:: wikimiki.org ::

Design

Design

Usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other such creative endeavours, "design" is used as both a noun and a verb. "Design" as a verb refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a new object (machine, building, product, etc.). As a noun, "design" is used both for the final plan or proposal (a drawing, model, or other description), or the result of implementing that plan or proposal (the object produced). Designing normally requires considering aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modelling, iterative adjustment, and re-design. Design as a process can take many forms depending on the object being designed and the individual or individuals participating. In philosophy, the abstract noun "design" refers to pattern, or to purpose/purposefulness (or teleology). Design is thus contrasted with purposelessness, randomness, or lack of complexity.

Applied art

Applied arts refers to the application of design and aesthetics to objects of function and everyday use. Whereas fine arts serve as intellectual stimulation to the viewer or academic sensibilities, the applied arts incorporate design and creative ideals to objects of utility, such as a cup, magazine or decorative park bench. The fields of industrial design, graphic design, fashion design Category:Design

Architecture

Architecture (in Greek αρχή = start and τέχνη = craftsmanship) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. A wider definition would include within its scope the design of the total built environment, from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of furniture. furniture, Athens, Greece]] However, the widest definition in modern use refers to the organization, articulation, and interfaces of any built (or To Be Built— TBB) entity, whether a building or a communications' network. That is, an architecture, in its broadest sense, shows how the components of a built or TBB entity fit together. An architecture may be considered a translation between a user's needs and a builder's building instructions, or requirements. The components of an architecture may be already built items, or specified items (items whose building requirements have been completed), or To Be Specified items (items whose building requirements have not yet been been completed, and for which only user or builder needs may be assigned).

Introduction

The skills of the architect are used in complex building types such as the skyscraper, hospital, stadium, airport, etc. to less complicated projects such as commercial and residential buildings and development. Many pieces of architecture can be seen as cultural and political symbols. The role of the architect, though changing, has been central to the successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) design and implementation of the built environment in which we live.

Scope and intentions

According to the very earliest surviving work on the subject, Vitruvius' De architectura, good buildings satisfy three core principles: Firmness, Commodity, and Delight; architecture can be said to be a balance and coordination among these three elements, with none overpowering the others. A modern day definition sees architecture as addressing aesthetic, structural and functional considerations. However, looked at another way, function itself is seen as encompassing all criteria, including aesthetic and psychological ones. Architecture is a multi-disciplinary field, including within its fold mathematics, science, art, technology, social sciences, politics, history, philosophy, and so on. In Vitruvius' words: "Architecture is a science, arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning: by the help of which a judgement is formed of those works which are the result of other arts". He adds that an architect should be well versed in fields such as music, astronomy, etc. Philosophy is a particular favourite; in fact the approach of an architect to their subject is often called their philosophy. Rationalism, empiricism, structuralism, poststructuralism, and phenomenology are some topics from philosophy that have influenced architecture. phenomenology, Italy]] # Translation of firmitatis utilitatis venustatis [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html] due to Henry Wotton, 1624 [http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/LIH/history/vitruvius.htm#ch1-3].

Theory and practice

Architecture and buildings

The difference between architecture and building is a subject matter that has engaged the attention of many. According to Nikolaus Pevsner, European historian of the early 20th century, "A bicycle shed is a building, Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture". In current thinking, the division is not too clear. Bernard Rudofsky's famous Architecture Without Architects consolidated a whole range of structures designed by ordinary people into the realm of architecture. Architecture is also the art of designing the human built environment. Buildings, landscaping, and street designs may be used to impart both functional as well as aesthetic character to a project. Siding and roofing materials and colors may be used to enhance or blend buildings with the environment. Building features such as cornices, gables, entrances, window treatments and borders may be used to soften or enhance portions of a building. Landscaping may be used to create privacy and block direct views from or to a site and enhance buildings with colorful plants and trees. Street side features such as decorative lighting, benches, meandering walkways, and bicycle lanes may enhance a site for passersby, pedestrians, and cyclists.

Architectural history

Architecture first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship, etc.) and means (available building materials and attendant skills). Prehistoric and primitive architecture constitute this early stage. As humans progressed and knowledge began to be formalised through oral traditions and practices, architecture evolved into a craft. Here there is first a process of trial and error, and later improvisation or replication of a successful trial. What is termed Vernacular architecture continues to be produced in many parts of the world. Vernacular architecture, India]] Early human settlements were essentially rural. As surplus of production began to occur, rural societies transformed into urban ones and cities began to evolve. In many ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians' and Mesopotamians' architecture and urbanism reflected the constant engagement with the divine and the supernatural. However, the architecture and urbanism of the Classical civilisations such as the Greek and the Roman evolved from more civic ideas and new building types emerged. Architectural styles developed and texts on architecture began to be written. These became canons to be followed in important works, especially religious architecture. Some examples of canons are the works of Vitruvius, the Kaogongji of ancient China and Vaastu Shastra in ancient India. In Europe in the Classical and Medieval periods, buildings were not attributed to specific individual architects who remained anonymous. Guilds were formed by craftsmen to organise their trade. Over time the complexity of buildings and their types increased. General civil construction such as roads and bridges began to be built. Many new building types such as schools, hospitals, and recreational facilities emerged. Islamic architecture has a long and complex history beginning in the 7th century CE. Examples can be found throughout the countries that are, or were, Islamic - from Morocco and Spain to Iran, and Indonesia. Other examples can be found in areas where Muslims are a minority. Islamic architecture includes mosques, madrasas, caravansarais, palaces, and mausolea of this large region. With the Renaissance and its emphasis on the individual and humanity rather than religion, and with all its attendant progress and achievements, a new chapter began. Buildings were ascribed to specific architects - Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci - and the cult of the individual had begun. But there was no dividing line between artist, architect and engineer, or any of the related vocations. At this stage, it was still possible for an artist to design a bridge as the level of structural calculations involved were within the scope of the generalist. With the consolidation of knowledge in scientific fields such as engineering and the rise of new materials and technology, the architect began to lose ground on the technical aspects of building. He therefore cornered for himself another playing field - that of aesthetics. There was the rise of the "gentleman architect" who usually dealt with wealthy clients and concentrated predominantly on visual qualities derived usually from historical prototypes. In the 19th century Ecole des Beaux Arts in France, the training was toward producing quick sketch schemes involving beautiful drawings without much emphasis on context. France, USA]] Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution laid open the door for mass consumption and aesthetics started becoming a criterion even for the middle class as ornamented products, once within the province of expensive craftmanship, became cheaper under machine production. Industrial Revolution, India]] The dissatisfaction with such a general situation at the turn of the twentieth century gave rise to many new lines of thought that in architecture served as precursors to Modern Architecture. Notable among these is the Deutscher Werkbund, formed in 1907 to produce better quality machine made objects. The rise of the profession of industrial design is usually placed here. Following this lead, the Bauhaus school, founded in Germany in 1919, consciously rejected history and looked at architecture as a synthesis of art, craft, and technology. When Modern architecture first began to be practiced, it was an avant-garde movement with moral, philosophical, and aesthetic underpinnings. Truth was sought by rejecting history and turning to function as the generator of form. Architects became prominent figures and were termed masters. Later modern architecture moved into the realm of mass production due to its simplicity and economy. However, a reduction in quality of modern architecture was perceived by the general public from the 1960s. Some reasons cited for this are its lack of meaning, sterility, ugliness, uniformity, and psychological effects. The architectural profession responded to this partly by attempting a more populist architecture at the visual level, even if at the expense of sacrificing depth for shallowness, a direction called Postmodernism. Robert Venturi's contention that a "decorated shed" (an ordinary building which is functionally designed inside and embellished on the outside) was better than a "duck" (a building in which the whole form and its function are considered together) gives an idea of this approach. Another part of the profession, and also some non-architects, responded by going to what they considered the root of the problem. They felt that architecture was not a personal philosophical or aesthetic pursuit by individualists; rather it had to consider everyday needs of people and use technology to give a livable environment. The Design Methodology Movement involving people such as Chris Jones, Christopher Alexander started searching for more people-orientated designs. Extensive studies on areas such as behavioural, environmental, and social sciences were done and started informing the design process. As many other concerns began to be recognised and complexity of buildings began to increase in terms of aspects such as services, architecture started becoming more multi-disciplinary than ever. Architecture now required a team of professionals in its making, an architect being one among the many, sometimes the leader, sometimes not. This is the state of the profession today. However, individuality is still cherished and sought for in the design of buildings seen as cultural symbols - the museum or fine arts centre has become a showcase for new experiments in style: today Deconstructivism, tomorrow maybe something else.

