Philosophy of computation and information

By locating computing in its conceptual, technical and historical evolution and by learning the principles that define it, students will gain a critical awareness and technical knowledge of the processes by which computing has become an essential aspect of our lives and will understand how this subject is located with respect to other sciences. The course includes programming activities for the model of Turing Machines and for an agent-based simulation software. Such notions and methods will be valuable in any activity requiring advanced reasoning and problem-solving abilities in the computational domain.

Knowledge acquisition and understanding:
The course provides knowledge of philosophical and technical literature in the area of computing and the philosophy of information; principles of logic, epistemology of computing sciences and technologies; and the understanding of new software and data-intensive science methodologies.

Skills acquisition and ability to apply knowledge:
The course provides technical and analytical skills in the following topics:

- Logic and computability
- Turing Computability
- Logics of Program Correctness
- Laws of Computing Evolution
- Logics of Information
- Errors in Computing
- Computer Modelling, Experiments and Simulation
- Multi-Agent Systems and Logics of Communication

At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:

- identify classes of computational functions and problems;
- identify algorithmic processes and their properties;
- formulate formal structures applied to computational and informational structures;
- analyze the ontological structure of computational systems and their properties;
- formulate hypothesis and experiments in a computational setting.