Python for philosophers

[Joel Goldstick]

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 4:03 PM, Citizen Kant <citizenkant at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> this could be seen as an extravagant subject but that is not my original
> purpose. I still don't know if I want to become a programmer or not.


My guess is that you don't want to be a programmer.  Otherwise you would
know that you did.


> At this moment I'm just inspecting the environment. I'm making my way to
> Python (and OOP in general) from a philosophical perspective or point of
> view and try to set the more global definition of Python's core as an
> "entity". In order to do that, and following Wittgenstein's indication
> about that the true meaning of words doesn't reside on dictionaries but in
> the use that we make of them, the starting question I make to myself about
> Python is: which is the single and most basic use of Python as the entity
> it is? I mean, beside programming, what's the single and most basic result
> one can expect from "interacting" with it directly (interactive mode)? I
> roughly came to the idea that Python could be considered as an *economic
> mirror for data*, one that mainly *mirrors* the data the programmer types
> on its black surface, not exactly as the programmer originally typed it,
> but expressed in the most economic way possible. That's to say, for
> example, if one types >>>1+1 Python reflects >>>2. When data appears
> between apostrophes, then the mirror reflects, again, the same but
> expressed in the most economic way possible (that's to say without the
> apostrophes).
>
> So, would it be legal (true) to define Python's core as an entity that
> mirrors whatever data one presents to it (or feed it with) showing back the
> most shortened expression of that data?
>
> Don't get me wrong. I can see the big picture and the amazing things that
> programmers write on Python, it's just that my question points to the
> lowest level of it's existence.
>
> Thanks a lot for your time.
>
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
>


-- 
Joel Goldstick
http://joelgoldstick.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/attachments/20130511/c31103c6/attachment.html>