Social and Political Sciences

School of Social and Political Sciences

Professor Jack Copeland

Position

Professor of Philosophy
Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing
Honours Co-ordinator
Postgraduate Co-ordinator

Qualifications

B.Phil (Oxford)
D.Phil (Oxford)

Room

Room 620 Locke Building

Contact Details

Phone: +64-3-364 2486
Internal Phone: 6486
Email: jack.copeland@canterbury.ac.nz

Undergraduate courses

Graduate courses

Bio

B. Jack Copeland received his D.Phil. in Philosophy from the University of Oxford (1979) for research on modal and nonclassical logics. He is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he has taught since 1985 and is Chair of the School of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

His publications include The Essential Turing (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004); Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005); Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers (Oxford Univ. Press, 2006); Logic and Reality (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996); and Artificial Intelligence (Blackwell, 1993, 2nd edition forthcoming); and he has published more than 100 articles on the philosophy and history of computing, the philosophy of mind, and philosophical logic. He is currently writing a book on Turing's philosophical and logical work, Turing's Machines, and also a book on the philosophy of religion.

Professor Copeland has held a variety of visiting professorships at institutions internationally, including the University of Sydney (1997, 2002), the University of Aarhus (1999), the University of Melbourne (2002, 2003), and the University of Portsmouth (1997-2005); and during 2000 he was a Senior Fellow in the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Copeland is a member of the Bletchley Park Trust Heritage Advisory Panel and is President of the U.S. based Society for Machines and Mentality.

He is founding editor of The Rutherford Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and serves on the editorial boards of various philosophical journals. In 2000 he received a Marsden award from the Royal Society of New Zealand and in 2003 the Scientific American Sci/Tech Web Award for his on-line archive www.alanauring.net. Professor Copeland was invited to give the Alan Turing memorial address at Bletchley Park on 7 June 2004, the 50th anniversary of Turing's death, and to lecture on Turing's life and work at London's Royal Institution on 8 June 2004.

Please see Jack's UC Spark for a full list of publications and research fields.

Recent Publications

Books

Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Code-Breaking Computers

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, February 2006.

Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine: The Master Codebreaker's Struggle to Build the Modern Computer

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, June 2005.

View some of the book

Order this book through:

The Essential Turing

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, September 2004.

View some of the book

Order this book through:

Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction

Oxford UK and Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, September 1993, reprinted 1994, 1995, 1997 (twice), 1998, 1999, 2001 (xii, 320). Translated into Hebrew (1995), Spanish (1996). Second edition forthcoming.

View some of the book

Order this book through:

Papers on Time and Tense

(Ed. with Braüner, T., Hasle, P. and Ohrstrom, P.) Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003 (ix, 331). A second and much expanded edition of Prior's influential volume.

Order this book through:

Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior

(Ed.) Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996 (iv, 545).

Arthur Prior was the foundation professor of philosophy at University of Canterbury.

View some of the book

Order this book through:

