Note: If you see this text you use a browser which does not support usual Web-standards. Therefore the design of Media Art Net will not display correctly. Contents are nevertheless provided. For greatest possible comfort and full functionality you should use one of the recommended browsers.

Themesicon: navigation pathAesthetics of the Digitalicon: navigation pathCybernetic Aesthetics
 
 
 
 
 

icon: previous page

communication medium but as a formal instrument of finding the truth. In the writings of Lullus, logic is no longer an ‹ars demonstrandi.› It becomes an ‹ars inveniendi,› a heuristic instrument with which it is possible to set up universally valid propositions over logical operations. With that, the process of thinking turns into a ‹game of symbols› objectively structured on the basis of abstract, purely formal principles or rules. [1]

This hypothesis of calculability implies the premises of further developments, such as Thomas Hobbes’ reduction of all thought to calculability, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’ idea of a universal language of calculus, and Charles Babbage’s analytic machine. All these concepts are aimed at the formalization of human thought and the constructability of symbolic thought machines. They finally culminate in the Turing Machine and the later digital computers. From Aristotle over Lullus, Hobbes, Leibniz, Babbage up to Turing, Newell, and Simon, therefore, a line can be traced through the history of philosophy and scientific theory. [2]

Where, however, is the connection between the

 

process of transformation of logical language toward formalization and the process of formalization in aesthetic theory ultimately to be found? The classical question of the function of language and its usage in recognizing truth concerns the sciences and philosophy alike. Up to the first half of the twentieth century, Lullus’ quest for a universal language remained current in neo-positivist approaches such as those of Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap, Hans Hahn and Otto Neurath. They continued the attempt to overcome problems raised by metaphysics by creating a formalized system, for instance with regard to the question of the nature of reality or the relationship between knowledge of the world and truth. Access to a determined area would insofar be linked to the formulation of a theory based on laws, models, and norms.

Formalization must grasped as a system no less artificial than our cultural and social foundation. The first ‹artificial world› was created with graphically illustrative representation techniques (as in cave paintings). Other worlds of art were brought about by the standardization of language through the alphabet

icon: next page