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Discussion on: Tell us what your top unpopular tech opinion is 😈

 
v6 profile image
🦄N B🛡 • Edited

Actually, according to Willard Quine[1], "a mode of containment φ is referentially transparent if, whenever an occurrence of a singular term t is purely referential in a term or sentence ψ(t), it is purely referential also in the containing term or sentence φ(ψ(t))," as in the following example:

(12) Ralph believes that the man in the brown hat is a spy.
(13) Ralph does not believe that the man seen at the beach is a spy.
The main in the blue hat = the man seen at the beach = Bernie Sanders
t = ‘the man in the blue hat’
ψ(t) = ‘the man in the blue hat is a spy’
ϕ(ψ(t)) = ‘Ralph believes that the man in the blue hat is a spy’.

I need to get more practice drawing lil tridents on whiteboards.

[1]Although ultimately, like many obtuse concepts in CS, we can safely blame Whitehead and Bertram.

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craigmc08 profile image
Craig McIlwrath

Hmm, well I was talking about referential transparency as it relates to functional programming, as opposed to logic, I guess. I hadn't seen that definition before, it's pretty interesting.