Digital Confucianism: A Confucian Take on Computation and Algorithm

Symposium:

• ISEA2016: 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA2016:  

• Confusianism and Chinese Tradition in Digital Media

• Digital Confucianism: A Confucian Take on Computation and Algorithm

• Mi You

• Abstract (short paper)

  The paper attempts to open up the conceptual framework of Confucianism to accommodate questions relevant to today’s digital society. Both Confucian and Whiteheadian philosophy favor processuality to fixed entities in analyzing beings and phenomena of the world. Hence, computational algorithmic processes, or “computational thinking,” can be recast in light of the concurrent Neo-Confucian notions of qi and gan, as well as Whiteheadian notions of prehension and speculative reason. Computation, qua adding new data that alter the initial condition, manifests speculative reason, which resonates with Neo-Confucian view of change as the nature and order of being. The paper concludes with an artistic work substantiating this analysis.

  Full text (PDF)  p.  374-377

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Category:

• Paper
• Short Paper