Spring 2013 Discussion Leaders

Week 02 - Woods, Coyne
Week 03 - Straube, Nissen
Week 04 - Crossman, Buettner
Week 06 - Johnson, Haertl
Week 07 - Jameyfield
Week 10 - Wells
Week 12 - Young, Cady
Week 13 - McMaster, Kornaus
Week 14 - Breunig, Annis
Week 16 - Ruiz, Pirlot

abstract v. mimetic

• (Tufte 130-131) Tufte talks about how 2-dimensional technologies "encourage" 2-dimensional (bivariate) thinking. Can the same be said for 2-dimensional technology's effect on inquiry? Why?
• (Tufte 138) Why does representation of evidence become more verbal and less visual when the results yield poorly resolved explanations?
• (Arnheim) Why does Arnheim belittle the distinction between what's "cement" and what's "abstract"?
• (Arnheim 160) Arnheim says "a filter does not abstract." Why?
• (Arnheim 161) What does Sussanne K. Langer mean by primary abstraction?
• (Arnheim) What is a mechanism for abstraction?
• (Arnheim 162-163) What's the importance of induction?
• (Arnheim 171) Arnheim says that "an arbitrary selection of common traits is not often useful." Why is this?
• (Arnheim) What makes for a defining attribute?
• (Arnheim) What is the relation between generalization and concept?

Tufte & Arnheim Week 2

• P. 131 Tufte  "Like good information displays, explanatory investigations, if they are to be honest and genuine must seek out and present all relevant evidence regardless of mode."-        How significantly does this concept effect biases, especially when presenting evidence?

• P 137 Tufte "If we ever see the analytical presentations of intelligent beings from other planetary systems, those designs will make multivariate casual comparisons."-                    Aliens?

• P. 155 Arnheim- What is ontology?

• P. 170 Arnheim- What does extirpate mean?

• P. 174 Arnheim- What is entelechy?

• P. 174 Arnheim-  Compare and contrast "Container concepts" vs. "Types"

• P. 179 Arnheim-  What is "Normal variability"

• Define abstract design.

• Define abstract thought.

• Is successful abstraction "dynamic" or "static"?