The ordering of knowledge is generally understood as the process through which ideas are anchored to structure. If the nature of the structure is understood, the ideas that it contains are navigable and retrievable, particularly in their relation to one another. To maneuver through our epistemological history, we turn to the map, dictionary, museum, and so on—sanctioned spaces that purposefully bring together the variables of what we know. Currently, studies regarding encyclopaedism in fiction have been devoted almost entirely to its use in satire, as the pretence to totalized knowledge is rife with satirical possibilities. My dissertation proposes that encyclopaedism is more than merely girth or epic ambition; it is also an expression of the desire to understand and communicate the experience of the world through ordering systems. My second chapter provides a theoretical discussion of collecting and its relation to encyclopaedism with an interdisciplinary methodology drawn from psychoanalytic and phenomenological theories. I propose that collecting (like writing) is less a working-through of a psychoanalytic problem than an engagement with a phenomenological problem, and psychoanalytic theory describes only part of a process that is fundamentally about our relationship to the world of objects and ideas. My third chapter charts the arc of the encyclopaedic paradigm, considering its philosophic and literary consequences beginning with seventeenth century encyclopaedic projects. These early encyclopaedias (also known as Dictionaries) served as a catalyst for the aestheticization of classificatory representational systems which in their practical form were thought to represent both transparently and pragmatically and to signify a totality of knowledge. My fourth chapter looks at specific examples of encyclopaedism in fiction, with an emphasis on the generative possibilities of the encyclopaedic work. My dissertation provides an updated exploration of the encyclopaedic paradigm, showing how and why in recent years it has be manipulated to account for the unaccountable through the mapping of impossible worlds or the ordering of an only partially knowable totality, relevant to an age seduced by the possibility of ordering the mind, the infinite and the unknowable. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-31 15:24:08.171

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the following research question: Are there grammatical textual differences between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia? Specifically, this study will focus on the articles for "Communism" and "Dwight D. Eisenhower" that appear in the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Using a grammatical textual analysis, the study finds there is little difference grammatically between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia though they are very different types of systems. There are several different types of textual or contextual methods that could expand on this initial approach to find differences between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. / Department of Telecommunications

Dramatic increasing of amount of data in running a business has been consireded a typical phenomenon of the last decade. This fact, however, has its impact on the business planning and decision making. The area, which deals with this problematics, is called Business Intelligence (BI). The problem lies in the implementation of applications directing to the BI, because it is often oriented only on isolated projects, so they cause only partial effect. In such cases, BI cannot fulfil the expected role, but still preserves the negatives instead. By saying negatives, it is meant: complicated searching for analytical outputs, significant dete-rioration of their output data, cost increase in administation of BI systems, and others. The solution can represented by integration of partial BI systems and by transfer of their BI metadata into a single informational system, serving as an "entering gate" for all the business workers. From the whole company perspective, there exist also benefits in the metadata managament, such as: determination of quality and usage of reports, prolonging of the life cycle, cooperative forming of the knowledge basis, consolidation of the terms in the business, more efficient way of browsing in the system and comprehensibility of analytical system's outputs. The aim of this diploma thesis is formation of a metadata presentation and its realization into a preselected information system, together with meeting of the advantages resulting from applying business metadata.

