Procedural Epistemology - YowZa

In the foreword to the second edition of the canonical text Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, which was taught to entry level computer science students at MIT for the better part of two decade, authors Harold Abelson, Gerald Sussman and Julie Sussman provide a provocative answer to this question.{1}(Abelson, Sussman and Sussman, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Ed., xxiii)

Underlying our approach to this subject [computer programming] is our conviction that “computer science” is not a science and that its significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think. The essence of this change is the emergence of what might best be called procedural epistemology—the study of the structure of knowledge from an imperative point of view, as opposed to the more declarative point of view taken by classical mathematical subjects. Mathematics provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of “what is.” Computation provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of “how to.”