External links

- [http://www.pygmies.info/camps.html African Pygmies Architecture]
- [http://www.aia.org/ American Institute of Architects]
- [http://www.architectsindex.com/ ArchitectsIndex - Directory of UK Architects along with work examples]
- [http://www.architypes.net/ Architypes - Wiki of architecture design principles and patterns]
- [http://www.architecture.com/ Architecture.com - Courtesy of the Royal Institute of British Architects]
- [http://www.archpedia.com/ Archpedia - architecture encyclopedia]
- [http://www.vernarch.com/ Center for vernacular Architecture-Bangalore-India]
- [http://st-takla.org/Gallery/Gallery-Coptic-Orthodox-Architecture-01.html Christian Coptic Orthodox Architecture] at http://St-Takla.org
- [http://www.cupola.com/bldgstr1.htm Cupola - Building and Structure Photo Galleries]
- [http://www.danda.be/ Danda - News and reviews on architecture]
- [http://www.iab.org.br/ Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil]
- [http://www.islamicarchitecture.org Islamic Architecture]
- [http://www.archinform.net/ Archinform - International Architecture Database]
- [http://architect.architecture.sk Famous architects]
- [http://www.galinsky.com/ Galinsky - People enjoying buildings worldwide]
- [http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/ Global Architecture Encyclopedia - Glass Steel and Stone]
- [http://www.thehopkinscompany.com/glossary/glossary.html Glossary of Architectural Terms]
- [http://www.greatbuildings.com/ Great Buildings Collection]
- [http://www.nyc-architecture.com/ New York architecture images]
- [http://www.riba.org Royal Institute of British Architects]
- [http://www.sah.org/ Society of Architectural Historians]
- [http://www.vitruvio.ch/ Vitruvio]
- [http://worldheritage-forum.net/de/ Worldheritage-Forum: Weblog and Information on UNESCO World Heritage topics] Category:Applied sciences Category:Arts ko:건축 ms:Seni bina ja:建築学 simple:Architecture th:สถาปัตยกรรมศาสตร์

Creativity

Creativity is a human mental phenomenon based around the deployment of mental skills and/or conceptual tools, which, in turn, originate and develop innovation, inspiration, or insight.

Scope

For some people, the word creativity conjures up associations strictly with artistic endeavours and with the writing of literature. Some other have also linked creativity with moments of sudden scientific or engineering insight since at least the time of Archimedes in Ancient Greece. Pop psychology sometimes associates it with right or forehead brain activity or even specifically with lateral thinking. Within the different modes of artistic expression, one can postulate a continuum extending from "interpretation" to "innovation". Established artistic movements and genres pull practitioners to the "interpretation" end of the scale, whereas original thinkers strive towards the "innovation" pole. Note that we conventionally expect some "creative" people (dancers, actors, orchestra-players ...) to perform (interpret) while allowing others (writers, painters, composers ...) more freedom to express the new and the different. Since the time of Graham Wallas and his work Art of Thought, published in 1926, some have considered creativity a legacy of the evolutionary process, which allowed humans to quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments. Today, creativity forms in some eyes the core activity of a growing section of the global economy — the so-called "creative industries" — capitalistically generating (generally non-tangible) wealth through the creation and exploitation of intellectual property or through the provision of creative services. The word "creativity" can convey an implication of constructing novelty without relying on any existing constituent components (ex nihilo - compare creationism). Contrast alternative theories, for example:
- artistic inspiration, which provides the transmission of visions from divine sources such as the Muses; a taste of the Divine. Compare with invention.
- artistic evolution, which stresses obeying established ("classical") rules and imitating or appropriating to produce subtly different but unshockingly understandable work. Compare with crafts.

Dimensions of creativity

Creativity can be assessed on several dimensions:
- Intellectual leadership. Creative thinkers are able to create new and promising theories or exciting trends which inspire others to follow up; in essence starting a movement, school of thought or trend.
- Sensitivity to problems. Being able to identify problems that challenge others and open up a new field of thought is a mark of creative thinking.
- Originality. Creative thinkers are able to find ideas or solutions that no one else has been able to come up with. Patents are (supposedly) given out only to original ideas.
- Ingenuity. Ingenious solutions are able to solve problems in a neat and surprising way or which also reflect a new perspective at looking at the problem.
- Unusualness. Creative thinkers are able to see the remote associations between ideas. When word association tests are given, people in highly creative literary fields like poets give a higher proportion of unique responses.
- Usefulness. Solutions or ideas that are also practical are also considered more creative as the creator is able to meet the constraints of the problem while at the same time producing unusual and original solutions.
- Appropriateness. Non sequitur ideas can be highly original and unusual, but are not as creative as ideas which are also appropriate to the situation. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy is within the genre of fantasy writing, but has also shown itself to be both convincing and imaginative.

