All entries for Tuesday 08 February 2005

February 08, 2005

The role of the concept of creativity in creating concepts

Follow-up to Methodology – what is a concept? what is philosophy? from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

  1. What happens to concepts when they pass the extent of their engagement? If the concept doesn't become figural, perhaps the components in some way operate independently of the concept, and start to find new connections and new components not mediated by the concept? The concept becomes…
  2. Is a 'minor literature' the activity of a set of components from a concept operating beyond its extent?
  3. Is creativity a concept necessary for a set of activities that generates new concepts out of the collapse of old concepts? – drawing together a range of eccentric and risky techniques.

Robert O'Toole : 08 Feb 2005 23:10 |  Tags:         |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Figural empty concepts

Follow-up to Methodology – what is a concept? what is philosophy? from Transversality - Robert O'Toole

And what happens when the extent of a concept is passed but something attempts to extend it, even when it no longer engages, no longer has intension? It becomes figural, an empty concept valued only for its anamnesis, its capability to invoke the ghost like presence of a context long gone.

Is the concept of creativity figural? What is its extent? In discussions of artificial intelligence for example, does its use have any intension, or is it merely their to re-invoke a ghostly apparition of some entirely human characteristic posited within machines, so as to hype their significance?


Robert O'Toole : 08 Feb 2005 21:47 |  Tags:       |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Methodology – what is a concept? what is philosophy?

What difference does the concept make? What becomes inevitable when the concept is available? And further, what becomes inevitable when the concept is used? (which is not the same question). A concept is not understood by its potential to exist or not, but rather by what it makes inevitable, what it determines. The choices are components in the concept, but the scope of those choices is already determined as the intension of the concept.

In considering a concept, consider the life of the concept – its sustainability. Can the concept stand on its own, permanently? Or does it inevitably carry the seeds of its own destruction, its own subjugation to a higher concept, of which it is only a component? For example, the way in which a badly analyzed concept of 'free speech' results in a babble of opinion. If what the concept of 'free speech' makes inevitable is a meaningless babble, then it is actually just a component in the 'higher' concept, meaningless babble.

The extension of a concept – its portability. This makes a concept more than just a raw event. What is the limit of a concept's extension? – the point at which it becomes a component? No, it is the point at which it fails to engage at all, and leaves a void into which a search for a new concept becomes necessary?

The 'over' of Nietzsche's 'overman' does not indicate that man as a concept becomes subservient to a new order, for example a component in the National Socialist program. Rather it indicates the point at which the extension of the concept of man is reached, and at which point it no longer engages. A new concept must be found.

The tasks of philosophy:

  1. finding the concept, going beyond the components to the absolute field that holds them together, the sustainable concept;
  2. testing the extension of the concept;
  3. forming new concepts when the extension of a concept is surpassed.

And when we pass through the void, are there special concepts that help us to generate new concepts? Is the concept of creativity one of those concepts?


Robert O'Toole : 08 Feb 2005 21:28 |  Tags:              |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Radio form test

Key: 0 = Totally Agree, 5 = Strongly Disagree

My answers to the questions were:

  • The world is flat – my answer = 0
  • Coventry is not a nice place – my answer = 2
  • Transcendental methods apply to justice – my answer = 5

Further comments:

test


: 08 Feb 2005 16:03 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Example learning object blog

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/elearning/aboutus/robert/projects/modules/resources/examples/simple/

In this session I achieved the following objectives:

This is the first learning objective.
This is the second learning objective.
This is the third learning objective.
This is the fourth learning objective.

test


: 08 Feb 2005 16:02 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem

Example learning object blog

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/elearning/aboutus/robert/projects/modules/resources/examples/simple_nolobjs/

Thisis a test

: 08 Feb 2005 16:01 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem