, History
College of Arts & Letters
Stevens Institute of Technology
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