Types of creativity and creatives

In The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler (1964 and various imprints) lists three types of creative individual — the Artist, the Sage and the Jester. Paul Birch and Brian Clegg (Crash Course in Creativity, 2002) have called the three types of creativity that result "aaahhh", "ah ha", and "ha ha". The Artist creates beauty or challenge (aaahhh). The Sage creates ideas or solutions (ah ha) and the Jester creates humour (ha ha). Believers in this trinity hold all three elements necessary in business and can identify them in all in "truly creative" companies as well. One can also categorise creativity by where and how it arises.

Measuring creativity

The ultimate test of a creativity is history. Highly creative works will survive the passage of time to remain in our memories: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion, Shakespeare's plays. Genrich Altshuller introduced approaching creativity as an exact science with TRIZ in the 1950s. The psychologist Robert Sternberg has proposed to apply the name creatology to scientific studies of creativity. Creativity can be measured based on a response to a variety of test scenarios:
- Expressing ideas: the ability to easily develop and juggle an abundance of associations and phrases when presented with a single word or image.
- Combining ideas in a new way: developing a wide range of innovative solutions when asked to explore new possibilities for an everyday item (such as a brick).
- Finding new uses for existing ideas: generating an original idea or solution based on a suggested existing idea
- Expansion: the ability to work up a tentative idea into a practical solution.
- Focus and discrimination: recognizing the central challenge within an approach to a solution, while discounting any distracting minor elements, and then evaluating the difficulties.
- Perspective swapping: the ability to suggest ways of viewing a known problem from a completely different perspective. J. P. Guilford's group constructed several tests to measure creativity:
- Plot Titles where participants are given the plot of a story and asked to write original titles.
- Quick Responses is a word association test scored for uncommonness.
- Figure Concepts where participants were given simple drawings of objects and individuals and asked to find qualities or features that are common by two or more drawings; these were scored for uncommonness.
- Unusual Uses is finding unusual uses for common everyday objects such as bricks.
- Remote Associations where participants are asked to find a word between two given words (e.g. Hand _____ Call)
- Remote Consequences where participants are asked to generate a list of consequences of unexpected events (e.g. loss of gravity)

Social attitudes to creativity

'Creatitivity' is much praised in principle, but much derided in practice. Those in logical and ordered organisations may praise it but be reluctant to set a creative individual 'loose' in their ordered system. Business is increasingly claiming that professional "creatives" do not have a monopoly on the concept of creativity, and that problem solving in general may require a flexible mind. Employers may value lawyers, accountants, people in sales, and others more highly if such people can use a "creative" approach to their work, albeit within the confines of a logical and constraining system. The phrases "thinking outside the box" and "thinking outside the square" express this idea. Ambivalence to creativity in the West may perhaps be due to the culture's image of creativity; the ingesting of drugs to generate visions; the celebration of eccentric behaviour; the possible cross-over between creativity and mental illness; the often bohemian sexual tastes of artists; the cultural association of artists with a life of poverty and misery.

Fostering creativity

Some see the conventional system of schooling as "stifling" of creativity and attempt (particularly in the pre-school/kindergarten and early school years) to provide a creativity-friendly, rich, imagination-fostering environment for young children. Compare Waldorf School. A growing number of pop psychologists are making money off the idea that one can learn to become more "creative". Several different researchers have proposed several different approaches to prop up this idea, ranging from psychological-cognitive, such as:
- Synectics
- Purdue Creative Thinking Program
- lateral thinking (courtesy of Edward de Bono) to the highly structured such as:
- TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
- ARIZ, the Algorithm of Inventive Problem-Solving both developed by the Russian scientist Genrich Altshuller. See also: creativity techniques. A study by the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton found that creativity correlated with intelligence and psychoticism (Rushton, 1990).

Periods and Personalities

; 4th century of the Christian Era
- Pappus of Alexandria introduced the term "heuristics" ;1470s
- Leonardo da Vinci ; Early 20th century
- Fritz Zwicky - Morphological Analysis
- Pablo Picasso painter
- Marcel Duchamp artist ;1940s
- Lawrence Delos Miles
- George Polya ;1950s
- Alex Osborn
- Sid Parnes ;1950s
- Genrikh Altshuller - TRIZ, ARIZ ;1960s
- Carl Jung classified creativity as one of the five main instinctive forces in humans (Jung 1964)
- Edward Matchett - Fundamental design method (1968)
- Carl Rogers's essay "Towards a Theory of Creativity" (1961):
- Wiliam Gordon - Synectics
- Edward de Bono - Lateral thinking ;1970s
- Albert Rothenberg coined the term 'Janusian thinking'
- Yoji Akao - Quality function deployment
- Total creativity - the ultimate goal in the philosophy of John David Garcia ;1980s
- Paul Palnik- Creative Consciousness The healthiest state of mind. [1981]
- Robert Sternberg proposed the name "creatology"

References

External links

- [http://www.thebridge.org.uk/ Explore, Express and Discuss "Inherent Creative Ability"]
- [http://www.ahapuzzles.com/ Aha! Puzzles - Original creative puzzles by Lloyd King]
- [http://www.mycoted.com/creativity/techniques/index.php Creativity Techniques ]
- [http://www.crinnology.com/ A wiki for Creativity Techniques ]
- [http://www.creax.net CREAX - a collection of creativity-oriented links]
- [http://www.best100ideas.com Creative ideas for business and personal uses]
- [http://www.worshipinfo.com/materials/creativity.htm Creativity in the Bible]
- [http://frontpage.et.byu.edu/mfg201/Lecturenotes/lecture2.htm Creativity - Lecture notes from a university course]
- [http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.com/index.shtml The Creative Education Foundation], which characterises itself as a non-profit organization of leaders in the field of creativity theory and practice.
- [http://www.helpguide.org/aging/creative_play_fun_games.htm Playing Together for Fun: Creative Play and Lifelong Games]
- [http://www.m1creativity.com/map2003/maphome2.htm Mental Athletics Programme] - An interactive, practical and fun way to explore business creativity
- [http://www.m1creativity.com/tube/tube.htm Creativity & Innovation Tube line] - a novel visual representation of the creativity & innovation process
- [http://www.globaldharma.org Global Dharma Center] - Website of a non-profit organisation working on the field of Creativity, Business and Spiritual Values. Provides free downloads in the form of research publications, training modules, articles etc on the above mentioned themes. Essays:
- [http://members.aol.com/mindwebart3/marcel.htm The Creative Act by Marcel Duchamp. (1957)] Category:Creativity simple:Creativity

Verb

A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action ("bring", "read"), occurrence ("decompose", "glitter"), or a state of being ("exist", "stand"). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. It may also agree with the person, gender, and/or number of some of its arguments (subject, object, etc.).

