Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Irrational Reasoning
The intellect is not a serious thing, and never has been. It is an
instrument on which one plays, that is all
Oscar Wild (1854-1900)
9.1
Dual Semantics
In Chap. 8 referential semantics was shown to fit a computer programming language
since the meaning of a word could be related to the bit as an object in the machine. This
is not the complete story. This is because computer languages have a dual semantics
in that the program signs (e.g. the names/labels given to data items, procedures and
sub-routines) at the highest level also have referents in the world other than the
computer (Fig. 9.1 ).
This other source of objects is found in the analysis of the problem domain in
terms of records (as in database and program structures), relations (as in normalised
data structures) and objects (as in object-orientation). It is the role of the analysis
done by a computer expert (a System Analyst) to identify and create a logical picture.
This logical picture is a description of the user's world that will be used to implement
a set of programs. It is this analysis that will identify constructs (objects) in the world
that are meant to be stable and unchanging (as per Tractatus referents—Wittgenstein
1921 ) to which names can be given within the computer programs and their meaning
assigned.
Now it is acceptable that propositions can represent material properties:
T2.0231 , The substance of the world can only determine a form, and not any
material properties. For it is only by means of propositions that material properties
are represented—only by the configuration of objects that they are produced.
and relationships between objects:
T2.031 , In a state of affairs objects stand in a determinate relation to one another.
and any complex model of the world:
T3.1, In a proposition a thought finds an expression that can be perceived by the
senses.
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