Re: Publicity

[Jeremy Gibbons <jeremy.gibbons@cs.ox.ac.uk>]

On 8 Jun 2013, at 10:39, Marta Bunge wrote:

> It is in the second part that the author reveals her ignorance of the subject. The assertion  "the theory of programming languages and the field of logic can be seen as essentially identical to category theory " is pure nonsense, even more so as it is given an outrageous name - "computational trinitarianism" even if spoken in jest. 

Don't blame Rehmayer for the "computational trinitarianism" line; that's Bob Harper's invention, tongue in cheek. 

But I don't think Harper is to blame for equating CT with PL and logic. He does say

> The doctrine of computational trinitarianism holds that computation manifests itself in three forms: proofs of propositions, programs of a type, and mappings between structures.  These three aspects give rise to three sects of worship: Logic, which gives primacy to proofs and propositions; Languages, which gives primacy to programs and types; Categories, which gives primacy to mappings and structures.  The central dogma of computational trinitarianism holds that Logic, Languages, and Categories are but three manifestations of one divine notion of computation.

   http://existentialtype.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/the-holy-trinity/

All I take him to mean is that logic, languages, and categories offer three complementary perspectives on computation. I don't think you can read this as "computation subsumes category theory".

Jeremy

Jeremy.Gibbons@cs.ox.ac.uk
Oxford University Department of Computer Science,
Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QD, UK.
+44 1865 283521
http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/jeremy.gibbons/



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