Valency

The number of arguments that a verb takes is called its valency, or valence. According to valency, a verb can be classified as one of:
- Intransitive (valency = 1): the verb only has a subject. For example: "he runs", "it falls".
- Transitive (valency = 2): the verb has a subject and a direct object. For example: "she eats fish", "we hunt rabbits".
- Ditransitive (valency = 3): the verb has a subject, a direct object and an indirect or secondary object. For example: "I gave her a book", "She sent flowers to me". It's possible to have verbs with valency = 0. A few of these appear in Spanish, Portuguese and other null subject languages and may be termed "impersonal verbs". For example: Llueve = "It rains". A similar type of verb, the weather verb, exists in English, but its non-pro-drop nature requires that a dummy pronoun be used. English verbs are often flexible with regards to valency. A transitive verb can often drop its object and become intransitive; or an intransitive verb can be added an object and become transitive. Compare:
- I gave. (intransitive)
- I gave flowers. (transitive)
- I gave flowers to John. (ditransitive) In the first example, the verb give describes the idea of giving, in the abstract; in the second, what was given is specified; in the third, both the gift and the recipient are set forth. In many languages other than English, such valency changes aren't possible like this; the verb must instead be inflected for voice in order to change the valency.

Copula

A copula is a word that is used to describe its subject, or to equate or liken the subject with its predicate. In many languages, copulas are a special kind of verb, sometimes called copulative verbs or linking verbs. Because copulas do not describe actions being performed, they are usually analysed outside the transitive/intransitive distinction. The most basic copula in English is to be; there are others (remain, seem, grow, become, etc.). Some languages (the Semitic family, Russian, Chinese, Sanskrit, and others) can omit the simple copula equivalent of "to be", especially in the present tense. In these languages a noun and adjective pair (or two nouns) can constitute a complete sentence. This construction is called zero copula.

Verbal noun and verbal adjective

Most languages have a number of verbal nouns that describe the action of the verb. In Indo-European languages, there are several kinds of verbal nouns, including gerunds, infinitives, and supines. English has gerunds, such as seeing, and infinitives such as to see; they both can function as nouns; seeing is believing is roughly equivalent in meaning with to see is to believe. These terms are sometimes applied to verbal nouns of non-Indo-European languages. In the Indo-European languages, verbal adjectives are generally called participles. English has an active participle, also called a present participle; and a passive participle, also called a past participle. The active participle of give is giving, and the passive participle is given. The active participle describes nouns that are wont to do the action given in the verb, e.g. a giving person. The passive participle describes nouns that have been the subject of the action of the verb, e.g. given money. Other languages apply tense and aspect to participles, and possess a larger number of them with more distinct shades of meaning.

Agreement

In languages where the verb is inflected, it often agrees with its primary argument (what we tend to call the subject) in person, number and/or gender. English only shows distinctive agreement in the third person singular, present tense form of verbs (which is marked by adding "-s"); the rest of the persons are not distinguished in the verb. Spanish inflects verbs for tense/mood/aspect and they agree in person and number (but not gender) with the subject. Japanese, in turn, inflects verbs for many more categories, but shows absolutely no agreement with the subject. Basque, Georgian, and some other languages, have polypersonal agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, the direct object and even the secondary object if present.

External link

- [http://www.verba.org Universal Conjugator] Category:Parts of speech ja:動詞 simple:Verb

Aesthetic

Aesthetics (also esthetics and æsthetics) is the philosophy of beauty and art. Any person's aesthetic response to a work of art will be unique to that individual, but many aesthetic principles can be identified and used by the creator of the work to achieve specific aesthetic effects.

Aesthetics in History and Philosophy

Thinkers and sages have pondered beauty and art all over the world for millennia, but the subject was formally distinguished as an independent philosophical discipline in the 18th Century by German philosophers. Before this period authors viewed the study as inseparable from other main topics, such as ethics in the Western tradition and religion in the Eastern. The word in English was not widely used until the beginning of the 19th Century. Its use comes from the German ästhetisch or French esthétique, (both from the Greek αισθητική meaning a perceiver or sensitive) and mainly facilitated translations of Immanuel Kant. It meant "the science which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception". Elsewhere the philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten had taken it in German to mean "criticism of taste". Despite Kant's efforts to correct Baumgarten, this definition survived and Baumgarten is credited with inventing the modern use of the term. Thus, aesthetics is also an important part of critical theory.[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=aesthetic] The meaning of aesthetic as an adjective may be illuminated by comparing it to anaesthetic, which is by construction an antonym. If something is anaesthetic, it tends to dull the senses or cause sleepiness. In contrast aesthetic may be thought of as anything that tends to stimulate or enliven the senses. It is also a popularly used noun meaning "that which appeals to the senses". In this sense, for example, the aesthetics of mathematics would refer to those things in mathematics which appeal to the senses, and not necessarily a body of philosophical principles on the subject.

Aesthetics in specific arts

Visual arts

Within the visual arts aesthetic considerations are usually associated with the visual sense, however in both painting and sculpture the presence of the object is also perceived spatially and to some extent by the senses of smell, sound and texture as well as through recognised associations and context. The form of the work can be subject to an aesthetic as much as the content. With painting the aesthetic convention that we see a three dimensional representation rather than a two dimensional plane is so well understood that most people do not realise that they are making an aesthetic interpretation. This was the basis of abstract impressionism. Some aesthetic effects available in visual arts include tonal variation, juxtaposition, repetition, field effects, symmetry/asymmetry, perceived mass, subliminal structure, linear dynamics, tension and repose, pattern, contrast, perspective, 3 dimensionality, movement, rhythm, unity/Gestalt, matrixiality and proportion.

Music

:Main article: Aesthetics of music. Music can affect our emotions, our intellect, our body and our psychology; lyrics can assuage our loneliness or incite our passions. As such, music is a powerful art form with an aesthetic appeal that is highly dependent upon the culture in which it is practiced. Some of the aesthetic elements expressed in music include lyricism, harmony, hypnotism, emotiveness, temporal dynamics, resonance, playfulness, and colour (see Musical development). Good practice of aesthetic principles of music can manifest themselves in use of subtlety, depth, dynamics and mood. Aesthetics in music are highly sensitive to their context: what sounds good in modern American rock would sound terrible in the context of the early baroque age.

Performing Arts

Performing artists appeals to our aesthetics of storytelling, grace, balance, class, timing, strength, shock, humor, costume, irony, beauty, and sensuality.

Literature

Encompassing poetry, short stories, novels and non-fiction, authors use a variety of techniques to appeal to our aesthetic values. Depending on the type of writing an author may employ rhythm, illustrations, structure, time shifting, juxtaposition, dualism, imagery, fantasy, suspense, analysis, humor/cynicism, and thinking aloud. In literary aesthetics, the study of affect creates an awareness of the deep structures of reading and receiving literary works. Affect refers to the emotional sense created in the reader or receiver of a literary work. These affects may be broadly grouped by their mode of writing, and relationship the reader assumes with time. Catharsis is the affect of dramatic completion of action in time. Kairosis is the affect of novels whose characters become integrated in time. Kenosis is the affect of lyric poetry which creates a sense of emptiness and timelessness.

