Dis-encapsulation: Object-Oriented Programming and the Phenomenology of Experience

10.6153/EXP.202012_(44).0001

Anthony Curtis Adler

computer ； object-oriented programming ； Heidegger ； ontology ； technology

Ex-position

44期（2020 / 12 / 01）

1 - 36

英文

Starting out from a general consideration of the concepts of code, abstraction, and programming paradigm, and of how computers compel us to reconceive of thinking as technē rather than as the realization of a given natural endowment, this essay argues that object-oriented programming, through the concepts of encapsulation and interface, offers powerful resources for reorienting ontology. Just as the interface, which mediates between a human agent and a hidden (encapsulated) mechanism, is itself a technical accomplishment, the philosophical text, rather than serving as a representation of reality, can itself be understood as the production of a kind of interface (with beings, with Being, or even with that which is beyond Being)-or, in other words, as a script whose interpretation yields a concrete system of encapsulation and dis-encapsulation. This, in turn, offers a new way of approaching the central concern of Martin Heidegger's later philosophy: the relation of technology and truth, and ultimately also politics and political subjectivity.

1. (1996).History of Programming Languages II.New York:Association for Computing Machinery.
2. Chalmers, David J.(1995).Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness.Journal of Consciousness Studies,2(3),200-219.
3. Copeland, B. Jack(Ed.)(2004).The Essential Turing: The Ideas That Gave Birth to the Computer Age.Oxford:Oxford UP.
4. Denning, Peter J.,Martell, Craig H.(2015).Great Principles of Computing.Cambridge, MA:MIT P.
5. Dou, Eva, and Olivia Geng. “Humans Mourn Loss after Google Is Unmasked as China’s Go Master.” Wall Street Journal 5 Jan. 2017. Web. Accessed 3 Mar. 2020.
6. Evens, Aden(2006).Object-Oriented Ontology, or Programming’s Creative Fold.Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities,11(1),89-97.
7. Galloway, Alexander R.(2012).The Interface Effect.Cambridge, UK:Polity.
8. Gerrish, Sean(2018).How Smart Machines Think.Cambridge, MA:MIT P.
9. Hayles, N. Katherine(2010).My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts.Chicago:U of Chicago P.
10. Kay, Alan,Goldberg, Adele(1977).Personal Dynamic Media.Computer,3,31-41.
11. Krell, David Farrell(Ed.)(2011).Basic Writings.New York:Routledge.
12. Lyotard, Jean-Francois,Bennington, Geoff(Trans.),Massumi, Brian(Trans.)(1984).The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.Manchester:U of Manchester P.
13. Lyotard, Jean-Francois,Van Den Abbeele, Georges(Trans.)(1988).The Differend: Phrases in Dispute.Minneapolis:U of Minnesota P.
14. Mumford, Lewis(1967).The Myth of the Machine: Technics and Human Development.New York:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
15. Plato,Pangle, Thomas L.(Trans.)(1988).Laws.Chicago:U of Chicago P.
16. Rojas, Raul(Ed.),Hasgagen, Ulf(Ed.)(2000).The First Computers: History and Architecture.Cambridge, MA:MIT P.
17. Sartre, Jean-Paul,Barnes, Hazel E.(Trans.)(1966).Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology.New York:Pocket Books.
18. Searle, John R.(1990).Is the Brain a Digital Computer?.Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association,64(3),21-37.
19. Steiglitz, Ken(2019).The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital.Princeton:Princeton UP.
20. von Neumann, John(1958).The Computer and the Brain.New Haven:Yale UP.
21. West, David(2004).Object Thinking.Redmond WA:Microsoft Press.
22. Wiener, Norbert(1989).The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society.London:Free Association Books.
23. Wittgenstein, Ludwig,Anscombe, G. E. M.(Trans.)(2001).Philosophical Investigations.Oxford:Blackwell.