Computer Science and Philosophy at Oxford. Symploké

Ahora que el sistema educativo ha enviado al olvido el estudio del griego y el latín y avanza con fuerza hacia la destrucción de las ciencias del pensar y dialogar. Ahora que la filosofía está puesta en cuestión y ya queda muy poco del estudio filosófico, merece la pena resaltar proyectos como el iniciado por la Universidad de Oxford que ha promovido una disciplina donde se estudia filosofía y ciencias de la computación.

Los que trabajamos en gnoss, sabemos bien que un profesor de filosofía puede crear tecnología de vanguardia que además rinda tributo a los griegos.

Dedicado a los escépticos, incrédulos, fanáticos de las escuelas de negocios sin límite ni ética. Volvamos a estudiar lo que nos hace más humanos.

Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, virtual reality: fascinating areas where Computer Science and Philosophy meet. But there are also many others, since the two disciplines share a broad focus on the representation of information and rational inference, embracing common interests in algorithms, cognition, intelligence, language, models, proof, and verification. Computer Scientists need to be able to reflect critically and philosophically about these, as they push forward into novel domains. Philosophers need to understand them within a world increasingly shaped by computer technology, in which a whole new range of enquiry has opened up, from the philosophy of AI, artificial life and computation, to the ethics of privacy and intellectual property, to the epistemology of computer models (e.g. of global warming).

Great scientists and Philosophers stand together
in Oxford's Museum of Natural History

Some of the greatest thinkers of the past – including Aristotle, Hobbes, Leibniz, Frege and Turing – dreamed of automating reasoning and what this might achieve; the computer has now made it a reality for those with the necessary skills, providing a wonderful tool for extending our speculation and understanding.

The study of Philosophy develops analytical, critical and logical rigour, and the ability to think through the consequences of novel ideas and speculations. It opens and stretches the mind by considering a wide range of thought and thinkers, on subjects as fundamental as the limits of knowledge, the nature of reality and our place in it, and the basis of morality.

Computer Science is about understanding computer systems at a deep level. Computers and the programs they run are among the most complex products ever created by humans; designing and using them effectively presents immense challenges. Facing these challenges is the aim of Computer Science as a practical discipline.

Although the combination of Computer Science and Philosophy at undergraduate degree level is new to Oxford, it is a well-established blend offered by universities across the globe.

Diría el profesor Gustavo Bueno: Symploké