Film

The art of the movie uses a myriad of techniques such as lighting, cinematography, story-telling and acting, as well as many others to engage the audience's aesthetic senses with portrayals of action, characters, and settings.

Architecture

Applying aesthetic considerations to buildings and related architectural structures is complex, as factors extrinsic to spatial design (such as structural integrity, cost, the nature of building materials, and the functional utility of the building) contribute heavily to the design process. Notwithstanding, architects can still apply the aesthetic principles of ornamentation, edge deliniation, texture, flow, solemnity, symmetry, color, granularity, the interaction of sunlight and shadows, transcendence, and harmony.

Landscape Design

Landscape designers employ design elements such as axis, line, landform, horizontal and vertical planes, texture, and scale to create aesthetic variation within the landscape. They may additionally utilize pools or fountains of water, plants, seasonal variance, stonework, fragrance, exterior lighting, statues, and lawns as aesthetic elements.

Gastronomy

Although food is a basic and frequently experienced commodity, careful attention to the aesthetic possibilities of foodstuffs can turn eating into gastronomy. Chefs inspire our aesthetic enjoyment through the visual sense using colour and arrangement, as well as our senses of taste and smell using spices, diversity/contrast, anticipation, seduction, and decoration/garnishes.

Information Technology

The push to make all aspects of information technology as user-friendly as possible has led to a number of advances during the study of human-computer interaction. The design of the graphical user interface has been shown to have a great effect on productivity and the design of the computer hardware has seen unappealing boxes develop into common devices that no longer seem out of place in a living room. Software itself has aesthetic dimensions ("software aesthetics"), as do information-technology-mediated processes and experiences such as computer and video games.

Mathematics

:Main article: Mathematical Beauty. Most mathematicians derive aesthetic pleasure from their work, and from mathematics in general. They express this pleasure by describing mathematics (or, at least, some aspect of mathematics) as elegant. Sometimes mathematicians describe the creative activity of mathematics as an art form. Comparisons are often made with music and poetry. Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős expressed his views on the ineffability of mathematics when he said "Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is."

Neuroesthetics

Cognitive science has also considered aesthetics, with the advent of neuroesthetics, pioneered by Semir Zeki, which seeks to explain the greatness of great art as an embodiment of biological principles of the brain, namely that great works of art capture the essence of things just as vision and the brain capture the essentials of the world from the ever-changing stream of sensory input.

External links

- Art education
- [http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/contents.html Saw: Design Notes]
- [http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/whitehorse/art.htm Krouth: Art Curriculum]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9219/art.htm Hagaman: Aesthetics in Art Education: A Look Toward Implementation]
- Aesthetics in specific arts
- Music
- [http://www.wwnorton.com/enjoy/index/materials/materials.htm Norton: Musical Materials]
- [http://www.uwgb.edu/malloyk/music_outline.htm Malloy: Music Outline]
- Architecture
- [http://www.catholic.net/beauty_and_truth/template_article.phtml?article_id=400&channel_id=4 Lee/Stroik: Christian Architecture]
- [http://www.math.utsa.edu/sphere/salingar/LifeandComp.html Salingaros: Life and Complexity in Architecture]
- Performing Arts
- [http://www.artsalive.ca/en/eth/design/costume.html Poddubiuk: Costume Design]
- [http://www.costumepage.org/tcpinfo4.html#drama Sardo: Theatrical Costume]
- [http://www.nt-online.org/?lid=2393 Morden: Storytelling]
- Culinary aesthetics
- [http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1998/0698CS.html Susheela Uhl: Ethnic Entrees]
- [http://www.chronogram.com/backIssues/1998/07july/articles/english.html Leslie English: To Eat is Human]
- Information Technology
- [http://softwareaesthetics.com/ Software Aesthetics]
- [http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~fishwick/aescomputing/ Aesthetic Computing]
- [http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html Hackers and Painters]
- [http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05164.55410 The Pleasure of the Playable Text: Towards an Aesthetic Theory of Computer Games] (.pdf)
- Mathematics
- [http://www.cut-the-knot.org/manifesto/beauty.shtml Is Mathematics Beautiful?]
- [http://www.madras.fife.sch.uk/maths/linksbeauty.html Links Concerning Beauty and Mathematics]
- History of Aesthetics
- [http://www.kunstbewegung.info/kultur/de/Revised_interpretation_of_founding%27s_and_concepts_through_an_history_of_aesthetics Revised interpretation of founding's and concepts through an history of aesthetics] Category:Social philosophy
- Category:Design Category:Branches of philosophy ja:美学

Research

: For the suburb of Melbourne, Australia, see Research, Victoria. Research is an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry in order to discover, interpret and/or revise facts. This intellectual investigation should produce a greater understanding of events, behaviors, or theories, or to make practical applications with the help of such facts, laws, or theories. The term research is also used to describe a collection of information about a particular subject. The word research derives from the Middle French (see French language) and the literal meaning is "to investigate thoroughly".

Basic and applied research

Research is best described as a "sack-sandwiching" process; it is the foundation of the scientific method. Generally, one can distinguish between basic research and applied research.

Basic research

Basic research (also called fundamental or pure research) has as its primary objective the advancement of knowledge and the theoretical understanding of the relations among variables (see statistics). It is exploratory and often driven by the researcher’s curiosity, interest or hunch. It is conducted without a practical end in mind although it can have unexpected results that point to practical applications. The terms “basic” or “fundamental” research indicate that, through theory generation, basic research provides the foundation for further, often applied research. Because there is no guarantee of short-term practical gain, researchers often find it difficult to obtain funding for basic research. Basic research asks questions such as:
- Does string theory provide physics with a grand unification theory?
- Which aspects of genomes explain organismal complexity?
- How can computational methods be efficiently applied to larger and larger molecular systems?

Applied research

Applied research is done to solve specific, practical questions; its primary aim is not to gain knowledge for its own sake. It can be exploratory but often it is descriptive. It is almost always done on the basis of basic research. Often the research is carried out by academic or industrial institutions. More often an academic instituion such as a university will have a specific applied research programme funded by an industrial partner. Common areas of applied research include electronics, informatics, computer science, process engineering and applied science. Applied research asks questions such as:
- How can Canada's wheat crops be protected from grasshoppers?
- What is the most efficient and effective vaccine against influenza?
- How can communication among workers in large companies be improved?
- How can the Great Lakes be protected against the effects of greenhouse gas? There are many instances when the distinction between basic and applied research is not clear. It is not unusual for researchers to present their project in such a light as to "slot" it into either applied or basic research, depending on the requirements of the funding sources. The question of genetic codes is a good example. Unraveling it for the sake of knowledge alone would be basic research – but what, for example, if knowledge of it also has the benefit of making it possible to alter the code so as to make a plant commercially viable? Some say that the difference between basic and applied research lies in the time span between research and reasonably foreseeable practical applications. Thomas Kuhn, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, traces an interesting history and analysis of the enterprise of research.

