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The Architect and the Organism:

What Plato & Aristotle have to say about Drupal

Presented by Matt Butcher

About Matt• Web Developer

since 1995

• Author of seven technical books

• Actual real-life philosopher

http://technosophos.com

Twitter: @technosophos

Drupal: mbutcher

April, 2012

Who was Plato’s Teacher?Question One:

Who was Aristotle’s Mostfamous Student?

Question Two:

“All philosophy is a footnote to Plato.”A. N. Whitehead

So is all of computer science.

Philosoraptor• Quite possibly the

true teacher of Socrates.

• Author of “Tractatus Logico-Raptus”

• Short and pithy questions

• Extinct.

Socrates• 5th Century B.C.E

• Controversial teacher

• “The Socratic Method”

• A character in the dialogs of his most famous student.

• Sentences to death for the “corruption of youth”

• The father of western philosophy

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anderson,_Domenico_(1854-1938)_-_n._23185_-_Socrate_(Collezione_Farnese)_-_Museo_Nazionale_di_Napoli.jpg

Plato• Student of

Socrates (he was probably in his mid-20’s when Socrates died)

• Like Socrates, an Athenian

• Traveled widely

• Wrote numerous books, mostly in the form of dialogs

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plato_Silanio_Louvre_Ma3654.jpg

Aristotle• Student of Plato, and

teacher of Alexander the Great

• Instrumental in the development of…

• Philosophy

• Natural sciences

• Literary theory

• Political science

• Biology

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aristoteles_Louvre.jpg

But what does any of this have to dowith us?

The Most Important Slide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sanzio_01.jpg

This says it all…

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sanzio_01_Plato_Aristotle.jpg

Plato

Forms, Perfection, and Reality

Ideal: Having to do primarily with an idea, ora mental object. This does not entail perfection.

So what’s the ideal girlfriend/boyfriend?

The Cave

http://xkcd.com/876/

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gua_Tempurung.jpg

He returns to the caveto tell his fellow prisoners

what he has seen.

What is the most real?

Being and Becoming

Eidos: The Forms

TheLSDChair

Esinem Design

Intellect & Art

Plato would not have liked the Raphael

Object-Oriented

Plato is an architect.

Aristotle is a biologist.

Aristotle

Metaphysics, Change, & Hylomorphism

Aristotle is all about becomingchangedynamism

Metaphysics: The thing that comesbefore physics.

(Philosophers get paid for sayingstuff like that)

Aristotle in 3 Words

1. Stuff (hyle)2. Potentiality3. Actuality

Impress your friends and loved ones…

Hylomorphism

It means turning stuff into things.I am not kidding, philosophers get PAID for this.

Aristotle’s Famous Model

If Aristotle had written code…

Functional vs. ImperativeFunctional

• Focus on BECOMING

• What transformation is occurring?

• Functions are first class

• Dynamicity of runtime

• Process

Imperative (OO or Procedural)• Focus on BEING

• What is the current state?

• Objects (structs, etc.) are first class

• Encapsulation

• Structures

Functional Programming

Pay attention to the process of running the code, what it is becoming,

not what’s its state is.

Aristotle would worry about placing so muchemphasis on data structures, objects, classes, and state.

Focus on the movement – they physis

And Drupal?

Drupal is lost in the middle(like medieval philosophy)

Drupal was Aristotelian1. Stuff: simple types2. Potentiality: hooks

3. Actuality: runtime hook invocation

But it was never really functional

But it might just be the mostAristotelian system ever made

Toss this little phrase out at dinner…

Drupal isn’t a CMS.It’s a hylomorphic engine!

You can singlehandedly settle the CMS/Frameworkdebate and sound suave while doing so.

Plato hates this

He thinks hylomorphism is dumb

And scary

It’s unpredictable. It needs structure.

Plato wants you to rewrite Drupal…Using classes and objects.

WWPD?ClassesStatic wrappers

State, state, state!

Design patterns

Persistence layers

Plato would rebuild Drupalin Symfony

Quo Vadis?

That’s Latin for “Oh crap, what are we gonna do now?”

Medieval LessonThou canst not haveth

Thy cake, and partaketh of it too.

More specifically, Aristotle and Plato arefundamentally different.

Complexity is the arch-nemesisof software.

Ockham's RazorLogical Positivism

The Categorical Imperative

Taxonomy

Model & Simulation TheoryPhysical reductionism

ALL OF PHILOSPHY

Complexity

• Ambiguity: Which tools?• Anti-reductionist: Cannot simplify withoutloss

• Cognitive limitations: Ideal reason is the greatest philosophical myth

The moral of the story is…

We must pick one.

What did you think?Locate this session on theDrupalCon Denver website

http://denver2012.drupal.org/program

Click the “Take the Survey” link.

Thank You!