Philosophy of Computer Science

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INFORMATICA / COMPUTER SCIENCE

CENTER for PHILOSOPHY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE - Utrecht University

``Exploring the Scientific Nature of the Information and Computing Sciences''

Computer science (or: Informatics) has branched out to every facet of science, industry, business and society. Innovations continuously challenge the understanding of the field as a science. What is its scientific core? What are its fundamental questions? What can the computational lens tell us about the world? The Center focuses on (a) the computational models and theories for understanding advanced IT systems and their foundation, and (b) the philosophical investigations of informatics as part of the philosophy of science.

The Center for Philosophy of Computer Science is headed by professor Jan van Leeuwen, and is part of the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University.

Research

Computation: interactive algorithms, algorithic mechanisms, intelligent algorithms, extended computability, non-classical computing.
Complexity: ad-hoc networks, resource-bounded agents, computational complexity, non-uniform complexity.
Design: algorithmic thinking, information flow, information organization, algorithmic modeling e.g. in AI and the sciences.
Philosophy of Informatics: foundations of informatics, computation, nature of information technology, perspectives.

We have a long-standing interest in the algorithmics and applied philosophy of the information and computing sciences, the implications and trends of ICT, and their application in industry and society. See also our research on algorithm design and analysis in the Center for Algorithmic Systems.

News

S.B. Cooper and J. van Leeuwen (Eds), Alan Turing: His Work and Impact, Elsevier, 2013 (now available, amazon).

Conferences vs journals: Where to send your paper?.
Seminar on algorithmic game theory: Algorithms, games and the internet (2011).
Weblogs: Theory of computation (Lipton & Regan), Security (Schneier), Technology+ (Meyer), Bits and pieces (Lewis), Shtetl-optimized (Aaronson), Freedom-to-tinker (Princeton), Practical ethics (Oxford).
Updates: Ars Technica, Sixth sense tech (TED, Patty Maes), Deluge of data shapes new era in computing (Gray, 2007), Building Watson.
APA newsletter: Philosophy and computers.
Societies: Society for Philosophy of Information (also here, SPI), European Forum for ICST.

Some conferences

AISB 2013: The Scandal of Computation - What is Computation?, Symposium on Computing and Philosopy, Exeter, 2-5 April, 2013.
AISB 2013: symposia, Exeter, 2-5 April, 2013.
CiE 2013: The Nature of Computation - Logic, Algorithms, Applications, Milan, 1-5 July, 2013.
IACAP conferences: IACAP.

Some reports and papers

Informatics: A fascinating science (Van Leeuwen), The Algorithm: Idiom of Modern Science (Chazelle).
Why Philosophers Should Care About Computational Complexity (Aaronson).
Great principles of computing (Denning).
Towards a philosophy of the information and computing sciences (van Leeuwen, NIAS Newsletter 42, pdf).
Open problems in the philosophy of information (Floridi).
Student enrollment and image of the Informatics discipline (van Leeuwen & Tanca, Informatics Europe report, pdf).
See: More reports and papers (surveys, courses, books, viewpoints, ..)

Philosophical pointers and diversions

Philosophy and Theoretical Computer Science (Aaronson)
The philosophy of Computer Science (Stanford Encyclopedia).
Mapping great debates: can computers think? (MacroVU).
Research Group in Philosophy of Information (U Hertfordshire).
See: More philosophical pointers (references, papers, surveys, courses, books, viewpoints, ..)

Turing 2012

The Alan Turing Year - A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Work of Alan Turing (2012).
The Alan Turing Homepage, Alan Turing (pages by Andrew Hodges), Alan M. Turing (Wikipedia)
Alan Turing: one of The Great Philosophers (Hodges).
Turing test (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Turing test (Wikipedia)
Apology to A.M. Turing: PM apology after Turing petition (2009).

Scientific information / Search tools

Encyclopedias: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), Computers and Information Technology (Encyclopedia Smithsonian), History of computers (Hitmill).
Journals/Proceedings: Electronic journals (Utrecht University), ACM portal (ACM), ACM digital lib (ACM), Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS, see also here), Electronic Notes in TCS (vol 1 -) , Science Direct (Elsevier).
Collections: DBLP (Trier, also: old format ), ResearchIndex (CiteSeer), Computer science bibliographies.
Scientific search engines: Google, Google scholar, Google books, Academic search, Best search , Bing, Scirus , Scopus, Yahoo.
Archives: e-Print archive (arXiv), CoRR (computing research repository), computer science (e-prints).

Philosophy of the Information and Computing Sciences

This creation of this website was partially supported by The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) and the Lorentz Center (International Center for workshops in the Sciences).

Disclaimer We distance ourselves from the contents of any website that this website, or any other website maintained by us, links to outside of our own realm and declare that we do not adopt those contents as our own nor accept any responsibility for them.

Last changed: November 2012.