Research methods

The scope of the research process is to produce some new knowledge. This, in principle, can take three main forms:
- Exploratory research: a new problem can be structured and identified.
- Constructive research: a (new) solution to a problem can be developed.
- Empirical research: empirical evidence on the feasibility of an existing solution to a problem can be provided. Research methods used by scholars:
- action research
- experiments
- case study
- participant observation
- experience and intuition
- interviews
- surveys
- statistical data analysis
- mathematical models and simulations
- textual analysis
- classification
- map making
- semiotics
- physical traces analysis

Research process

Generally, research is understood to follow a certain structural process. Though step order may vary depending on the subject matter and researcher, the following steps are usually part of most formal research, both basic and applied:
- Formation of the topic
- hypothesis
- conceptual definitions
- operational definitions
- Gathering of data
- Analysis of data
- Conclusion, revising of hypothesis A common misunderstanding is that by this method a hypothesis can be proven. Instead, by these methods no hypothesis can be proven, rather a hypothesis may only be disproven. A hypothesis can survive several rounds of scientific testing and be widely thought of as true (or better, predictive), but this is not the same as it having been proven. It would be better to say that the hypothesis has yet to be disproven. A useful hypothesis allows prediction and within the accuracy of observation of the time, the prediction will be verified. As the accuracy of observation improves with time, the hypothesis may no longer provide an accurate prediction. In this case a new hypothesis will arise to challenge the old and to the extent that the new hypothesis makes more accurate predictions than the old, will supplant it.

Maxim

It is sometimes said that "Copying from one source is plagiarism, copying from several sources is research".

Research funding

Main article: Research funding Most funding for scientific research comes from two major sources, corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily through universities and in some cases through military contractors). Many senior researchers (such as group leaders) spend more than a trivial amount of their time applying for grants for research funds. These grants are necessary not only for researchers to carry out their research but as a source of merit. Some faculty positions require that the holder has received grants from certain institutions, such as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Government-sponsored grants (e.g. from the NIH, the National Health Service in Britain or any of the European research councils) generally have a high status.

External links

- [http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,1485743,00.html "Britain a leader in making research available on web"] (Richard Wray, The Guardian, May 17, 2005)
- [http://www.phdcentral.com PhD Central - Open Source Network to Suggest or Find a Thesis Topic] ja:研究

Thought

Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. Concepts in our language, which are akin to thought are cognition, sentience, consciousness, idea, and imagination. As of yet, the english language has not coined more specific words for the exact experiences and endeavors people do in their minds on a daily basis. Thinking involves manipulation of information, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason and make decisions. Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive psychology. The basic mechanics of the human mind reflect a process of pattern matching. In a Moment of Reflection, new situations and new experiences are judged against recalled ones and judgements are made. In order to make these judgements the intellect maintains present experience and sorts relevant past experience. It does this while keeping present and past experience distinct and seperate. Animals can't do that, so they can't make those judgements. They depend on instincts. The intellect can mix, match, merge, sift and sort concepts, perceptions and experience. This process is called reasoning. Logic is the science of reasoning. The awareness of this process of reasoning is access consciousness ( see philosopher Ned Block). The imagination performs a different function. It combines the reasoning intellect with your feelings, intuitions and emotions. This is magical or irrational thinking, depending on your point of view. Thinking can be modelled by a field ( like a mathematical representation of an electro-magnetic field, but with each point in the field a point of consciousness) . Paterns are formed and judgements are made within the field. Some philosophers ( panpsychists/ panexperientialists- see wikibook on consciousness) believe the entire field is conscious in and of itself, a consciousness field. They say consciousness creates thinking, thinking and other brain processes do not create consciousness. Other scientist (for ex. Bernard Baars ) think of it as a workspace. No scientist claims to understand how we are conscious. Other philosophers ( ex. Thomas Nagel) have said they do not have a clue as to how we are aware of our thinking.

Aids/pitfalls to thinking

#Use of models, symbols, diagrams and pictures #Use of abstraction to simplify the effort of thinking #Use of metasyntactic variables to simplify the effort of naming #Use of iteration and recursion to converge on a concept #Limitation of attention to aid concentration and focus on a concept. Use of peace and quiet to aid concentration. #Goal setting and goal revision. Simply letting the concept percolate in the subconscious, and waiting for the concept to re-surface. #Talking with like-minded people. Resorting to communication with others, if this is allowed. #Working backward from the goal. #Fashion of thinking. #Desire for learning.

Reference

- Eric Baum, What is Thought MIT Press 2004 ISBN 0-262-02548-5 - Chapter Two: The Mind is a Computer Program Category:Cognition ja:思考

Process

Process (lat. processus - movement) is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of operations or events, possibly taking up time, space, expertise or other resource, which produces some outcome. A process may be identified by the changes it creates in the properties of one or more objects under its influence. Compare: project. See also: process management, process theory, and :Category:Nature.

Examples

A process may be categorized as singular, recurrent, or periodic. A singular process would be one which occurs only once. Few processes in nature can be considered singular. Most processes found in nature are recurrent, or repeat more than once. Recurring processes which repeat at a constant rate are considered periodic. The more periodic a process is the more useful it is as the basis of a clock. Below are a few specific examples of processes.
- The Bessemer process is a way of producing steel.
- The process of mining extracts ore.
- Evolution is a natural process which explains the adaptation of species over long peroids of time. (generally assumed to be an example of a recurrent process)
- The creation of the universe by God would be an example of a divine process. (generally assumed to be a singular process)
- Process music
- Civic governance and conflict resolution
- Error correction in the information processing of a stream of data.
- Protein biosynthesis

Art

See process music and Sol Lewitt.

Business

Businesses organize interactions by means of business processes.

Computing

Computing has many concepts of process.

Program execution

In computing, a computer process is a running instance of a program, including all variables and other states. A multitasking operating system switches between processes to give the appearance of simultaneous execution, though in fact, in general, only one process can be executing per CPU core. Some new processors, such as Intel's Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading capability, can actually execute two proceses at a time, because some parts of the core are doubled. More companies announced development of multicore processors.

