1,721,445 research outputs found
Capturing and Reconstructing the Appearance of Complex 3D Scenes
No full textIn this thesis, we present our research on new acquisition methods forreflectance properties of real-world objects. Specifically, we firstshow a method for acquiring spatially varying densities in volumes oftranslucent, gaseous material with just a single image. This makes themethod applicable to constantly changing phenomena like smoke withoutthe use of high-speed camera equipment.Furthermore, we investigated how two well known techniques --synthetic aperture confocal imaging and algorithmic descattering --can be combined to help looking through a translucent medium like fogor murky water. We show that the depth at which we can still see anobject embedded in the scattering medium is increased. In a relatedpublication, we show how polarization and descattering based onphase-shifting can be combined for efficient 3D~scanning oftranslucent objects. Normally, subsurface scattering hinders the rangeestimation by offsetting the peak intensity beneath the surface awayfrom the point of incidence. With our method, the subsurfacescattering is reduced to a minimum and therefore reliable 3D~scanningis made possible.Finally, we present a system which recovers surface geometry,reflectance properties of opaque objects, and prevailing lightingconditions at the time of image capture from just a small number ofinput photographs. While there exist previous approaches to recoverreflectance properties, our system is the first to work on imagestaken under almost arbitrary, changing lighting conditions. Thisenables us to use images we took from a community photo collectionwebsite.EG Graphics Dissertation Onlin
Dialectical Philosophy and Self-Organisation
No full textThe aim of this paper is to show that the theory of self-organisation in some respect proves the topicality of dialectical materialism and that an alternative concept of substance makes sense within the framework of dialectical materialism. The first part of the paper shows that Marx and Engels opposed the notion of substance because for them this notion was connected with the assumption of mechanical materialism that there is an eternal, unchanging stuff in the world to which all existence can be reduced. An alternative concept of substance is implicitly present in Engels’ works because he says that the eternal aspect of the world is that matter is permanently changing and moving and producing new organisational forms of matter. Ernst Bloch has explicitly formulated this concept of process-substance within the framework of dialectical materialism and in opposition to mechanical materialism. Such an alternative conception of substance can as the second part of this paper shows also be expressed as the permanent and eternal self-organisation of matter. Concepts from self-organisation theory such as control parameters, critical values, bifurcation points, phase transitions, non-linearity, selection, fluctuation and intensification in self-organisation theory correspond to the dialectical principle of transition from quantity to quality. What is called emergence of order, production of information or symmetry breaking in self-organisation theory corresponds to Hegel’s notions of sublation (Aufhebung) and negation of the negation. Self-organisation theory shows that Engels’ Dialectics of Nature is still very topical and that dialectical materialism contrary to mechanical materialism and idealism hasn’t been invalidated, it rather seems to be confirmed that dialectics is the general principle of nature and society
The Autocreativity of Communication and the Re-Creativity of Actions in Social Systems
No full textChristian Fuchs and Gottfried Stockinger (“The Autocreation of Communication and the Re-creation of Actions in Social Systems”) point out fundamental aspects of social self-organisation. Social systems and the human being would be creative, communications and human actions would be important aspects of social self-organisation. Social systems would be auto- and re-creative systems: from the perspective of communication, social self-organisation would denote the permanent creation of reality through concatenation of communication units in a self-referential mode (auto-creativity). From the perspective of the human actor, social self-organisation would denote a permanent reflexive interaction process related and coupled to social structures (re-creativity) where social structures are medium and outcome of social actions. Auto-creative communications and re-creative actions would be mutually dependent and coupled and together would enable the self-organisation of social systems and society. The main argument of Fuchs and Stockinger is that the creativity of social systems is based on autopoietic or self-reproducing processes on both the level of communications and the level of actors and that on both levels creativity is an important feature. They argue that co-operative social self-organisation could be a principle that puts forward co-operative intelligence (CI)
Birgitta Fuchs / Christian Schönherr (Hrsg.): Urteilskraft und Pädagogik. Beiträge zu einer pädagogischen Handlungstheorie. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2007 (273 S.) [Rezension]
Full text linkRezension von: Birgitta Fuchs / Christian Schönherr (Hrsg.): Urteilskraft und Pädagogik. Beiträge zu einer pädagogischen Handlungstheorie. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2007 (273 S.; ISBN 978-3-8260-3597-5; 38,00 EUR)
Science as a Self-Organizing Meta-Information System
Full text linkFour basic problems that a theory of science has to deal with concern epistemology, structure, causality, and dynamics of science. These problems deal with the relationship of induction/deduction, actors/structures, internal/external factors, and continuity/discontinuity. Traditionally they have been solved one-sidedly. Considering science as a self-organizing system allows a more integrative approach. Science is a complex, nonlinear system that is made up of two moments: scientific actors and scientific structures. Scientific self-organization operates synchronously and diachronically. Synchronous scientific self-organization is a mutual production process between scientific actors and structures. Scientific systems are self-organizing units that perform the production of theories and truths by the way of a productive, circular causal duality of scientific actors and scientific structures. Science is a dynamic system where research practices produce and reproduce structures that produce and reproduce research practices. Scientific structures are medium and outcome of scientific actions. At the action level one can find a systemic hierarchy that is made up of individual researchers, research groups, scientific