Chapters of Books, Encyclopaedia and Dictionary Entries

  • Prior, A. N.
    In Honderich, T. (ed.) Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2nd edition). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (Invited contribution.)
  • The Computer, Artificial Intelligence, and the Turing Test
    In Teuscher, C. (ed.) Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2004, pp. 317-351. (Invited contribution, jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Turing, Alan
    In Nadel, L., Chalmers, D. et al. (eds) Encyclopaedia of Cognitive Science London: Macmillan, 2003, pp. 427-430. (Invited contribution.)
  • Computation
    In Floridi, L. (ed.) The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 2003, pp. 3-17. (Invited contribution.)
  • The Chinese Room from a Logical Point of View
    In Preston, J., Bishop, M. (eds) Views Into The Chinese Room, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 109-122. An invited chapter in an anthology of invited new material by, among others, John Searle, Sir Roger Penrose, Herbert Simon, Terry Winograd, Stevan Harnad.
  • Intelligent Machinery
    Foreword to Christof Teuscher, Study, Implementation, and Evolution of the Artificial Neural Networks Proposed by Alan M. Turing, London: Springer-Verlag. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • This book arose from my and Proudfoot's 1999 Scientific American article and in consequence Teuscher asked us to write a substantial foreword. (His manuscript has won the Annaheim Foundation Award for excellence in bio-inspired research, the Jean Landry Award for originality in personal scientific research, and the Swiss ABB Scientific Award 2000.)
  • Colossus and the Dawning of the Computer Age
    In Erskine, R., Smith, M. (eds) Action This Day London: Bantam Books, 2001, pp. 342-369. (Invited contribution.)
  • Artificial Intelligence
    Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th edition, 2001.
  • Alan Turing
    Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th edition, 2001.
  • History of Computing
    In Zalta, E. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 2001.
  • On Alan Turing's Anticipation of Connectionism
    Reprinted in R. Chrisley (ed), Artificial Intelligence: Critical Concepts in Cognitive Science, Volume 2: Symbolic AI, London: Routledge, 2000. This four-volume reference work brings together essential texts that define the field of Artificial Intelligence.
  • Computability is Logic-Relative
    In Priest, G., Hyde, D. (eds) Sociative Logics and their Applications, London: Ashgate, 2000, pp. 189-199. (Jointly written with Richard Sylvan.)
  • The Turing-Wilkinson Lecture Series on the Automatic Computing Engine (edited with 8 pages of commentary)
    In Furukawa, K., Michie, D., Muggleton, S. (eds) Machine Intelligence 15, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 381-444.
  • A Lecture and Two Radio Broadcasts on Machine Intelligence by Alan Turing (edited with 14 pages of commentary)
    In Furukawa, K., Michie, D., Muggleton, S. (eds) Machine Intelligence 15, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 445-475.
  • Notes on the History of Possible World Semantics
    In Segerberg, K. (ed.) The Goldblatt Variations, University of Uppsala Press, 1999, pp.1-14.
  • Even Turing Machines Can Compute Uncomputable Functions
    In Calude, C., Casti, J., Dinneen, M. (eds) Unconventional Models of Computation, London: Springer-Verlag, 1998, pp.150-164.
  • Turing, Alan Mathison (1912-1954)
    In Mautner, T. (ed.) Blackwell's Dictionary of Philosophy, London: Penguin 1997.
  • Church's Theorem
    In Mautner, T. (ed.) Blackwell's Dictionary of Philosophy, London: Penguin 1997.
  • Church's Thesis
    In Mautner, T. (ed.) Blackwell's Dictionary of Philosophy, London: Penguin 1997.
  • The Church-Turing Thesis
    In Zalta, E. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1997.
  • Prior, Arthur
    In Zalta, E. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1996.
  • Artificial Intelligence
    In Guttenplan, S. (ed.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1994, pp.122-131.
  • Theories of Meaning
    In Parkinson, G.H.R. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1988 (reprinted 1994), pp.50-75. (Jointly written with R. H. Stoothoff.)

