Theory  

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-[[Image:Ethics by Spinoza.jpg|Spinoza's|thumb|right|200px|By virtue of his [[magnum opus]], the posthumous ''[[Ethics (book)|Ethics]]'', [[Spinoza]] is considered one of [[Western philosophy|Western philosophy's]] definitive ethicists.]]+[[Image:Sign and signifier as imagined by de Saussure.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Linguistics: [[Signified]] (concept) and [[signifier]] (sound-image) as imagined by de Saussure]]
 +{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
 +| style="text-align: left;" |
 +"In relation to their [[philosophical theory|philosophical system]]s, most [[philosopher]]s are like a man who builds an enormous castle and lives in a shack close by." -- [[Building an enormous castle and living in a shack close by|[...]]]
 +|}
 +[[Image:Plato and Aristotle in The School of Athens painting by Raphael.jpg|thumb|right|200px|
 +This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the ''[[philosophy]]'' series.
 +<br>Illustration: Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of ''[[The School of Athens]]'']]
 +[[Image:Diagram of the human mind, from Robert Fludd (1574-1637), Utriusque cosmic maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica.jpg|thumb|right|200px|
 +This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the ''[[knowledge]]'' pages.
 +<br>
 +Illustration: Diagram of the human mind, from ''[[Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica]]'', page 217[http://www.archive.org/stream/utriusquecosmima02flud#page/217/mode/1up] by [[Robert Fludd]]]]
 +[[Image:Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Vitruvian Man]]'' by [[Leonardo da Vinci]], see [[man is the measure of all things]]]]
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-# An [[unproven]] [[conjecture]]. 
-#: ''I have a '''theory''' about who broke into the school last night, but I have no proof to back it up.'' 
-# An [[expectation]] of what [[should]] [[happen]], [[barring]] [[unforeseen]] [[circumstances]]. 
-#: ''So we’ll be there in three hours?'' — ''That’s the '''theory'''.'' 
-# {{countable}} {{science}} A [[coherent]] [[statement]] or set of statements that [[attempt]]s to [[explain]] [[observe]]d [[phenomenon|phenomena]]. 
-#: ''There is now a well-developed '''theory''' of electrical charge.'' 
-# A [[logical]] structure that enables one to [[deduce]] the possible results of every [[experiment]] that falls within its purview. 
-#: ''The '''theory''' of relativity was proposed by Einstein.'' 
-# A [[field]] of [[study]] attempting to [[exhaustive]]ly [[describe]] a particular [[class]] of [[construct]]s. <!-- Not quite broad enough to include "music theory". Where do we put that? --> 
-#: ''Knot '''theory''' classifies the mappings of a circle into 3-space.'' 
-# A [[set]] of [[axiom]]s together with all [[statement]]s [[derivable]] from them. 
-#: ''A '''theory''' is consistent if it has a model.'' 
 +'''Theory''' is a [[contemplation|contemplative]] and [[reason|rational]] type of [[abstraction|abstract]] or generalizing thinking, or the results of such thinking. Depending on the context, the results might for example include generalized explanations of how [[Nature (philosophy)|nature]] works, or even how divine or metaphysical matters are thought to work. The word has its roots in [[ancient Greek]], but in modern use it has taken on several different related meanings.
-List of theorists: [[Aristotle]] - [[Gaston Bachelard]] - [[Mikhail Bakhtin]] - [[Georges Bataille]] - [[Roland Barthes]] - [[Charles Baudelaire]] - [[Simone de Beauvoir]] - [[Walter Benjamin]] - [[Pierre Bourdieu]] - [[Gilles Deleuze]] - [[Guy Debord]] - [[Denis Diderot]] - [[Umberto Eco]] - [[Kodwo Eshun]] - [[Michel Foucault]] - [[Sigmund Freud]] - [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]] - [[Gershon Legman]] - [[Karl Marx]] - [[Nietzsche]] - [[Camille Paglia]] - [[Marquis de Sade]] - [[Peter Sloterdijk ]] - [[Susan Sontag]] - [[Spinoza]] - [[David Toop]] - [[Parker Tyler]] - [[Paul Virilio]] - [[Ken Wilber]] - [[Raymond Williams]] - [[Slavoj Žižek]]+One modern group of meanings emphasizes the speculative and generalizing nature of theory. For example in [[the arts]] and [[philosophy]], the term "theoretical" may be used to describe ideas and [[empiricism|empirical phenomena]] which are not easily measurable. And by extension of the philosophical meaning, "[[theoria]]" is also a word still used in [[Theology|theological]] contexts. As already in Aristotle's definitions, theory is very often contrasted to "practice" (from Greek ''[[praxis|praxis]]'', πρᾶξις) a Greek term for "doing", which is opposed to theory because pure theory involves no doing apart from itself. A classical example of the distinction between theoretical and practical uses the discipline of medicine: [[medical theory]] involves trying to understand the [[Causality|causes]] and nature of health and sickness, while the practical side of medicine is trying to make people healthy. These two things are related but can be independent, because it is possible to research health and sickness without curing specific patients, and it is possible to cure a patient without knowing how the cure worked.