Software development

A software development process is a sequence of steps that practitioners and managers take to create software. The steps usually include requirements analysis, programming, testing, and other steps. Different processes mix the steps together in different ways, and assign responsibility to people in different ways. The CMM is a meta-process that defines rigid goals up front, and emphasizes scientific management. Some dislike its emphasis on paperwork. Agile processes take the opposite approach, making things flexible. In SSADM a process is a part of a data flow diagram, and represents an action performed on the data.

Information system development

In the context of Information System Development a process is performed to produce a product. Such processes are also called techniques. Products represent what shall be constructed, e.g. class diagrams, state charts, and so on. Processes (techniques) are the procedures which describe in what order the construction of the products shall be performed, e.g. “at first, identify classes and objects” to construct a class diagram, “identify states”, and so on. In [Rolland1993] the term process is defined as “a related set of activities conducted to the specific purpose of product definition”. Both together, the set of products and their corresponding processes/techniques form a Method [Saeki] [Rolland1998]. Processes of the same nature are classified together into a Process Model.

References

[Rolland1993]	C. Rolland. Modeling the Requirements Engineering Process, 3rd European-Japanese Seminar on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases, Budapest, Hungary, June 1993.
[Rolland1998]	C. Rolland. A Comprehensive View of Process Engineering. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference CAiSE'98, B. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1413, Pernici, C. Thanos (Eds), Springer. Pisa, Italy, June 1998
[Saeki]	M. Saeki. CAME: The First Step to Automated Method Engineering

Engineering

Chemical engineering

A chemical process is a series of unit operations used to produce a material in large quantities. In the chemical industry, chemical engineers will use the following to define or illustrate a process:
- Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
- Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)
- Simplified Process Description
- Detailed Process Description

Philosophy

In philosophy and systems theory, basic processes, or logical homologies as they were termed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, are unifying principles which operate in many different systemic contexts. For example, feedback is a principle that figures prominently in the science of cybernetics. Natural and industrial processes utilize basic processes such as feedback. There is a philosophical system known as process philosophy, created by Alfred North Whitehead; related to this is process theology.

References

- Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory, George Braziller, New York, 1968, pages 84,85 ISBN 0807604534

External links

- [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PROCESS.html Article defining process in Principia Cybernetica Web]

Processes in Science

Any method (or event) that results in a transformation in a physical or biological object, a substance or an organism, is a process in science. Some example of such processes are: activation, combustion, crystallization, centrifugation, diffraction, dispersion, distillation, electrolysis, electrophoresis, emulsification, evaporation, hydrolysis, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, oxidation, phosphorescence, pyrolysis, reduction, reflection, refraction, scattering, sedimentation, sublimation are examples of common processes in physical sciences. Similarly, birth, cell division, fermentation, fertilization, germination, growth, geotropism, heliotropism, hybridization, metamorphosis, photosynthesis, transpiration are a few examples of biological processess.

Teleology

Teleology is the supposition that there is design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the works and processes of nature, and the philosophical study of that purpose. Teleology stands in contrast to philosophical naturalism, and both ask questions separate from the questions of science. While science investigates natural laws and phenomena, Philosophical naturalism and teleology investigate the existence or non-existence of an organizing principle behind those natural laws and phenonema. Philosophical naturalism asserts that there are no such principles. Teleology asserts that there are. For example, the view of philosophical naturalism is that man sees because he has eyes. Teleology, on the other hand, holds both that man sees because he has eyes and has eyes so that he can see. As Aristotle wrote in support of teleology, "Nature adapts the organ to the function, and not the function to the organ" (De partib., animal., IV, xii, 694b; 13). Lucretius replied in support of philosophical naturalism: "Nothing in the body is made in order that we may use it. What happens to exist is the cause of its use." (De nat. rerum, IV, 833; cf. 822-56)

Classical Greek teleology

Plato summarized the argument for teleology as follows in Phaedo, arguing that it is error to fail to distinguish between the ultimate Cause, and the mere means by which the ultimate Cause acts: :"Imagine not being able to distinguish the real cause from that without which the cause would not be able to act as a cause. It is what the majority appear to do, like people groping in the dark; they call it a cause, thus giving it a name that does not belong to it. That is why one man surrounds the earth with a vortex to make the heavens keep it in place, another makes the air support it like a wide lid. As for their capacity of being in the best place they could possibly be put, this they do not look for, nor do they believe it to have any divine force, but they believe that they will some time discover a stronger and more immortal Atlas to hold everything together more, and they do not believe that the truly good and "binding" binds and holds them together. (Plato, Phaedo 99bc) Thus, it is argued, those who attempt to explain nature in terms of nature alone are forced to deny the ultimate binding Good in the universe, and hope that they will someday discover a "stronger and more immortal Atlas" to hold their universe together. Similarly, Aristotle argued that it is error to attempt to reduce all things to mere necessity, because such thinking neglects the purpose, order, and final cause that causes the apparent necessity. He wrote: :"Democritus, however, neglecting the final cause, reduces to necessity all the operations of nature. Now they are necessary, it is true, but yet they are for a final cause and for the sake of what is best in each case. Thus nothing prevents the teeth from being formed and being shed in this way; but it is not on account of these causes but on account of the end; these are causes in the sense of being the moving and efficient instruments and the material. …to say that necessity is the cause is much as if we should think that the water has been drawn off from a dropsical patient on account of the lancet alone, not on account of health, for the sake of which the lancet made the incision." Aristotle, Generation of Animals V.8, 789a8-b15

Extrinsic and intrinsic finality

Teleology depends on the concept of a final cause or purpose inherent in all beings. There are two types of such causes, intrinsic finality and extrinsic finality.
- Extrinsic finality consists of a being realizing a purpose outside the being realizing it, for the utility and welfare of other beings. For instance, minerals are "designed" to be used by plants which are in turn "designed" to be used by animals.
- Intrinsic finality consists of a being realizing a purpose by means of a natural tendency directed toward the perfection of its own nature. In essence, it is what is "good for" a being. For example, physical masses obey universal gravitational tendencies that did not evolve, but are simply a cosmic "given." Similarly, life is intended to behave in certain ways so as to preserve itself from death, disease, and pain. Over-emphasizing extrinsic finality is often criticized as leading to the anthropic attribution of every event to God's will, and mere superstition. For instance, "If I hadn't been at the store today, I wouldn't have found that $100 on the ground. God must have intended for me to go to the store so I would find that money." Such abuses were criticized by Francis Bacon ("De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum," III, iv), Descartes ("Principia Philosophiæ", I, 28; III, 2, 3; "Meditationes", III, IV), and Spinoza (Ethica, I, prop. 36 app.). Intrinsic finality, while more subtle, provides the basis for the teleological argument for the existence of God, and its modern counterpart, intelligent design. Proponents of teleology argue that it resolves a fundamental defect in philosophical naturalism. They argue that naturalism focuses exclusively on the immediate causes and mechanisms of events, and forgets to look for the reason for their synthesis. Thus, it is argued, if we take a clock apart, we discover in it nothing but springs, wheels, pivots, levers etc. But having explained the mechanism which causes the revolutions of the hands on the dial, is it reasonable to say that the clock was not made to keep time?

