Aristotle and the Law of Identity


Figure 1:  I drew this pencil sketch of Aristotle.

I consider Aristotle to be the great grandfather of computer Science.  To elaborate upon this is beyond the scope of this blogpost.  However, I consider this to be a huge motivating factor for my learning Greek:  should I ever complete a PhD in Computer Science, then this could make for an excellent subject for a thesis.  I hope to be able to read Aristotle in the original Greek, one day.

I have read the philosophical novel, Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand.  There is an Aristotelian theme running through the book.  Chapters are named after ideas from this philosopher.

The Book is divided into three parts.  Part III is entitled:

A is A

.  This is a reference to the law of identity.  I believe that the law of identity, were it to be expressed in the Greek of Aristotle, would be:


ἄλφα ἔστιν ἄλφα

, or, when transliterated:

álpha éstin álpha

, or, when translated into English:

Alpha is alpha.

or:

A is A.

.  I am working on writing an introduction to Computer-Science concepts and terminology.

The concept of:

identity

comes into play when one looks at Boolean Algebra/Formal Logic, and Functions.

The identity function is expressed as:

f(x) = x






Ancient-Greek letter, Lambda

Figure 2  The Ancient-Greek letter, λάμβδα or 'Lambda,' which is used to signify a binding operator in Lambda Calculus.  I scripted this 'Lambda' in SVG.

.  In Lambda Calculus, which I am beginning to examine, I believe that the identity function can be expressed as:

λa.a

.

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