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When I was right out of college I worked with a guy who had a PhD in philosophy and had studied Kripke closely. He was working in software at the time because i

When I was right out of college I worked with a guy who had a PhD in philosophy and had studied Kripke closely. He was working in software at the time because it’s hard to make a living as a philosopher. He gave me one of his extra copies of Naming and Necessity. I had never read any philosophy and I was amazed. Kripke was truly a brilliant philosopher.

routerl 4y ago
> He was working in software at the time because it’s hard to make a living as a philosopher. Yeah, there are a lot of us. Spend a few years deeply studying logic and reasoning, and programming really just feels like a different version of the same thing. Learning an algorithm is very similar to learning an argument or a proof, and designing algorithms is very similar to designing arguments.
- fuy 4y ago
  I think you've just discovered Curry-Howard isomorphism!
- lultimouomo 4y ago
  > Yeah, there are a lot of us. I wouldn't say a lot, I've never met a fellow philosopher/developer in person. I would expect there would be more!
  - csh0 4y ago
    I did a Philosophy/CS double major for undergrad. I work as an SRE now, but when I was in school there was one other student in my cohort who was also doing the same pairing, she intended to go work on machine ethics last I heard. There really are a number of delightful intersections between the two subjects and I have considered writing a book on them,“Philosophy for Computer Scientists” or perhaps “Computer Science for Philosophers” :)
    - leoc 4y ago
      Good Lord I wish more people understood which elements of RDBs are essential features of the logic they’re based on; which ones are results of the way the relational model screwed up the logic it was supposed to be based on (hello there, Closed World Assumption); which ones are results of the way SQL screwed up the relational model; and which ones are just elements of a performance and security model that is quite independent of the logic (eg. there’s nothing in the logic which dictates that adding a row is routine but adding a table is a Big Deal). It probably doesn’t qualify as a delightful subject, but it would be a great service if someone could explain this stuff to people.
  - therealdrag0 4y ago
    I minored in philosophy. Was tempted to go all the way. But money. And I always did love computers.

routerl 4y ago

> He was working in software at the time because it’s hard to make a living as a philosopher. Yeah, there are a lot of us. Spend a few years deeply studying logic and reasoning, and programming really just feels like a different version of the same thing. Learning an algorithm is very similar to learning an argument or a proof, and designing algorithms is very similar to designing arguments.

fuy 4y ago
I think you've just discovered Curry-Howard isomorphism!
lultimouomo 4y ago
> Yeah, there are a lot of us. I wouldn't say a lot, I've never met a fellow philosopher/developer in person. I would expect there would be more!
- csh0 4y ago
  I did a Philosophy/CS double major for undergrad. I work as an SRE now, but when I was in school there was one other student in my cohort who was also doing the same pairing, she intended to go work on machine ethics last I heard. There really are a number of delightful intersections between the two subjects and I have considered writing a book on them,“Philosophy for Computer Scientists” or perhaps “Computer Science for Philosophers” :)
  - leoc 4y ago
    Good Lord I wish more people understood which elements of RDBs are essential features of the logic they’re based on; which ones are results of the way the relational model screwed up the logic it was supposed to be based on (hello there, Closed World Assumption); which ones are results of the way SQL screwed up the relational model; and which ones are just elements of a performance and security model that is quite independent of the logic (eg. there’s nothing in the logic which dictates that adding a row is routine but adding a table is a Big Deal). It probably doesn’t qualify as a delightful subject, but it would be a great service if someone could explain this stuff to people.
- therealdrag0 4y ago
  I minored in philosophy. Was tempted to go all the way. But money. And I always did love computers.