-== By field ==+
-[[anthropology]] - [[communication]] - [[cultural criticism]] - [[cultural studies]] - [[culture industry]] - [[culture theory]] - [[economy]] - [[hegemony]] - [[high culture]] - [[identity]] - [[lifestyle]] - [[low culture]] - [[media]] - [[subculture]] - [[politics]] - [[religion]] - [[representation]] - [[society]] - [[sociology]] - [[technology]]+
-== By field ==+In modern [[science]], the term "theory" refers to [[Scientific theory|scientific theories]], a well-confirmed type of explanation of [[nature]], made in a way [[Consistency|consistent]] with [[scientific method]], and fulfilling the [[Scientific theory#Characteristics of theories|criteria]] required by [[modern science]]. Such theories are described in such a way that any scientist in the field is in a position to understand and either provide empirical support ("[[Proof (truth)|verify]]") or empirically contradict ("[[Falsifiability|falsify]]") it. Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous, and comprehensive form of scientific knowledge, in contrast to more common uses of the word "theory" that imply that something is unproven or speculative (which is better defined by the word 'hypothesis'). Scientific theories are also distinguished from [[hypothesis|hypotheses]], which are individual empirically testable conjectures, and [[scientific laws]], which are descriptive accounts of how nature will behave under certain conditions.
-[[art theory]] - [[auteur theory]] - [[critical theory]] - [[culture theory]] - [[discourse]] - [[film theory]] - [[genre theory]] - [[horror theory]] - [[language]] - [[literary theory]] - [[media theory]] - [[reflexivity]] - [[music theory]] - [[sex theory]]+
- +
-== Related ==+
-[[deconstruction]] - [[Frankfurt school]] - [[knowledge]] - [[model]] - [[marxism]] - [[modernism]] - [[philosophy]] - [[postmodernism]] - [[poststructuralism]] - [[reality]] - [[semiotics]] - [[science]] - [[structuralism]]+
- +
-== People ==+
-[[A]] - [[Kathy Acker]] - [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] - [[Theodor Adorno]] - [[Louis Althusser]] - [[Aristotle]] - [[Rudolf Arnheim]] - [[B]] - [[Gaston Bachelard]] - [[Mikhail Bakhtin]] - [[Georges Bataille]] - [[Roland Barthes]] - [[Charles Baudelaire]] - [[Jean Baudrillard]] - [[Michel Bauwens]] - [[Simone de Beauvoir]] - [[Jeremy Bentham]] - [[Walter Benjamin]] - [[Alfred Binet]] - [[Maurice Blanchot]] - [[Iwan Bloch]] - [[Pierre Bourdieu]] - [[Jean-Pierre Bouyxou]] - [[Scott Bukatman]] - [[Judith Butler]] - [[C]] - [[Noël Carroll]] - [[Daniel Chandler]] - [[Noam Chomsky]] - [[Carol Clover]] - [[Barbara Creed]] - [[Aleister Crowley]] - [[Arthur C. Danto]] - [[Gilles Deleuze]] - [[Charles Darwin]] - [[Guy Debord]] - [[Jacques Derrida]] - [[Bram Dijkstra]] - [[Mark Dery]] - [[René Descartes]] - [[Denis Diderot]] - [[Emile Durkheim]] - [[E]] - [[Umberto Eco]] - [[Havelock Ellis]] - [[August Endell]] - [[Kodwo Eshun]] - [[F]] - [[Leslie Fiedler]] - [[Michel Foucault]] - [[Sigmund Freud]] - [[Northrop Frye]] - [[G]] - [[Hal Foster]] - [[Antonio Gramsci]] - [[Clement Greenberg]] - [[Germaine Greer]] - [[Elizabeth Grosz]] - [[H]] - [[Jurgen Habermas]] - [[Stuart Hall]] - [[Dick Hebdige]] - [[Friedrich Hegel]] - [[Martin Heidegger]] - [[Magnus Hirschfeld]] - [[Max Horkheimer]] - [[David Hume]] - [[I]] - [[Luce Irigaray]] - [[J]] - [[Katrien Jacobs]] - [[Frederic Jameson]] - [[Charles Jencks]] - [[K]] - [[Immanuel Kant]] - [[Linda Kauffman]] - [[Alfred Charles Kinsey]] - [[Siegfried Kracauer]] - [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]] - [[Julia Kristeva]] - [[L]] - [[Henri Lefèbvre]] - [[Gershon Legman]] - [[Jacques Lacan]] - [[Jean-François Lyotard]] - [[M]] - [[Lev Manovich]] - [[Greil Marcus]] - [[Herbert Marcuse]] - [[Karl Marx]] - [[Marshall McLuhan]] - [[Laura Mulvey]] - [[Henri Michaux]] - [[N]] - [[Nietzsche]] - [[P]] - [[Camille Paglia]] - [[Morse Peckham]] - [[Sadie Plant]] - [[Plato]] - [[Karl Popper]] - [[Neil Postman]] - [[R]] - [[Andrew Ross]] - [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] - [[John Ruskin]] - [[S]] - [[Marquis de Sade]] - [[Sartre]] - [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] - [[Steven Shaviro]] - [[Susan Sontag]] - [[Spinoza]] - [[Robert Stam]] - [[Thomas Swiss]] - [[T]] - [[David Toop]] - [[Parker Tyler]] - [[E. B. Tylor]] - [[V]] - [[Paul Virilio]] - [[Giambattista Vico]] - [[Voltaire]] - [[W]] - [[Ken Wilber]] - [[Linda Williams]] - [[Raymond Williams]] - [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] - [[Z]] - [[Slavoj Žižek]]+
 +==See also==
 +*[[List of notable theories]]
 +*[[Aesthetics]]
 +*[[Film theory]]
 +*[[Literary theory]]
== Namesakes == == Namesakes ==
*[[Theoretical Girls]] *[[Theoretical Girls]]
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Revision as of 19:11, 18 January 2019

