GENERATIVE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1417 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
The general characteristic of any device, set of rule or set of production rules that allows for, or produce a number of useful or significant combinations, while excluding others.
Languages, for instance, have a generative transformation grammar, defining the ways to form well constructed sentences, using correct words, formed by a reduced number of specific phonemes. In this case, the hierarchic nature of the generative system is quite clear.
The various branches of mathematics, as for example arithmetic, geometry, analysis or topology, have each a generative system, defining precise rules for the construction and transformations of their objects of study.
Chess rules, harmony rules in music, or the generative system of concepts in organic chemistry, produce in the same way conceptual spaces to be explored.
Even a culture can be seen as a generative system.
K. KRIPPENDORFF observes: “The use of … generative devices is constructivism's alternative to testing verbal hypotheses and theories with available data” (1986, p.33).
See also
Algorithm, Congruence, Constraint, Creativity, Heuristics and Rule