This special issue of Mathematical Structures in Computer Science contains several contributions to the Workshop3 corps, classique-quantique, discret-continu.The Workshop was held at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris on 28–29 September 2004 in the framework of the Collectif Histoire Philosophie Sciences. The Workshop was organised by Giuseppe Longo and Thierry Paul with the aim of bringing together mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and philosophers.