Teleology and modern philosophy

The area in which, within modern philosophy, teleology has had a powerful influence right through to the present has been in Hegel and the various neo-Hegelian schools, including that of Marx. In this interpretation of the history of our species on this globe - an interpretation at variance both with Darwin and with what is now called analytic philosophy - the point of departure is not so much formal logic and scientific fact but 'identity'. In Hegel's terminology: 'objective spirit'. Individual human consciousness, in the process of reaching for autonomy and freedom, has no choice but to deal with an obvious reality: the collective identities (the multiplicity of world views, ethnic, cultural and national identities) which divide the human race both now and in the past, and which set off (and always have set off) different groups of people against each other in violent conflict. Hegel conceived of the 'totality' of mutually antagonistic world-views and life-forms in history as being 'goal-driven', i.e. oriented towards an end-point in history in which the 'objective contradiction' of 'subject' and 'object' would eventually 'sublate' into a form of life which has left violent conflict behind it. This goal-oriented, 'teleological' notion of the 'historical process as a whole' is present in a variety of 20th Century authors, from Lukács to Horkheimer and Adorno.

References

- Lukacs. History and Class Consciousness. ISBN 0262620200.
- Horkheimer and Adorno. Dialectic of Enlightenment. ISBN 0804736324.
- Herbert Marcuse. Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity. ISBN 0262132214. Category:Philosophical terminology Category:Historiography

Complexity

Complexity is the opposite of simplicity. Complexity in systems or behaviour is often described as what is "on the edge of chaos" - between order and randomness.

Study of complexity

Complexity has always been a part of our environment, and therefore many scientific fields have dealt with complex systems and phenomenon. Indeed, some would say that only what is somehow complex - what displays variation without being purely chaotic - is worthy of interest. While this has led some fields to come up with specific definitions of complexity, there is a more recent movement to regroup observations from different fields in order to study complexity in itself, whether it appears in anthills, human brains, or stock markets.

Complex systems

Systems theory has long been concerned with the study of complex systems (In recent times, complexity theory and complex systems have also been used as names of the field). These systems can be biological, economic, technological, etc. Complex systems tend to be high-dimensional and non-linear, but may exhibit low dimensional behaviour.

Complex mechanisms

Recent development around artificial life, evolutionary computation and genetic algorithms have led to an increasing emphasis on complexity and complex adaptive systems.

Complex simulations

In social science, the study on the emergence of macro-properties from the micro-properties, also known as macro-micro view in sociology. The topic is commonly recognized as social complexity that is often related to the use of computer simulation in social science, i.e.: computational sociology

Complex behaviour

Complex systems's behaviour is often due to emergence and self-organization Chaos theory has investigated the sensitivity of systems to variations in initial conditions as one cause of complex behaviour. One of the main claims in Stephen Wolfram's book A New Kind of Science is that such behaviour can be generated by simple systems, such as the rule 110 cellular automaton.

Complexity in data

In information theory, algorithmic information theory is concerned with the complexity of strings of data. Complex strings are harder to compress. While intuition tells us that this may depend on the codec used to compress a string (a codec could be theoretically created in any arbitrary language, including one in which the very small command "X" could cause the computer to output a very complicated string like '18995316'"), any two Turing-complete languages can be implemented in each other, meaning that the length of two encodings in different languages will vary by at most the length of the "translation" language - which will end up being negligible for sufficiently large data strings. It should be noted that these algorithmic measures of complexity tend to assign high values to random noise. However, those studying complex systems would not consider randomness as complexity. Information entropy is also sometimes used in information theory as indicative of complexity.

Complexity of problems

Computational complexity theory is the study of the complexity of problems - that is, the difficulty of solving them. Problems can be classified by complexity class according to the time it takes for an algorithm to solve them as function of the problem size. For example, the travelling salesman problem can be solved in time

O(n^22^n)

(where n is the size of the network to visit).

Specific meanings

In several scientific fields, "complexity" has a specific meaning :
- In computational complexity theory, the time complexity of a problem is the number of steps that it takes to solve an instance of the problem as a function of the size of the input (usually measured in bits), using the most efficient algorithm. This allows to classify problems by complexity class (such as P, NP ... ) such analysis also exists for space, that is, the memory used by the algorithm.
- In algorithmic information theory, the Kolmogorov complexity (also called descriptive complexity or algorithmic entropy) of a string is the length of the shortest binary program which outputs that string.
- In information processing, complexity is a measure of the total number of properties transmitted by an object and detected by an observer. Such a collection of properties is often referred to as a state.
- In physical systems, complexity is a measure of the probability of the state vector of the system. This is often confused with entropy, but is a distinct analysis of the probability of the state of the system, where two distinct states are never conflated and considered equal as in statistical mechanics.
- In mathematics, Krohn-Rhodes complexity is an important topic in the study of finite semigroups and automata.
- In the sense of how complicated a problem is from the perspective of the person trying to solve it, limits of complexity are measured using a term from cognitive psychology, namely the hrair limit.
- Specified complexity is a term used in intelligent design theory, first coined by William Dembski.
- Irreducible complexity is a term used in arguments against the generally accepted theory of biological evolution, being a concept popularized by the biochemist Michael Behe.
- Unruly complexity denotes situations that do not have clearly defined boundaries, coherent internal dynamics, or simply mediated relations with their external context, as coined by Peter Taylor.

Quotes about complexity

- "The complexity of a document is proportional to the number of fingers that you need to read it." DeMarco's Law is a paraphrase from Tom DeMarco. For example, 'The complexity of a computer program is proportional to the number of fingers you need to read it.'
- "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity" Jacob Burkhardt, Swiss historian.
- "Some days I will say yes, and then odd days it seems things say yes to me. And stranger still, there are those times when I become a yes." (And they are moments of the Calm) -Kevin Hart, quoted by Mark Taylor in 'The Moment of Complexity'

Reference

- Roger Lewin. Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos. Macmillan, 1992.

External links

- [http://samvak.tripod.com/complex.html Complexity vs. Simplicity]
- [http://www.calresco.org/lucas/quantify.htm Quantifying Complexity Theory] - classification of complex systems
- [http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notebooks/complexity-measures.html Complexity Measures] - an article about the abundance of not-that-useful complexity measures.
- [http://www.visualcomplexity.com VisualComplexity.com] - A visual exploration on mapping complex networks
- [http://euromed.blogs.com Complexity, Knowledge and Learning] - A blog on complexity, knowledge and learning Category:Abstraction