This book takes a cross-disciplinary look at the epistemological foundations of software development and use. A variety of thought-provoking contributions brings out the relevant perspectives that can be coordinated to understand design.

Prologue.- 1 Thinking About Computer Science.- 1.1 Human Questions in Computer Science.- 1.2 Learning from our Errors.- 2 Living Computer Science.- 2.1 The Technical and the Human Side of Computer Science.- 2.2 Hermeneutics and Path.- 2.3 Computing: Yet Another Reality Construction.- 2.4 How Many Choices Do We Make? How Many Are Difficult?.- 2.5 From Scientific Practice to Epistemological Discovery.- 3 On Reality Construction.- 3.1 Self-Organization and Software Development.- 3.2 Software Development as Reality Construction.- 3.3 The Idea that Reality is Socially Constructed.- 4 Learning to Know.- 4.1 Scientific Expertise as a Social Process.- 4.2 How to Communicate Proofs or Programs.- 4.3 Making Errors, Making Sense, Making Use.- 4.4 Artifacts in Software Design.- 5 Computer Science and Beyond.- 5.1 The Denial of Error.- 5.2 Towards a New Understanding of Data Modelling.- 5.3 A Reappraisal of Information Science.- 6 Understanding the Computer Through Metaphors.- 6.1 Perspectives and Metaphors for Human-Computer Interaction.- 6.2 Software Tools in a Programming Workshop.- 6.3 Soft Engines - Mass-Produced Software for Working People?.- 6.4 Artificial Intelligence: A Hermeneutic Defense.- 7 Designing for People.- 7.1 Shared Responsibility: A Field of Tension.- 7.2 A Subject-Oriented Approach to Information Systems.- 7.3 Anticipating Reality Construction.- 7.4 On Controllability.- 7.5 Work Design for Human Development.- 8 Epistemological Approaches to Informatics.- 8.1 Truth and Meaning Beyond Formalism.- 8.2 Informatics and Hermeneutics.- 8.3 Language and Software, or: Fritzl's Quest.- 8.4 Activity Theory as a Foundation for Design.- 8.5 Reflections on the Essence of Information.- Epilogue.- List of Authors.