The Historical and Philosophical Foundations of IT
|
Historically, our term "technology" comes from the Greek word techne. Techne, in turn, is a derived from the Indo-European root "tek"; tek means "to fit together the woodwork of a woven house." Techne in its initial usage was associated with engineering and construction. From the time of Homer to the time of Plato, techne was used to refer to a craft, skill, and expertise. Plato used techne to classify physical and mental activities; for him techne was an art as well as a science. His pupil, Aristotle, saw techne as the ability to make something, based on correct awareness or reasoning about the thing being made.
In effect, our usage of the term technology, whether referring to a knowledge base, skill set or an end product has not deviated much during the last 2,500 years. Instead of being artisans and craftsmen of metal and clay, we are artisans and craftsmen of applications and databases.
The philosophical contributions to IT are in three domains: (1) communication, (2) physical, and (3) quality. The communication domain is expressed by the discipline of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Semiotics is linked to the IT communications domain because IT uses "symbols" (ie., numbers and characters) to pass instructions throughout a system. Moreover, the IT communities of interest and practice use languages and diagrams to share ideas verbally and schematically.
Semiotics has three components:
Semantics – this addresses the meaning of the words
Syntax – this addresses the sentence structure
Pragmatics – this addresses how words are used to perform tasks
Semiotics provides the foundation for operating systems and application languages. All IT communications comprise sending, receiving and interpreting "symbols" at some level.
The physical domain is typified by Aristotle's concept of "The Four Causes." In studying the physical world, Aristotle suggested that four different principles explain why things exist:
The Material Cause – every physical thing is made from something
The Formal Cause – every physical thing has a pattern, form or a "blueprint"
The Efficient Cause – every physical thing has a process that created it
The Final Cause – every physical thing has a purpose
The Four Causes concept provides the baseline requirements for applications, systems and data communication networks. All must have: (1) hardware and software components, (2) a design or typology, (3) one or more courses of action that make it operational, and (4) a clearly defined purpose.
The quality domain is embodied by three branches of philosophy – metaphysics, axiology and epistemology. As noted below, these three branches are logically linked to the essential concerns of quality:
PHILOSOPHICAL BRANCH (FUNDAMENTAL CONCERN) - IT QUALITY QUESTION
Metaphysics (Existence) - Was there an outcome?
Axiology (Value) - Was the outcome correct?
Epistemology (Knowledge) - How do you know the outcome was correct or incorrect?
History and the history of ideas still influence what we do and how we do it. The sophistication of our toolsets has not altered the antiquity of our objectives. At the core of every IT-related activity, the fundamental techne purposes are still the same--to convey ideas, solve problems and better understand the world around us. Ideas are exchanged between machines, between people and combinations thereof. Some choose to manage these processes, some choose to engage in the processes, and others choose to use and benefit from the processes.
Our techne does not result in wood and leather products. Rather, we are designers of network architectures, code authors, and we often refer to ourselves as "techies." We define ourselves by our crafts and express our voices through the elegance of our programming styles. We do not have guilds, but we do subscribe to trade journals and participate in user groups. However, like our historical counterparts, we need requirements before engaging in techne, and we need acceptance criteria for the final product.
So, if you want to know where IT is going, simply look at where it has been and the basic problems that society wants to address through it. That is the essence of IT--techne that adeptly communicates, evaluates and realizes ideas in a logical manner.
|
|
|
