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- Title
COMPUTERS.
- Authors
PICCININI, GUALTIERO
- Abstract
I offer an explication of the notion of computer, grounded in the practices of computability theorists and computer scientists. I begin by explaining what distinguishes computers from calculators. Then, I offer a systematic taxonomy of kinds of computer, including hard-wired versus programmable, general-purpose versus special-purpose, analog versus digital, and serial versus parallel, giving explicit criteria for each kind. My account is mechanistic: which class a system belongs in, and which functions are computable by which system, depends on the system's mechanistic properties. Finally, I briefly illustrate how my account sheds light on some issues in the history and philosophy of computing as well as the philosophy of mind.
- Subjects
COMPUTERS; COMPUTABLE functions; COMPUTER scientists; CALCULATORS; TAXONOMY; DIGITAL communications; PHILOSOPHY of mind; PHILOSOPHY
- Publication
Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 2008, Vol 89, Issue 1, p32
- ISSN
0279-0750
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1468-0114.2008.00309.x