Line 45: |
Line 45: |
| The last option of the last step already overlaps with the synthetic phase of work. Viewing this procedure within the frame of experimental research, it is important to recognize that computer programs can fill the role of hypotheses, testable (defeasible or falsifiable) construals of how a process is actually, might be possibly, or ought to be optimally carried out. | | The last option of the last step already overlaps with the synthetic phase of work. Viewing this procedure within the frame of experimental research, it is important to recognize that computer programs can fill the role of hypotheses, testable (defeasible or falsifiable) construals of how a process is actually, might be possibly, or ought to be optimally carried out. |
| | | |
− | =====1.1.2.2. The Paraphrastic & Faculty-Synthetic Phase===== | + | =====1.1.2.2. The Paraphrastic and Faculty-Synthetic Phase===== |
| | | |
− | The closely allied techniques of task analysis and software development that are known as "step-wise refinement" and "top-down programming" in computer science (Wirth 1976, 49, 303) have a long ancestry in logic and philosophy, going back to a strategy for establishing or discharging contextual definitions known as "paraphrasis". All of these methods are founded on the idea of providing meaning for operational specifications, "definitions in use", alleged descriptions, or "incomplete symbols". No excessive generosity with the resources of meaning is intended, though. In practice, a larger share of the routine is spent detecting meaningless fictions rather than discovering meaningful concepts. | + | The closely allied techniques of task analysis and software development that are known as ''step-wise refinement'' and ''top-down programming'' in computer science (Wirth 1976, 49, 303) have a long ancestry in logic and philosophy, going back to a strategy for establishing or discharging contextual definitions known as ''paraphrasis''. All of these methods are founded on the idea of providing meaning for operational specifications, ''definitions in use'', ''alleged descriptions'', or ''incomplete symbols''. No excessive generosity with the resources of meaning is intended, though. In practice, a larger share of the routine is spent detecting meaningless fictions rather than discovering meaningful concepts. |
| | | |
− | '''Paraphrasis.'' "A method of accounting for fictions by explaining various purported terms away" (Quine, in Van Heijenoort, 216). See also (Whitehead and Russell, in Van Heijenoort, 217-223). | + | '''Paraphrasis.''' "A method of accounting for fictions by explaining various purported terms away" (Quine, in Van Heijenoort, 216). See also (Whitehead and Russell, in Van Heijenoort, 217–223). |
| | | |
| '''Synthesis.''' Regard computer programs as implementations of hypothetical or postulated faculties. Within the framework of experimental research, programs can serve as descriptive, modal, or normative hypotheses, that is, conjectures about how a process is actually accomplished in nature, speculations as to how it might be done in principle, or explorations of how it might be done better in the medium of technological extensions. | | '''Synthesis.''' Regard computer programs as implementations of hypothetical or postulated faculties. Within the framework of experimental research, programs can serve as descriptive, modal, or normative hypotheses, that is, conjectures about how a process is actually accomplished in nature, speculations as to how it might be done in principle, or explorations of how it might be done better in the medium of technological extensions. |
| | | |
− | For the purposes of this project, I will take "paraphrastic definition" to denote the analysis of formal specifications and contextual constraints to derive effective implementations of a process or its faculty. This is carried out by considering what the faculty in question is required to do in the many contexts it is expected to serve, and then by analyzing these formal specifications in order to design computer programs that fulfill them. | + | For the purposes of this project, I will take ''paraphrastic definition'' to denote the analysis of formal specifications and contextual constraints to derive effective implementations of a process or its faculty. This is carried out by considering what the faculty in question is required to do in the many contexts it is expected to serve, and then by analyzing these formal specifications in order to design computer programs that fulfill them. |
| | | |
| =====1.1.2.3. Reprise of Methods===== | | =====1.1.2.3. Reprise of Methods===== |