Form and Function in Aristotle

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-337
Author(s):  
Boris Hennig
Keyword(s):  
Special Kind ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Material Thing ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Natural Substances ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Proper Account

Abstract On the one hand, Aristotle claims that the matter of a material thing is not part of its form. On the other hand, he suggests that the proper account of a natural thing must include a specification of the kind of matter in which it is realized. There are three possible strategies for dealing with this apparent tension. First, there may be two kinds of definition, so that the definition of the form of a thing does not include any specification of its matter, whereas the definition of a compound does. Second, the definition of a substance may not include a specification of its matter at all, but still reveal in what kinds of matter its form can be realized. Third, there may be a special kind of matter, functional matter, which belongs to the form of certain things. I will show that the functional matter of a thing does not belong to its form (in a strict sense of “form”), but that an adequate account of natural substances and their functions must nonetheless involve a reference to their functional matter. This means that the function of a natural thing is not the same as its form and that its adequate account as a natural thing is not a definition (in a strict sense of “form” and “definition”).

The alignment of form and function

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunstan Brown ◽  
Carole Tiberius ◽  
Greville G. Corbett
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
The Other ◽  
Frequency Information ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Frequent Form ◽  
Single Function ◽  
The One ◽  
Default Rules ◽  
And Function

This paper analyses constraints on inflectional syncretism and inflectional allomorphy using frequency information. Syncretism arises where one form is associated with more than one function, whereas inflectional allomorphy occurs where there is more than one inflectional class, and a single function is associated with two or more forms. If high frequency is associated with more differentiation on both sides, we expect, on the one hand, that a frequent function will have a high number of forms and, on the other, that a frequent form will have a high number of functions. Our study focuses on Russian nominals, in particular nouns, which exhibit both syncretism and inflectional allomorphy. We find that there is a relationship between frequency and differentiation, but that it is not exceptionless, and that the exceptions can be understood in terms of the use of referrals as default rules.

ԿՈՒՐԱՐԱՔՍՅԱՆ ՄԻՋԱԳԵՏՔԻ ԲՐՈՆԶ-ԵՐԿԱԹԵԴԱՐՅԱՆ ՈՒՍԱԳՈՏԻՆԵՐԸ

2021 ◽  
pp. 226-246
Author(s):  
Benik Vardanyan
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Uniform ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
Armenian Highland ◽  
The Military

An object type characterized as a shoulder strap was found in archaeological sites of the Armenian Highland and the South Caucasus. They served as a strap from which weapons (blade or sword) were mounted. Their purpose was to ensure quick accessibility to the weapon during combats. In ancient societies, shoulder straps symbolized the privileged status of the military aristocracy. The emergence and depiction of the straps on the inventory coincide with a transformation in the social landscape on the one hand and with the early state formation processes on the other hand. Social changes led to the formation of a militarized class of the privileged who, as part of their military uniform, possessed also the shoulder strap. This is evidenced by the multiple images of warrior-predecessors in the form of statuettes-standards and sculptures of the Bronze and Iron Age, as well as on bronze and clay vessels, which show the development of the form and function of the lash.

scholarly journals Marriage quandaries in Central Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-146
Author(s):  
Juliette Cleuziou ◽  
Julie McBrien
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Relational Practice ◽  
Single Term ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function

Abstract Many Central Asians speak of marriage as important and self-evident despite the fact that marriage in practice across the region presents a more complicated story. There is not only an extensive array of practices indicated by the single term marriage and a wide variety of things accomplishes by its conclusion and duration, but many non-marital sets of relations in Central Asia similarly realise what marriage does. This may lead one to question whether there is any sense in trying to pin marriage down at all. Yet, this tension — the flexibility of marriage in form and function, and its overlap with nonmarriage on the one hand, and its abiding importance and, at times, self-evidentiary nature, on the other — we suggest, lies at the heart of marriage-as-practice in Central Asia. Following recent turns in kinship studies, and long-standing feminist traditions, this paper envisages marriage as a relational practice of legitimization rather than pinning it down as a particular content. We argue that by focusing on the act of getting married in particular, its particular efficacy, as well as the disputes, questions, and conflicts that sometime arise as a result – in short, the quandaries of getting married – we get not only at this tensional nature of marriage, but at the everyday concerns and major societal issues wrapped up in marriage in Central Asia.

scholarly journals What do we mean by Impact?

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill A. Perry ◽  
David G. Imig
Keyword(s):  
Schools Of Education ◽  
Education Doctorate ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
History Of ◽  
Graduate Schools Of Education ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Change Efforts

A history of change efforts by philanthropic agencies and government organizations directed at graduate schools of education has not produced long-term or sustained changes in their form and function. The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), however, has been able to demonstrate that external change efforts can result in change in schools of education when bottom-up efforts are combined with top-down support. Such change is an important "impact" of CPED. In this short essay, the CPED Executive Director and Chairman of the Board provide an overview of CPED's impact and then challenge authors and reader to help CPED further extend the definition of impact as it related to all aspects of the Education Doctorate.

Deponency and Morphological Mismatches

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Treatment ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Definitive Statement ◽  
Syntactic Function ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
As If

Deponency is a mismatch between form and function in language that was first described for Latin, where there is a group of verbs (the deponents) that are morphologically passive but syntactically active. This is evidence of a larger problem involving the interface between syntax and morphology: inflectional morphology is supposed to specify syntactic function, but sometimes it sends out the wrong signal. Although the problem is as old as the Western linguistic tradition, no generally accepted account of it has yet been given, and it is safe to say that all current theories of language have been constructed as if deponency did not exist. In recent years, however, linguists have begun to confront its theoretical implications, albeit largely in isolation from each other. There is as yet no definitive statement of the problem, nor any generally accepted definition of its nature and scope. This volume brings together the findings of scholars working in the area of morphological mismatches, and represents a typological and theoretical treatment of the topic.

