Archive for the 'General' Category
May 2nd, 2008 by thapke
A paper which matches the topic of Ostwald’s work on the “Harmony of Forms”:
Sensual Chemistry: Aesthetics as a Motivation for Research
Abstract: Sensual, aesthetic, and even artistic considerations are an important motivation for general interest in chemistry and the development of specific research problems. Examples are given showing how these considerations have been put into play by many eminent physical, theoretical, and synthetic chemists. It is argued that more attention needs to be given to sensual and aesthetic issues in understanding how chemical discoveries are made and in order to better teach the subject.
The author Robert Root-Bernstein also wrote a short paper with the title “Wilhelm ostwald and the science of art”, in: Leornardo : Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology , 39 (2006) p. 418
Robert Root-Bernstein, Sensual Chemistry – Aesthetics as a Motivation for Research, in: HYLE–International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, Vol. 9, No.1 (2003), pp. 33-50
April 27th, 2008 by thapke
Already in 1910 Ostwald mentioned in his philosophy of nature (“Natural Philosophy”, 1910) the importance of combinatorics for his philosophy and for creativity:
There is a science, the Theory of Combinations, which gives the rules by which, in given elements or characteristics, the kind and number of the possible groups can be found. The theory of combinations enables us to obtain a complete table and survey of all possible complex conceptswhich can be formed from given simple ones (whether they be really elementary concepts, or only relatively so) . When in any field of science the fundamental concepts have been combined in this manner, a complete survey can be had of all the possible parts of this science by means of the theory of combinations (p.71).
Thus combinatory schematization serves not only to bring the existing content of science into such order that each single thing has its assigned place, but the groups which have thereby been found to be vacant, to which as yet nothing of experience corresponds, also point to the places in which science can be completed by new discoveries (p.73).
April 27th, 2008 by thapke
Wilhelm Ostwald’s philosophy of nature was first published in English under the title “Natural Philosophy” (translated by Thomas Seltzer, New York, Holt, 1910). “The original of this book was published as volume I in Reclam’s Bücher der Naturwissenschaft.”
Ostwald about the net of knowledge:
The same is true of an individual. No matter how limited the circle of his knowledge, it is a part of the great net, and therefore possesses the quality by virtue of which the other parts readily join it as soon as they reach the consciousness and knowledge of the individual. The man who thus enters the realm of science acquires advantages which may be compared to those of a telephone in his residence. … The mere beginner in learning, therefore, when receiving the most elementary instruction in school, or from his parents, or even from his personal experiences in his surroundings, is grasping one or more threads of the mighty net, … And this net has the valuable, even precious quality of being the same that joins the greatest and most comprehensive intellects in mankind to one another (pp. 7-8).
Picture from Wilhelm Ostwald, Die Welt der Formen (The world of forms), 1922.
March 30th, 2008 by thapke
Ostwald’s private library in Großbothen, Saxony – itself a symbol of harmony and order!
March 20th, 2008 by thapke
After describing how concepts or terms could be combined, Ostwald noted in a book about the philosophy of nature: “The laws of combinatorics even allow it to decompose an area of research formally and exhaustively in its branches and fields of research by initially locating empirically the elements of the domain and then by exhaustively combining them […] The application of combinatorics in scholarship is far from being widespread, as it should be.”
Taken from his chemical experience, Ostwald’s method of scholarÂly research can be descriÂbed as: Defining the problem (1), exploring the problem by going back to the basic concepts of it (2) and combining these basic concepts in a combinatorical way to explain the diversity of the complex world (3). The diverse objects created through combination had to be held together by a holistic framework (4) like Ostwald’s monistic world view and scientistic energetism.
- Wilhelm Ostwald, Moderne Naturphilosophie. I. Die Ordnungswissenschaften (Leipzig 1914).
March 20th, 2008 by thapke
Today more and more connections between “in-formation”, education as well as advertising, art and design are visible in domains like information literacy, information design and knowledge media design.
One ‘hidden’ connection to information science is shown here: Horst Rittel, later professor of design in Berkeley, was a successor of Max Bense at the Ulm School for Design founded by Max Bill. Ostwald was mentioned by Bill in the afterword of the German edition of Kandinsky’s "Point and line to plane". Max Bense wrote books about philosophy of nature and aesthetic information, Rittel together with Werner Kunz a book on the foundation of information science in Germany.
March 20th, 2008 by thapke
The search for harmony and order in combination with Ostwald’s energetic imperative (“Do not waste energy, but convert it into a more useful form”) was a foundation of his activities in the organization of scholarly communication, in the system of scholarly disciplines itself, in colors and forms. He proposed a “science of order” as the basis of his “pyramid of science”. The need for standardization especially expressed in his ideas about paper formats as well as the need for a synthetic auxiliary language to facilitate international communication of science was also an outcome of his philosophical concept of order.
- Wilhelm Ostwald, Die Pyramide der Wissenschaften. Eine Einführung in wissenschaftliches Denken und Arbeiten, (Stuttgart 1929).
January 6th, 2008 by thapke
Wilhelm Ostwald, 1853 (Riga, Latvia) – 1932 (Leipzig, Germany) was one of the founders and the organizer of the discipline ‘physical chemistry’ at the end of the 19th century. He worked from 1887 until 1906 as professor in Leipzig, received the 1909 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on catalysis, equilibria and rates of chemical reactions.
Especially after his retirement he developed broad and multifaceted interests as well as wrote numerous publications in philosophy (of nature), history (of science) as well as color theory and the international organization of scholarly work e.g. through promoting an artificial language.
An actual biography: Kim, Mi Gyung (2006). Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932). in: HYLE – International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry 12 (2006) 1, S. 141-148.
December 19th, 2007 by thapke
“And today the book is already, as the present mode of scholarly production demonstrates, an outdated mediation between two different filing systems. For everything that matters is to be found in the card box of the researcher who wrote it, and the scholar studying it assimilates it into his own card index… The typical work of modern scholarship is intended to be read like a catalogue. But when shall we write books like catalogues?”
This blog accompanies the preparation of my poster with the title “Combinatorics and order as a foundation of creativity, information organisation and art in the work of Wilhelm Ostwald” in the sense of the quote of Walter Benjamin above!
Blogs are containers for notes and something like modern card boxes!
From: Walter Benjamin: Attested Auditor of Books. In: Benjamin, W. (1928), â€One-way street†(Vol. 1, p. 456 and 457), in: Benjamin, W. (2001), Selected writings. 2 vol., Bullock, M. and Jennings, M.W. (eds.). (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press).