Linguistics: Signified (concept) and signifier (sound-image) as imagined by de Saussure
Enlarge
Linguistics: Signified (concept) and signifier (sound-image) as imagined by de Saussure

"In relation to their philosophical systems, most philosophers are like a man who builds an enormous castle and lives in a shack close by." -- [...]

 This page Theory is part of the philosophy series. Illustration: Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens
Enlarge
This page Theory is part of the philosophy series.
Illustration: Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens
 This page Theory is part of the knowledge pages.  Illustration: Diagram of the human mind, from Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, page 217[1] by Robert Fludd
Enlarge
This page Theory is part of the knowledge pages.
Illustration: Diagram of the human mind, from Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, page 217[1] by Robert Fludd

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Theory is a contemplative and rational type of abstract or generalizing thinking, or the results of such thinking. Depending on the context, the results might for example include generalized explanations of how nature works, or even how divine or metaphysical matters are thought to work. The word has its roots in ancient Greek, but in modern use it has taken on several different related meanings.

One modern group of meanings emphasizes the speculative and generalizing nature of theory. For example in the arts and philosophy, the term "theoretical" may be used to describe ideas and empirical phenomena which are not easily measurable. And by extension of the philosophical meaning, "theoria" is also a word still used in theological contexts. As already in Aristotle's definitions, theory is very often contrasted to "practice" (from Greek praxis, πρᾶξις) a Greek term for "doing", which is opposed to theory because pure theory involves no doing apart from itself. A classical example of the distinction between theoretical and practical uses the discipline of medicine: medical theory involves trying to understand the causes and nature of health and sickness, while the practical side of medicine is trying to make people healthy. These two things are related but can be independent, because it is possible to research health and sickness without curing specific patients, and it is possible to cure a patient without knowing how the cure worked.

In modern science, the term "theory" refers to scientific theories, a well-confirmed type of explanation of nature, made in a way consistent with scientific method, and fulfilling the criteria required by modern science. Such theories are described in such a way that any scientist in the field is in a position to understand and either provide empirical support ("verify") or empirically contradict ("falsify") it. Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous, and comprehensive form of scientific knowledge, in contrast to more common uses of the word "theory" that imply that something is unproven or speculative (which is better defined by the word 'hypothesis'). Scientific theories are also distinguished from hypotheses, which are individual empirically testable conjectures, and scientific laws, which are descriptive accounts of how nature will behave under certain conditions.

See also

Namesakes




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Theory" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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