Computer models demand new precision and allow careful testing of some traditional philosophical theories, e.g., the coherence theory of belief. Philosophers now exchange computer programs for the purpose of critical inquiry just as they exchange papers. For some philosophers computing has become an essential method of doing philosophical work. For example, only by running numerous iterations of prisoner dilemma games or models of artificial life can philosophers discover the outcome of many generations of interactions of various kinds of hypothetical entities. Armchair reflection is essential to philosophy and computing does not replace it, but armchair recursion does not recur very many times and computing is an important adjunct to good philosophical theorizing.
Computers are now critical to the advancement and scrutiny of many philosophical ideas.
We live in new times-a computational age. Computing and Philosophy has matured as a field. Philosophy has taken a computational turn. As the new chair of the Committee on Philosophy and Computers, I look forward to an exciting three years of developments in Computing and Philosophy. We are on the verge of a computational explosion in philosophy-an explosion which, I believe, will eventually affect every philosopher and every area of philosophy to some degree.