More on the Hippodrome-Stadium of Caesarea Maritima: a response to the comments of Y. Porath

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 456-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Patrich
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Near East ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moderate Size ◽  
Circus Maximus ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
Definitive Form

The Herodian multi-purpose entertainment structure under discussion is the earliest and largest of its kind to have been entirely excavated, and it will have far-reaching implications for our knowledge of the development of stadia and hippodromes at the transition between the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. The study and interpretation of its remains therefore deserve care and attention before definitive interpretations are presented and become ‘set in stone’. Unfortunately, Y. Porath's preceding remarks suggest that he will not change his ideas on the identification of the building. However, the chronology which I presented in JRA 14, different from the one he offered in his preliminary report in The Roman and Byzantine Near East (JRA Suppl. 14,1995) 15-27, is not a focus of his objections, and that is encouraging.To name the structure a circus, as Porath is doing, reflects a misconception. A U-shaped entertainment structure of moderate size like this one is a stadium, not a circus. But we are dealing with a special kind of stadium, wider and provided with permanent carceres for chariot races, thereby adapted to serve as a hippodrome. Stadia, Greek in origin, underwent a profound evolution in structure and function during the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. Conceiving stadia in their Classical Greek forms leads Porath to deny the affiliation of the Herodian structure to Hellenistic/Early Roman stadia. On the other hand, the Circus Maximus, the archetype of Roman circuses, attained its definitive form only under Trajan.

The Riverrun of Rewriting Scripture: From Textual Cannibalism to Scriptural Completion

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 475-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Klostergaard Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Third Order ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract To retain the concept of rewritten Bible as a scholarly category it is not only crucial to slightly change the name of the notion by re-designating it “rewritten Scripture” but also to accord the term the status of a cross-cultural third-order concept. This will allow research to detach the notion from its somewhat current “parochial” nature intrinsically linked as it is to the study of Second Temple Jewish literature. Rewritten Scripture should be conceived of as an excessive form of intertextuality that signifies the relationship existing between scriptural predecessor and rewritten piece with respect to the question of authority. Apart from advancing the theoretical discussion of the nomenclature, the essay takes a fresh look at a moot point that has loomed large in previous debates, whether rewritten Scripture strives to replace its scriptural predecessor or aims to complement it in an irenic fashion. The acknowledgement of some aspectualism grants legitimacy to both viewpoints, when they are rightfully understood within their proper perspectives. Finally, the article engages in typological considerations that will allow us to distinguish between three continua defined by respectively content, form, and function. Each constitutes a continuum on its own that advantageously may be segmented by several caesuras, which will allow us to differentiate between irenic scriptural completion at the one end of the spectrum and scriptural cannibalism at the other end of the spectrum. The fact that two works belonging to the category diverge on one continuum does not imply a corresponding divergence at other continua.

A note on Chomsky on form and function

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick J. Newmeyer
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Systematic Relationship ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function

It has become commonplace in the anti-generative literature to portray Chomsky as denying that any systematic relationship exists between linguistic form on the one hand and meaning and function on the other and, in particular, that the latter might exert any direct influence on the former. The purpose of this note is to challenge such portrayals by making reference to some of Chomsky's relevant published statements over the past three and one half decades.

scholarly journals La Planta de Equivalencias. Mat-rooming.

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Colmenares
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Domestic Architecture ◽  
Supporting Structure ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function

<p>Attention to the mechanisms by which certain architectural configurations are able to adapt to change defines a field of interest that has only been growing since the mid-twentieth century, after overcoming the exclusive dilemma between form and function. However, the influence of strategies based on the principle of free plan is still much greater than that of other proposals that are not based on the independence between supporting structure and distributive organization. The aim of this work is the definition of a genealogy for the idea of the plan of equivalents that is proposed as an alternative model of functional indifference, establishing a connection between the logics of pre-bourgeois domestic architecture and the most recent examples of programmatic experimentation in housing. The re-interpretation of some iteration techniques of elements developed in the 60s by the most critical generation with canonical modernity, together with the analysis of their associated operative vocabulary, will allow an outline to an approach of the inhabiting patterns based on the systematic proliferation of the room as a generic piece.</p>

scholarly journals Revisiting the classification of squamate adhesive setae: historical, morphological and functional perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 202039
Author(s):  
Austin M. Garner ◽  
Anthony P. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Cell Biology ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Morphological Criteria ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Gecko Adhesion ◽  
Made In

Research on gecko-based adhesion has become a truly interdisciplinary endeavour, encompassing many disciplines within the natural and physical sciences. Gecko adhesion occurs by the induction of van der Waals intermolecular (and possibly other) forces between substrata and integumentary filaments (setae) terminating in at least one spatulate tip. Gecko setae have increasingly been idealized as structures with uniform dimensions and a particular branching pattern. Approaches to developing synthetic simulacra have largely adopted such an idealized form as a foundational template. Observations of entire setal fields of geckos and anoles have, however, revealed extensive, predictable variation in setal form. Some filaments of these fields do not fulfil the morphological criteria that characterize setae and, problematically, recent authors have applied the term ‘seta’ to structurally simpler and likely non-adhesively competent fibrils. Herein we briefly review the history of the definition of squamate setae and propose a standardized classificatory scheme for epidermal outgrowths based on a combination of whole animal performance and morphology. Our review is by no means comprehensive of the literature regarding the form, function, and development of the adhesive setae of squamates and we do not address significant advances that have been made in many areas (e.g. cell biology of setae) that are largely tangential to their classification and identification. We contend that those who aspire to simulate the form and function of squamate setae will benefit from a fuller appreciation of the diversity of these structures, thereby assisting in the identification of features most relevant to their objectives.

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