Dynamism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dynamism is a concept that has several meanings. One is a concept pertaining to objects and the material world. The other is a social culture philosophy. The specific meanings can be found below.
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[edit] Metaphysics
Dynamism is a loosely joined term of philosophy and science coined[citation needed] by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) and developed into a full system of cosmology. The Dynamism idea in metaphysical cosmology explains the material world in terms of active, pointlike forces, with no extension but with action at a distance. Dynamism describes that which exists as simple elements, or for Leibniz, monads, and groups of elements which have only the essence of forces. It was developed as a reaction against the passive view of matter in philosophical mechanism. Interaction between elements takes place without contact, through modes or even harmonics of motion, yielding all phenomena in the Universe.
Various treatments of Dynamism can be found in the works of Baruch Spinoza and Henri Bergson, and also, long before them, Parmenides, Aristotle, the Atomists, and Plotinus. In more contemporary works, elements of Dynamism also developed into process philosophy, via Alfred North Whitehead and others, as well as systems theory via Ludwig von Bertalanffy and William Ross Ashby. Some contemporary thinkers such as Virginia Postrel, who describes a social philosophy of cultural change, individual choice, and the open society speak of such Dynamism over stasis.
Dynamism was also taken up by Umberto Boccioni and other artists and creative thinkers early in the 20th century. Dynamist artists used the concept as part of a way of representing the complexity of processes, rather than be limited by the discrete and static moments within change, which also illustrated the limits of human perception. Immanuel Kant was another philosopher who helped developed the theory of dynamism.
[edit] Futurism
The Italian futurists used plastic dynamism to describe a concept pertaining to an object's motion, both intrinsic and relative to its environment.
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[edit] Libertarianism
Libertarian pundit Virginia Postrel used the term dynamism to describe her social philosophy that embraces cultural change, individual choice, and the open society. She contrasts dynamism with what she calls "stasis" — that is, government regulation and conservative resistance to change.
Postrel explains these terms in detail in her book The Future and its Enemies (ISBN 0-684-86269-7).
- External articles
- Dynamist.com, Virginia Postrel's site
[edit] Electronics Retailer
Dynamism is also the name of an electronics retailer that sells Japanese electronics --- primarily laptop computers --- that are not ordinarily available outside of Japan to American (and other) markets. In addition to ultra-thin laptop computers they also sell a variety of other Japanese electronics including PDAs, digital cameras, portable music and video players, and miscellaneous gadgets. They convert many electronics to an English-language operating system and provide service and support. Still, many balk at the very high markups they charge --- the price increase over what one would pay in Japan. Even if their markups often seem unseemly high, they do find a considerable market as many American consumers are eager to have the newest electronics, which are typically available in Japan long before American models are released. Japanese electronics in general, and notebook computers in particular, tend to be smaller, ligher and most of all thinner, than American models. However those computers that are thin and light suffer performance disadvantages that American models, particularly from Dell, do not suffer from. The fastest notebook computers are built by an American company called AlienWare which is now owned by Dell.
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[edit] References
- Adapted from the Wikinfo article, "Dynamism" http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Dynamism, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
