Title: 'Being' and 'Doing' as Ontological Constructs in Object-Oriented Programming
Abstract: Abstract In this article the authors argue that an ontology based either upon 'being' or 'doing' will emerge, depending on which aspect of Peirce's triadic model of the sign is emphasized: the object or the interpretant. Their argument is based on an analysis of two types of ontology used in object-oriented computer programming: namely, the class and the abstract data type. Among their findings is the observation that the programming ontology is determined by the object-types defined, rather than the inverse. Keywords: Object-oriented programming paradigm, class, abstract data type, Peirce's sign model. 1. Introduction The focus of this paper is the ontological dichotomy between 'being' and 'doing.' An intuitive analogy to this antithesis can be drawn from narratology. Todorov (1977) distinguishes between the 'being' and 'doing' motivations underlying the actant in a narrative: the 'psychological,' and the 'a-psychological,' respectively. In a murder story, for instance, the psychological motivation takes the form 'he kills because he is a killer,' whereas the 'a-psychological' motivation takes the form 'he is a killer because he kills.' 'Being,' in this paper, refers to the ontological status of an object whose ontic character is established by what it is, while the term 'doing' denotes that of an object whose ontic character is specified by what it does and by what can be done to it. The distinction between 'being' and 'doing' is seen broadly in philosophy as well as in computer programming. The computer programming community is unique in that it is a complete world consisting only of signs, perhaps without any real-world objects. Yet even here the same contrasting paradigms of 'being' and 'doing' co-exist. Curiously, among the various computer programming disciplines, this contrast is seen exclusively in the object- oriented paradigm. This suggests that the emergence of the 'being' and 'doing' schism is due to the way in which objects are described. Within the object-oriented paradigm, an object is modeled by a triplet sign consisting of its name, its features, and its functions. We argue that an ontology of either 'being' or 'doing' must arise as a direct result of this triadic modeling of the object: an emphasis on features leads to the 'being' ontology, whereas an emphasis on functions leads to the 'doing' ontology. Object modeling in the object-oriented paradigm is, in fact, analogous to Peirce's sign model, as discussed in more detail in (Tanaka-Ishii, 2006). Combining this hypothesis with the 'being'/'doing' dichotomy, we arrive at a more general hypothesis, namely that the 'being'/'doing' antithesis emerges in domains wherever objects are described according to triadic sign modeling. In the case of Peirce's triadic sign model, the 'being' ontology emerges when object relations are constructed according to objects, in Peirce's sense of the word, whereas the 'doing' ontology emerges when object relations are constructed according to the interpretant. Therefore, our hypothesis makes the assumption that an ontology is defined by its sign model. We frame the beginnings of our main argument by first describing the 'being'/'doing' dichotomy existing within the object-oriented paradigm. We then demonstrate and explain two sample software programs, one written according to the 'being' ontology, and the other, according to the 'doing' ontology. Finally, we discuss how Peirce's triadic sign model represents the two programs. 2. Class and Abstract Data Type In computer programs, objects are modeled and described by a data structure utilizing signs. The design of this data structure is critical, since it determines the comprehensiveness, ease of maintenance, extensibility, and, above all, the reliability of programs incorporating the data structure. Badly-designed structures make errors and bugs difficult to identify, and hinder cooperative development by a group of programmers. …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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