Approximations, fausses informations, biais idéologiques : Wikipédia a dû répondre à de nombreuses critiques depuis sa création en 2001. Pourtant, les contributeurs n’ont cessé d’élaborer des outils, labels et indicateurs pour accompagner les utilisateurs dans la recherche d’une information fiable.Cette thèse s’intéresse aux moyens mis en œuvre pour renforcer la fiabilité d’un média collaboratif en ligne. Car la synthèse que Wikipédia opère entre une prétention encyclopédique et la prise en charge de l’actualité invite à la concevoir comme une encyclopédie médiatique. En effet, l’actualité y est traitée en temps réel et les sources utilisées pour ce type de sujet sont bien souvent journalistiques, participant ainsi à la « circulation circulaire » de l’information médiatique. Le genre encyclopédique de Wikipédia est questionné en cherchant les éléments de filiation tels que l’hypertextualité et en soulignant les principaux points de divergences épistémologiques comme le rapport aux sources et le principe de neutralité de point de vue. Les deux corpus étudiés, de près de trois cents articles chacun, rendent manifeste la place de l’actualité dans les usages de Wikipédia et dans les pratiques des contributeurs. / Overly rough data, false information, ideological prejudices, such are the numerous criticisms to which the Wikipedia project has responded ever since its inception in 2001. All this despite the fact that contributors to the project had never ceased honing their tools, labels and indications to help users find reliable information.This thesis seeks to explore the means that have been used to enhance the reliability of the collaborative medium put on line. It argues that the synthesis proposed by the Wikipedia project combines, on the one hand, claims to possess an encyclopaedic format with, on the other, the ability to keep abreast of current developments makes it a media encyclopaedia. Indeed, current developments are dealt with in real time and the sources relied on are often journalistic in nature, a situation which displays the « circular circulation » of information, characteristic of media in general. The very genre of the encyclopaedia is brought into the spotlight when the thesis turns to related phenomena such as hypertextuality and also when it underscores the main areas of epistemological differences such as the relationship with sources and the principle of a neutral point of view. The two corpuses studied, each comprising nearly three hundred articles, clearly show the place that the Wikipedia project devotes to current events as well as the importance they have for the practices engaged in by contributors to the project.

Was ist ein Leben? Kann man es knapp erzählen, etwa im Lexikonformat? Man hat es versucht, im 17. Jahrhundert etwa Louis Moréri in seinem 'Grand Dictionnaire Historique', der 1674 in der ersten Auflage und 1759 in der zehnten erschien. In dieser Zeitspanne publizierten auch in Deutschland mehrere Verleger, zumal in Leipzig, verstärkt biografische Lexika, von denen das größte paradoxerweise am wenigsten bekannt ist: Johann Heinrich Zedlers 'Großes vollständiges Universal-Lexicon' in 68 Folianten, ein völlig ungehobener Schatz biografischer Information.

Was ist ein Leben? Kann man es knapp erzählen, etwa im Lexikonformat? Man hat es versucht, im 17. Jahrhundert etwa Louis Moréri in seinem ''Grand Dictionnaire Historique'', der 1674 in der ersten Auflage und 1759 in der zehnten erschien. In dieser Zeitspanne publizierten auch in Deutschland mehrere Verleger, zumal in Leipzig, verstärkt biografische Lexika, von denen das größte paradoxerweise am wenigsten bekannt ist: Johann Heinrich Zedlers ''Großes vollständiges Universal-Lexicon'' in 68 Folianten, ein völlig ungehobener Schatz biografischer Information.

This diploma work presents design and implementation of web information system for historians (called Electronic Encyclopaedia of History) with data model based on semantic network and of several tools for data analysis in such IS, using graph algorithms and graph mining methods.

No description available.

This thesis deals with the application of French elements in the development of a Russian written language during the Enlightenment. During the reign of Peter I (1672–1725), Russia was modernised and secularised. Its society, economy and culture underwent such significant changes that this period is sometimes referred to as the Petrine Revolution. A new capital city – Saint Petersburg – was established, partly to facilitate contacts with Western Europe. Back then, Russia’s linguistic situation could be described as diglossia, meaning that two languages coexisted that were not mutually equivalent – Russian was vernacular, its written usage being restricted to practical purposes including secular documentation, whereas Church Slavonic was used as the written language in liturgical and ceremonial contexts. To reflect the evolution of society it was necessary to codify (standardize) and develop a Russian written language that would be usable in all contexts. An additional goal was to create a national literature. Since Church Slavonic was not fit for worldly purposes, it could not serve as a model. Therefore, ideas had to be borrowed from abroad. Peter I initiated a long process that spanned over decades and continued during the reigns of Elisabeth I and Catherine II. This paper examines contemporary sources, combining distant and deep reading from a contextual perspective. The aim was to determine the reasons why France was seen as a model, and the theoretical and practical implications of such a choice. France was chosen not only because its language was Europe’s lingua franca at the time and for its crucial role in the dissemination of the Enlightenment philosophy, but also because the country had a solid literary tradition and institutions that could provide guidance on language standardization. However, the implementation of foreign, and therefore partly irrelevant rules, proved to be tricky. The study focuses on specific elements such as the paradoxes and contradictions of the situation, which gave rise to cultural conflicts regarding innovations from France; some authors embraced them, while others rejected them.

