Synesis [edit]
The synesissynesis is latin for understanding
model is as follows:
Axiom 1: Understanding is the mastery of a subject’s context.
Axiom 2: A subject has three types of context—writings, statements, and questions (WSQs)Specifically, the things that have been written about the subject, the statements that those writings make, and the questions that arise when two or more of those statements contradict.
—which together form a cycle [Tx4]; this cycle is the underlying process by which understanding of subjects is accumulated by man, and a person understands a subject if and only if they have mastered its cycle.
Synesiary
A synesiary is a reference work that implements synesis; that is, a synesiary is a repositiory of understanding:
Axiom 3: Assume a modified wiki \(W\) with four classes of articles: three for the three types of context, and one for the subjects themselves. The more reciprocal links an article in \(W\) contains, the more understanding that article contributes to \(W\) as a whole, and vice versa.
Implementation [edit]
A synesiary is composed of a wiki for crowdsourced, community-edited literature reviews on subjects of interest, and a blog for individuals and organizations to publish new creative works on those subjects.
Wiki
The wiki is a collection of articles which catalog writings, statements, and questions (WSQs) concerning subjects of interest, as well as the subjects themselves from a neutral point of view (NPOV). There are four classes of articles in the wiki:
The primary differences between a traditional wiki (e.g. Wikipedia) and a synesiary wiki are:
- In addition to cataloging subjects, a synesiary also catalogs WSQs; there is a distinct article type for each of these four categories.
- Articles are uniquely identified by their handle instead of their title.
- It is possible to ‘cite’ questions–e.g. [Fx4]–and statements–e.g. [Ix4]–within synesiary articles, just like how one would cite a writing–e.g. [Tx4]–in a traditional academic publication.
- All links in a synesiary are incentivized to be reciprocated.
Blog
The blog is a tool for users to publish their own creative writing on the site but outside of the wiki. See Axiom 1 for more info.
Axiom 1 [edit]
“Understanding is the mastery of a subject’s context.”
A synesiary is a crowdsourced approximation of the doctoral dissertation, the academic equivalent of mastering a subject’s context. A dissertation is typically composed of an extensive literature review followed by the presentation of new work that slightly advances our knowledge of a subject. A synesiary, likewise, is a platform for collaboratively writing literature reviews, and a blog for publishing new works that can be summarized but not edited by the community at large.
- Literature Reviews: Notice how linking to a WSQ in any article will show up as ‘[Tx9]’– literally a citation. An article on subject X, then, is just a well-organized and thoughtful collection of such citations that are centered around X–i.e. a literature review. Also notice that these citations are not just limited to writings, but also statements and questions (see above). This is a key innovation of the synesiary, one which enables editors to succinctly construct complex reviews in a way that is approachable and engaging to the reader.
- Original Work: A synesiary provides a blog for users to publish original writing outside of the wiki, and a mechanism for the community to catalog and analyze that writing in the wiki itself. See the docs for how this works in practice.
Axiom 2 [edit]
“A subject has three types of context–writings, statements, and questions (WSQs)–which together form a cycle; this cycle is the underlying process by which understanding of subjects is accumulated by man, and a person understands a subject if and only if they have mastered its cycle.”
We define a subject’s context as the most important writingsA writing is defined as any human communication that represents language with signs and symbols. This excludes things like audio, video, and photography, but may include things like charts, graphs, etc.
, statements, and questions that shape our understanding of the subject, and which together form a cycle [Tx4].
Step 1: A person writes something
Writing converts abstract thought into a physical creation that others can interact with, so long as the container (e.g. paper, or perhaps a computer server) persists. A piece of writing is both finite and infinite in nature: infinite in that it represents a deeper, infinite truth that the author is trying to express, and finite in that it has a physical, finite form which enables that truth to be shared with others.
Step 2: A statement is derived from the writing
Loosely, writings make statements about the world. Usually there are one or more proofs associated with each statement. A statement is “infinite” in that it establishes some deeper truth about the world which exists outside of man.
Step 3: A question arises
When two or more of those statements contradict, a question arises. Either the question can be resolved by clarifying one or both of the statements, or more likely further writing is required in order to unravel the contradiction.
Step 4: Repeat!
A beautiful cycle emerges: writings lead to statements, contradicting statements lead to questions, and questions lead to new writings. This is called the synesis cycle.