Articles

  • Colossus - Its Origins and Originators
    Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 26 (2004), pp. 38-45.
  • Unfair to Aiken
    Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 26 (2004), pp. 35-7.
  • Hypercomputation: Philosophical Issues
    Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 317 (2004), pp. 251-267. (Invited contribution.)
  • Alan Turing, 1912-1954: Codebreaker and Computer Pioneer
    History Today, vol. 54 (7) (July 2004), p. 7. (Invited contribution, jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • The Conjunction Fallacy
    Logique et Analyse, vol. 181 (2003), pp. 7-12. (Invited contribution to the Max Cresswell Festschrift; jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Hypercomputation
    Minds and Machines, vol. 12 (2002), pp. 461-502.
  • Artificial Life and the Chinese Room Argument
    Artificial Life, vol. 8, no. 4 (2002), pp. 371-378. (Jointly written with David Anderson.)
  • Wittgenstein's Deflationary Account of Reference
    Language and Communication, vol. 22 (2002), pp. 331-351. (Invited contribution, jointly written with Diane Proudfoot. Principal author: Proudfoot.)
  • Accelerating Turing Machines
    Minds and Machines, vol. 12 (2002), pp. 281-301.
  • The Genesis of Possible Worlds Semantics
    Journal of Philosophical Logic, vol. 31 (2002), pp. 99-137.
  • Temporal Parts and their Individuation
    Analysis, vol. 61 (2001), pp. 289-93. (Jointly written with Heather Dyke and Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Indeterminate Identity, Contingent Identity, and Property Identity, Aristotelian-Style
    Philosophical Topics, 28 (2001), pp. 11-23.
  • The Turing Test
    Minds and Machines, vol. 10 (2000), pp. 519-539. Reprinted in Moor, J. (ed.) The Turing Test: The Elusive Standard of Artificial Intelligence, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003.
  • What Turing Did After He Invented the Universal Turing Machine
    Journal of Logic, Language, and Information, vol. 9 (2000), pp. 491-509. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Narrow Versus Wide Mechanism
    Journal of Philosophy, vol. 97 (2000), pp. 1-32. Reprinted in Scheutz, M. (ed.) Computationalism: New Directions, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002.
  • Is Folk Psychology Analytic?
    Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, vol. 40 (1999), pp. 25-29. (Jointly written with Garth Fletcher.)
  • Turing's Tragedy
    Scientific American, vol. 281 (1999), p. 4. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Alan Turing's Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science
    Scientific American, vol. 280 (1999), pp. 99-103. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Un Alan Turing Desconocido
    Edicion Espanola de Scientific American, vol. 273 (1999), pp. 14-19.
  • Beyond the Universal Turing Machine
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 77 (1999), pp. 46-66. (Jointly written with Richard Sylvan)
  • Super Turing-Machines
    Complexity, vol. 4 (1998) pp. 30-32.
  • Turing's O-Machines, Penrose, Searle, and the Brain
    Analysis, vol. 58 (1998), pp.128-138.
  • Fuzzy Logic and Vague Identity
    Journal of Philosophy, vol. XCIV (October 1997) pp.514-534.
  • CYC: A Case Study in Ontological Engineering
    Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy, vol. 5 (1997).
  • The Broad Conception of Computation
    American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 40 (1997) pp.690-716.
  • What is Computation?
    Synthese, vol. 108 (1996) pp.335-359.
  • On Alan Turing's Anticipation of Connectionism
    Synthese, vol. 108 (1996) pp.361-377. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.) Reprinted in R. Chrisley (ed), Artificial Intelligence: Critical Concepts in Cognitive Science, Volume 2: Symbolic AI, London: Routledge, 2000. (This four-volume reference work brings together essential texts that define the field of Artificial Intelligence.)
  • On Vague Objects, Fuzzy Logic and Fractal Boundaries
    Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 33 (1995) pp.83-96.
  • Turing, Wittgenstein and the Science of the Mind
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 72 (1994) pp.497-519. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Vagueness and Bivalence
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. LXVIII (1994) pp.193-200.
  • The Curious Case of the Chinese Gym
    Synthese, vol. 95 (1993) pp.173-86.
  • Appraising Historical Accounts
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 65 (1987) pp.104-112.
  • What is a Semantics for Classical Negation?
    Mind, vol. XCV (1986) pp.478-490.
  • The Future Perfect Tense and Tree Rules for 'Before'
    The Australian Logic Teachers' Journal, vol. 7 (1985) pp.39-47.
  • Substitutional Quantification and Existence
    Analysis, vol. 45 (1985) pp.l-4.
  • Horseshoe, Hook, and Relevance
    Theoria, vol. L (1984) pp.148-164.
  • A Rejoinder to Routley, Routley, Meyer and Martin
    Journal of Non-Classical Logic, vol. 2 (1983) pp.61-66.
  • Pure Semantics and Applied Semantics
    Topoi, vol. 2 (1983) pp.197-204.
  • Tense Trees: a Tree System for Kt
    Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, vol. 24 (1983) pp.318-322.
  • Substitutional Quantification and the Barcan Formula
    Logique et Analyse, vol. 97 (1982) pp.83-86.
  • Connectives, Predicates, and Use/mention Confusions
    The Australian Logic Teachers' Journal, vol. 5 (198l) pp.l6-23.
  • The Trouble Anderson and Belnap have with Relevance
    Philosophical Studies, vol. 37 (1980) pp.325-334.
  • On When a Semantics is not a Semantics
    Journal of Philosophical Logic, vol. 8 (1979) pp.399-413.
  • The System RS
    The Relevance Logic Newsletter, vol. 2, number l (1977) pp.3-26.

