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33On Algorithms, Effective Procedures, and Their DefinitionsPhilosophia Mathematica 31 (3): 291-329. 2023.I examine the classical idea of ‘algorithm’ as a sequential, step-by-step, deterministic procedure (i.e., the idea of ‘algorithm’ that was already in use by the 1930s), with respect to three themes, its relation to the notion of an ‘effective procedure’, its different roles and uses in logic, computer science, and mathematics (focused on numerical analysis), and its different formal definitions proposed by practitioners in these areas. I argue that ‘algorithm’ has been conceptualized and used in…Read more
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58Computational indeterminacy and explanations in cognitive scienceBiology and Philosophy 37 (6): 1-30. 2022.Computational physical systems may exhibit indeterminacy of computation (IC). Their identified physical dynamics may not suffice to select a unique computational profile. We consider this phenomenon from the point of view of cognitive science and examine how computational profiles of cognitive systems are identified and justified in practice, in the light of IC. To that end, we look at the literature on the underdetermination of theory by evidence and argue that the same devices that can be succ…Read more
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44On Two Different Kinds of Computational IndeterminacyThe Monist 105 (2): 229-246. 2022.It is often indeterminate what function a given computational system computes. This phenomenon has been referred to as “computational indeterminacy” or “multiplicity of computations.” In this paper, we argue that what has typically been considered and referred to as the challenge of computational indeterminacy in fact subsumes two distinct phenomena, which are typically bundled together and should be teased apart. One kind of indeterminacy concerns a functional characterization of the system’s r…Read more
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54Computing, Modelling, and Scientific Practice: Foundational Analyses and LimitationsDissertation, University of Western Ontario. 2018.This dissertation examines aspects of the interplay between computing and scientific practice. The appropriate foundational framework for such an endeavour is rather real computability than the classical computability theory. This is so because physical sciences, engineering, and applied mathematics mostly employ functions defined in continuous domains. But, contrary to the case of computation over natural numbers, there is no universally accepted framework for real computation; rather, there ar…Read more
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52Computing and modelling: Analog vs. AnalogueStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 83 103-120. 2020.We examine the interrelationships between analog computational modelling and analogue (physical) modelling. To this end, we attempt a regimentation of the informal distinction between analog and digital, which turns on the consideration of computing in a broader context. We argue that in doing so one comes to see that (scientific) computation is better conceptualised as an epistemic process relative to agents, wherein representations play a key role. We distinguish between two, conceptually dist…Read more
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82Unrealistic models for realistic computations: how idealisations help represent mathematical structures and found scientific computingSynthese 199 (1-2): 249-283. 2020.We examine two very different approaches to formalising real computation, commonly referred to as “Computable Analysis” and “the BSS approach”. The main models of computation underlying these approaches—bit computation and BSS, respectively—have also been put forward as appropriate foundations for scientific computing. The two frameworks offer useful computability and complexity results about problems whose underlying domain is an uncountable space. Since typically the problems dealt with in phy…Read more
University of Western Ontario
PhD, 2018
Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Computing and Information |
Philosophy of Mathematics |
General Philosophy of Science |