  Relative to digital computation, analog computation has been neglected in the
philosophical literature. To the extent that attention has been paid to analog
computation, it has been misunderstood. The received view -- that analog
computation has to do essentially with continuity -- is simply wrong, as shown
by careful attention to historical examples of discontinuous, discrete analog
computers. Instead of the received view, I develop an account of analog
computation in terms of a particular type of analog representation that allows
for discontinuity. This account thus characterizes all types of analog
computation, whether continuous or discrete. Furthermore, the structure of this
account can be generalized to other types of computation: analog computation
essentially involves analog representation, whereas digital computation
essentially involves digital representation. Besides being a necessary
component of a complete philosophical understanding of computation in general,
understanding analog computation is important for computational explanation in
contemporary neuroscience and cognitive science.