Reviews and Abstracts

  • The Legacy of Alan Turing
    Mind, vol. 108 (1999) pp. 187-195. (Review, jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Enigma Variations
    Times Literary Supplement, July 3, 1998, p.6. (Review, jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Prior's Role in the Development of Temporal and Modal Logic
    Bulletin of Symbolic Logic; vol. 1 (1995) p.357. (Abstract.)
  • Heresies of Computability
    Bulletin of Symbolic Logic; vol. 2 (1996) p.119. (Abstract.)
  • Fuzzy Logic and Vague Identity
    Review of Metaphysics, vol. 51, (1998), p.200. (Abstract.)
  • Beyond the Universal Turing Machine
    Review of Metaphysics, forthcoming. (Abstract.)

Conference Proceedings

  • Hypercomputation in the Chinese Room
    In Calude, C.S., Dinneen, M.J., Peper, F. (eds) Unconventional Models of Computation, Berlin and New York: Springer (in the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science), 2002, pp. 15-26. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation, Kansai Advanced Research Center of the Communications Research Laboratory, Kansai, Japan. (Keynote.)
  • A Re-Examination of Turing's Views on the Mind-Machine Issue
    In Schurtz, M. New Trends in Cognitive Science: Proceedings of an International Conference and Workshop, University of Vienna, Austria, 1999, pp. 87-100. (Keynote.)
  • Are Non-Standard Models of Computation a Problem for Functionalism?
    In Goss, S. (ed) Proceedings of the Second Australian Cognitive Science Conference, Melbourne University, 1993, pp.1-3.
  • Searle's Anti-Connectionist Arguments
    In Leong, P. and Jabri, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Fourth Australian Conference on Neural Networks, Sydney University, 1993, pp.1-4.

Journal Issues Edited

  • The Rutherford Journal Vol. 1
    Founder and editor of the New Zealand online journal for the history and philosophy of science and technology.
  • Hypercomputation Vol. 1
    Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002 (ii, 118). A special issue of the journal Minds and Machines (vol. 12, no. 4). (In effect a book.)
  • Hypercomputation. Vol. 2.
    Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003 (ii, 225). A special issue of the journal Minds and Machines (vol. 13, no. 1).

Other

  • The Turing Archive for the History of Computing. (1999-)
    A major on-line archive containing thousands of pages of digital facsimiles of historical documents and including extensive catalogues and commentaries. Continuously expanded (2000-2003). The Archive is mirrored by the University of San Francisco (since 2001).
  • Biography of Turing
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • What is a Turing Machine?
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • The Church-Turing Thesis
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • The Halting Theorem
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • Turing's O-Machines of 1938
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • Some Notional Hypercomputers
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • What is Artificial Intelligence?
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • A Brief History of Computing
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000.
  • Turing's Neural Networks of 1948
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)
  • Introduction to Hypercomputation: Computing the Uncomputable
    The Turing Archive for the History of Computing, 2000. (Jointly written with Diane Proudfoot.)