communities, and the overall scientific community. Scientific structures include theories, research institutions, technologies, journals, publications, science funds; norms, values, and rules of scientific conduct. The main scientific practices can be categorized as genuinely scientific practices (innovation, dissemination, scientific interchange, funding-related activities, teaching), cultural practices (public discourse), political practices (science policy), and economic practices (action related to scientific knowledge as commodities, patents, science-industry-partnerships, sponsorship). Science is an open system that is structurally coupled to other subsystems of society, it is neither internally, nor externally determined, its development is caused by a complex interplay of internal and external factors, it is a relatively autonomous system. Systems in nature and society act as a sort of data for the scientific system, research processes establish an informational relationship between the scientific system and its environment in the sense that theories are complex, non-linear reflections of environmental processes. Due to the fact that all complex systems are informational, one can say that science produces information about information systems. Science is a 2nd order information system, it produces meta-information. Philosophy of science is a science of science, it produces information about information about information, it is a 3rd order information system. The metaphor of science as a grand hypertext refers to the self-referential character of scientific texts. A scientific text by the way of citation refers to other scientific texts, it incorporates part of the history of science, and methodologically discusses other texts. The formation of scientific knowledge can be described as a double-process of induction and deduction, abstraction and concretization, where scientific knowledge consists of both empirical knowledge and theoretical knowledge and is formed in loop that consists of two self-organization processes. The self-organization of scientific knowledge is a mutually productive relationship between experience and theory. Scientific knowledge is a unity of experience and theory. The self-organization of scientific knowledge is a dialectical cycle where signals from material reality are transformed into experienced data that is interpreted and results in hypotheses and theories which are transformed into methods and technologies that are employed in order to cause effects in material reality that can again be observed as data. In this self-organization process there is the bottom-up-emergence of theoretical knowledge and the top-down-emergence of experiences and material effects. Each scientific theory is a truth claim, but one that is based on a systematic methodology, permanent evaluation and correction, and conflict-based discourse. Hence scientific truths are not absolute truths, they are truths-in-question, truths-in-discourse, and truths-in-conflict, and truths-in-development. One can distinguish formal, adequate, discursive, and practical truth of a theory. Due to the fact that the knowledge-based society is a high risk society, practical truth of science in the form of an ethically responsible science is of central importance. Diachronic self-organization of science means that dominant scientific paradigms at some point of time loose their effectiveness, paradoxes and instabilities show up, science enters crisis, a new dominant paradigm emerges. If a large gap between scientific theory and the problems posed for science by itself and by society emerges, the dominant structural patterns are increasingly questioned. This can have scientific or wider societal causes, or a combination of both. The resulting crisis is a process of creation and destruction. The whole process is one of the emergence of scientific order from noise. Variation is a permanent phenomenon of scientific evolution, but in phases of instability where the self-organization of science shifts from self-reproduction to order from noise the degree of variation and development by chance is much larger
Critical Social Theory and Sustainable Development: The Role of Class, Capitalism and Domination in a Dialectical Analysis of Un/Sustainability
Full text linkAuthor version of:
Fuchs, Christian. 2017. Critical Social Theory and Sustainable Development: The Role of Class, Capitalism and Domination in a Dialectical Analysis of Un/Sustainability. Sustainable Development 25 (6): 443-458.
Full version:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sd.1673/abstract
Abstract
It is still a relatively open question if and how sustainability fits into a critical theory of society. This paper's aim is to makes a contribution to the critical social theory foundations of sustainability and to reflect on the links between capitalism, class and sustainability. Sustainability has not been a very popular concept in sociological theory. One of the reasons may be that sociology has a strongly critical tradition focusing on the analysis and critique of power structures in modern society. It is therefore often sceptical of ideas coming from the policy world that are susceptible to having an administrative character. The article argues that, although sustainability has a strongly ideological character, a critical theory of society should not simply discard this notion, but aim to sublate it. Some foundations of a way to integrate sustainability into a critical theory of society are presented
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
With or without Marx? With or without capitalism? : A rejoinder to Adam Arvidsson and Eleanor Colleoni
No full textThis paper is a rejoinder to an article by Adam Arvidsson and Eleanor Colleoni: Arvidsson, Adam and Eleanor Colleoni. 2012. Value in informational capitalism and on the Internet. The Information Society 28 (3): 135-150. Arvidsson and Colleoni's paper is a criticism of and reaction to one of my own articles: Fuchs, Christian. 2010. Labor in informational capitalism and on the Internet. The Information Society 26 (3): 179-196. My comments focus on 6 aspects of discussion: 1) Misunderstandings of Marx 2) Autonomous Marxism 3) Corporate social media and the law of value 4) Capital accumulation on social media 5) Finance capital and social media 6) Politics, alternatives, and social transformation The discourse constituted by the two articles and this rejoinder are situated in the context of the digital labour debate that can be considered to constitute an important part of the contemporary discourse of the political economy of the media and the Internet. It is recommended that you first read both previous articles before reading this rejoinder.</p
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