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Kalmár’s Argument for the Independence of Computer Science

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Computing with Foresight and Industry (CiE 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 11558))

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Abstract

Computer Science is a rather young discipline, and as usual with new disciplines, in its early stage there were important discussions about its aim, scope and methodology. Throughout these debates, it was claimed at different times that computer science belongs to the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. Questions about the organization of the field were raised as well: is there a need for computer science departments, or for separate computer science majors at the university level? The history of these debates has been documented rather well in recent years. However, the literature focuses mostly on sources from the US and Western Europe. The aim of this paper is to include the stance of eminent Hungarian logician and computer scientist László Kalmár in the history of this discussion. Kalmár’s view is reconstructed based on recently found, formerly unpublished archival materials from 1970–1971: a conference abstract and his correspondence about Hungarian computer science education. In this paper, I will also situate Kalmár’s view among the positions of other prominent scholars in these debates.

I would like to thank Kendra Chilson for her help in writing this paper.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See [7], Sect. 6 and especially page 183, for examples depicting similar struggles in the Soviet Union.

  2. 2.

    For bibliographical information and description of his work in the field of computer science see ([20], Sect. 3) and [14].

  3. 3.

    Between 1963 and 1965, both Kalmár and Suppes served in the governance of the DLMPS, Kalmár as Vice-President and Suppes as Secretary General, and as members of the Committee on the Teaching of Logic and Philosophy of Science from 1964 until 1968 as well.

  4. 4.

    The Congress took place in Bucharest, Romania from August 29 to September 4 in the same year.

  5. 5.

    To make things precise, but possibly even worse, computer science departments in Hungary are usually called ‘számítástechnika’ departments, thus the word Kalmár uses for hardware-related issues was also used in Hungary as an umbrella term that can be translated as ‘computer science’ broadly understood.

  6. 6.

    This period coincides with the Fourth Five Year Plan of Hungary. (Five year plans were overarching, nationwide centralized economic plans in the socialist countries.).

  7. 7.

    In Hungary, and many other countries in the Eastern Block, this scientific degree was called ‘candidate of sciences’ (‘kandidátusi fokozat’ in Hungarian). As it is a PhD-equivalent degree, I decided to use ‘PhD’ throughout the paper to avoid confusion and cumbersome phrasing. (Indeed, many ‘candidate of sciences’ degrees were actually converted to PhDs in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Eastern Block).

  8. 8.

    It is well known that the Eastern Block lagged behind the West in computing technologies in general. The gap was even larger in the case of software development and maintenance than in the case of hardware ([4] pp. 98–100, and [8]).

  9. 9.

    In addition, according to Kalmár, most of the PhD holders had already reached well-paid, high ranks in the industry and were unlikely to leave their jobs for academia.

  10. 10.

    ‘Tudományos Minősítő Bizottság’ in Hungarian.

  11. 11.

    For the sake of completeness, it has to be mentioned that from the 1950s, universities were allowed to award a title, colloquially referred to as ‘little doctorate’ (‘kisdoktori’ in Hungarian), but it did not count as a scientific degree and in most cases they were not allowed to be converted into PhD degrees in the 1990s.

  12. 12.

    On p. 17 Kalmár makes a claim, the accuracy of which it is hard to judge today, that this understanding was facilitated by a typo. According to Kalmár, the category was supposed to be called ‘Matematikai gépek és programozásuk’ which translates as ‘Mathematical machines and their programming’. However, the official description read ‘Matematikai gépek és programozások,’ which differs only in one letter (the second from last), and means ‘Mathematical machines and programming,’ where programming is actually in plural (which is grammatically correct in Hungarian). Thus, programming wasn’t necessarily linked to the mathematical machines anymore, and required multiple kinds of programming, leading to the preference of operation research themed dissertation topics.

  13. 13.

    For example Knuth in the preface of his [12] from 1968 wrote that “computers are widely regarded as belonging to the domain of ‘applied mathematics”’ (p. ix). Interestingly, Knuth uses the term ‘computer,’ not even ‘(theoretical) computer science’ belonging to applied mathematics.

  14. 14.

    This comparison of Kalmár’s is not clear without further arguments. For, if the idea behind a mathematical proof is sound, it can be “easily corrected” as well. What he might have meant is that judging an idea to be sound in programming is easier than in mathematics.

  15. 15.

    On a similar note in the letter (p. 18), Kalmár remarks that a proof of the optimality of a particular algorithm belongs to mathematics.

  16. 16.

    Also published as Jones C.B., Lucas P. (1971) Proving correctness of implementation techniques. In: Engeler E. (ed) Symposium on Semantics of Algorithmic Languages. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol 188. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0059698.

  17. 17.

    Indeed, the two entries in the Bibliography attached to the abstract are proponents of the verificationist view.

  18. 18.

    Again, for lack of space, no one else holding this general position is mentioned from among the many. As just one example, see George Forsythe’s position as described by Tedre ([21], pp. 37–38). Still, I believe, Kalmár and Perlis’ positions show a striking resemblance.

  19. 19.

    The department was called Foundations of Mathematics and Computer Technology Department until 1971, when it morphed into the Computer Science Department, still headed by Kalmár until his retirement in 1975.

  20. 20.

    Interestingly, even though Perlis mentions “engineering” in the title explicitly, he does not provide arguments for the independence of computer science from it, just as Kalmár did not.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Archives Henri-Poincaré, UMR 7117, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France

    Máté Szabó

  2. IHPST, UMR 8590, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Máté Szabó

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  1. Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Florin Manea

  2. Durham University, Durham, UK

    Barnaby Martin

  3. Durham University, Durham, UK

    Daniël Paulusma

  4. Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Giuseppe Primiero

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Szabó, M. (2019). Kalmár’s Argument for the Independence of Computer Science. In: Manea, F., Martin, B., Paulusma, D., Primiero, G. (eds) Computing with Foresight and Industry. CiE 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11558. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22996-2_23

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