Les Épîtres des Frères en Pureté forment une encyclopédie des sciences philosophiques (au sens hégélien) composée par Aḥmad b. aṭ-Ṭayyib as-Saraḫsī vers 280/894 à partir des travaux effectués par les Frères en Pureté, héritage du « cercle d’al-Kindī ». Le système trouve ses fondations dans l’arithmétique de Nicomaque de Gérase, est composé de la science kindienne, et s’élève sur les préoccupations politiques d’al-Ǧāḥiẓ, mais réalise une construction philosophique originale. Historiquement, une fois démontrée l’unicité du rédacteur, établi qu’Abū Ḥātim puise sa réfutation d’Abū Bakr ar-Rāzī dans la doctrine rasaélienne de l’héritage scientifique des prophètes, compris que les Rasāʾil sont alimentées par le kindisme, repéré que le seul héritier d’al-Kindī apte à cette entreprise est as-Saraḫsī, la comparaison des fragments saraḫsiens avec les épîtres révèle l’identité de style et de doctrine. L’identification de surcroît d’as-Saraḫsī au réviseur de l’Introduction arithmétique de Nicomaque autorise à postuler un système philosophique fondé mathématiquement. Préoccupées par le problème ontologique de la diversité du réel sous l’unité du Créateur, par le problème épistémologique de la divergence des méthodes et des doctrines scientifiques et religieuses malgré l’unité de la vérité et par le problème politique de la discorde malgré l’interdépendance des hommes, les Rasāʾil Iḫwān aṣ-Ṣafā entreprennent d’unifier la multiplicité empirique des êtres, de coordonner les savoirs et de réconcilier les hommes en une communauté vertueuse au moyen de trois concepts mathématiques : par leur origine dans l’émanation des êtres à partir du Créateur exprimée par la suite arithmétique, dans leur structure par la compréhension des analogies et des puissances entre les choses que révèle le rapport harmonique, et dans leur finalité au moyen de l’abstraction géométrique des formes hors de la matière constituée en modèle initiatique des âmes à la séparation d’avec le corps. / The Epistles of Brethren in Purity are an encyclopedia of philosophical sciences (in the Hegelian meaning) and were composed by Aḥmad b. aṭ-Ṭayyib as-Saraḫsī around 280/894. They are based on the work of the Brethren in Purity, which are the social inheritance of the “circle of al-Kindī.” The system itself is based on the arithmetic works of Nicomaque of Gerase. It is full of kindian science and erected on al-Ǧāḥiẓ political concerns. But as-Saraḫsī builds a very particular philosophical object. At the historical level, once we determine that the author is unique, that his views on the scientific heritage of the prophets is largely used by Abū Ḥātim ar-Rāzī to dispute with Abū Bakr, that the epistles are full of kindian elements, that the only al-Kindī’s student able to write such a book is Aḥmad b. aṭ-Ṭayyib as-Saraḫsī, we can compare the text with his fragments and reveal that they both share a particular style and philosophical ideas. So, because as-Saraḫsī is also the corrector of Nicomaque’s Introduction on Arithmetics, we can assume that he gives great importance to mathematics and base his system on it. The Epistles are focused on the ontological problem of the diversity of reality under the reign of the Creator’s unity, on the epistemological problem of contrariety of sciences and religions in methods and beliefs, and on the political problem of adversity of men in spite common interdependence. So they unify the effective multiplicity of beings, order the different disciplines of knowledge and build human reconciliation in the virtuous city, thanks to three mathematical concepts: they rewrite the emanation of beings from the Creator’s spring with the arithmetical sequence, they unify the actual structure of the world with the harmonic relation that rationalizes the different analogies and the mutual powers of their parts, and they educate the soul to its spiritual end with the geometric abstraction of forms from the material.