Keith Douglas' Web Page

About Me

I am primarily, but not exclusively a philosopher of science and technology and logician. (If you are looking for a poet who lived from 1920 to 1944 you are, alas, in the wrong place. But stay awhile, you may yet find something useful!) If you are interested in my information technology skills rather than my philosophical skills, follow this.

I have traveled around a little to further my education. I started in my home town of Montreal, where I attended McGill University. I then spent some time in Vancouver, to attend the University of British Columbia, and then Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon University, and now I am, at least for the time being, back in Montreal. During my travels I have met up with many interesting and stimulating people who have provoked my reflections on many of the subjects I discuss in my papers and elsewhere.

An important part of my primary interest, the philosophy of computing, has been metaphysical in character, focusing on questions such as:

• Is artificial intelligence possible?
• Can we construct machines that are fundamentally more powerful than those which fall in the Turing class? Why or why not?
• Why is the Turing machine model the (a) useful model for understanding computation?
• What computes? Why?
• Are brains computational devices, and if so (or not), why (or why not)?
• What is the distinction between science and technology?

I also have done work related to the philosophy of science and epistemology:

• What are the criteria for selecting a normative principle in epistemology?
• What role does neuroscience have to play in philosophy?
• Is psychoanalysis a pseudoscience?
• What should be the roles of various fields and their interrelations in metascience?

But my interests broaden out of these fields to general questions in philosophy and indeed in intellectual life generally:

• What is the role of the state and community in educational policy? In science, technology, and philosophical education specifically?
• Can one defend emotional experience rationally? If so, how?
• What is the relationship between science and the arts? between technology and the arts?
• What should the roles of science be in dealing with indigenous cultures?
• Should philosophy adopt the tools of mathematics?

I spend my intellectual life thus flying between two or three different ways of seeing and understanding the world: one scientific and technological, and one humanistic. I do not see these in opposition. In fact, to me, science and technology are humanities disciplines in a broad sense. And, perhaps more contentiously, I regard philosophy and the humanities as forming (or rather, they ought to form!) part of a scientific and technological world view.

I owe the felicitous metaphor of "flying between" to my friend Raven [link temporarily broken] , who has been one of my inspirations for many years now to the balancing act I have mentioned above. My students and colleagues over the years I hope have benefited sometimes from her idiosyncratic wisdom as much as mine, for she and my other friends are a part of my work and the metaphorical fathers of my intellectual children. (I am their mother, for as Plato says, the hard part of intellectual work IS the giving birth!) Throughout these pages and papers you will see bon mots I have collected from many sources. Throughout, I try to live up to how Gene Roddenberry was described by Yvonne Fern:

His voice sounded like tomorrow.

I try to show how we can live to build a better future, without losing track of today, and even yesterday.

The game he loved best was being.

Existence is a gift. Cherish it. After all, without it, you are quite literally nothing. But have fun, too.

He collected ideas.

This is all philosophy and science and logic and math and technology and ... all are - collections of good ideas. One has to structure them too, but that too is a great idea. Same goes with the wonderful idea of experiment and other, one might say, "practical" ideas.

Then, "if you find the truth, come and tell me". Or not. Use the link to mail me about anything that comes up from this site. I am particularly interested to hear from whoever those folks who keep searching for ' "keith douglas" science philosophy ' are.

The above links are about other, related interests of mine - technology education and technology policy.