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From: marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Is Computer Science Science?
Message-ID: <1318@houdi.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Sep-87 10:18:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: houdi.1318
Posted: Tue Sep 22 10:18:24 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Sep-87 06:20:14 EDT
References: <5113@sunybcs.UUCP> <6195@apple.UUCP> <5068@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <1073@aurora.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 37
Summary: Maybe this is a problem in anthropology

In article <1073@aurora.UUCP>, shafto@aurora.UUCP (Michael Shafto) writes:
> ....  I think if you
> adopt the position that Real Science is about Nature, and
> that mathematics is not Real Science, then ....  either
> (a) mathematicians don't make discoveries, or (b) they
> make discoveries about the properties of formal systems
> or systems of abstract descriptions, and that THESE are
> not part of Nature.  If you follow (a), then you confine
> yourself to a limited group of discussants who share your
> idiosyncratic notion of 'discovery'; if you follow (b), then
> you put the content of mathematics somewhere outside Nature.

But formal systems are a product of the human mind, and the human mind
(as a feature of _Homo_sapiens_) is a part of Nature.  Science,
mathematics, literature, and other intellectual activities are things
humans do because of our innate capacities and social norms.

> Someone (perhaps Lakatos or Feyerabend) said that scientists
> know about as much about science as fish know about
> hydrology.  This is well illustrated whenever scientists
> quit DOING science and start talking about it.

There are scientific disciplines (mostly less formally developed than
other disciplines like physics) that deal with the study of human
activities.  One example is anthropology.  I think the question "Is
computer science a science?" belongs to one of those disciplines.

Our problem when we work with computers is less abstruse.  All we have
to know is whether we can succesfully communicate if we use the term
'Computer Science'.  Obviously we can.  Nobody complained that the
title question ("Is Computer Science Science") is ambiguous.  We all
understand that the word "science" in the phrase "computer science"
is not the same as the word "science" standing alone.

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201)-949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	ihnp4!houdi!marty1