Literary notes about Synthesis (AI summary)
Literary works employ the term "synthesis" to denote the process of uniting disparate elements—whether perceptual, conceptual, or material—into a coherent whole. Philosophical texts often contrast it with analysis, emphasizing how the mind integrates diverse representations into unified understanding, as seen in discussions of the synthesis of phenomena and mental unity [1], [2], [3]. In other contexts, synthesis becomes a metaphor for creative or scientific transformation, where separate components merge to form novel compounds or ideas, much like the assembly of chemical elements or the fusion of conflicting opinions into a singular truth [4], [5], [6]. Additionally, synthesis is invoked to describe the construction of comprehensive visions in art and social theory, where the amalgamation of individual experiences or historical elements yields a richer totality [7], [8]. Through such varied applications, synthesis functions as a bridge between division and unity, analysis and creation, underscoring its central role in generating meaning from complexity.
- For phenomena are nothing but an empirical synthesis in apprehension or perception, and are therefore given only in it.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - In the synthesis of phenomena, the manifold of our representations is always successive.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - Intuition must therefore here lend its aid, by means of which, and thus only, our synthesis is possible.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - 9956 Synthesis of the Alkaloids—A retrospect of the field of work so far traveled over by synthetical chemists, and future prospects.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 623, December 10, 1887 by Various - The mother-principle is at the very foundations of the organic world, and [Pg 12] defies all attempts of chemical synthesis to reproduce it.
— from The Breath of Life by John Burroughs - Truth lies not " between the two," but in a synthesis of the two opinions.
— from Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre by Voltairine De Cleyre - Analysis leads to synthesis; while synthesis perfects analysis.
— from How We Think by John Dewey - All things are impelled towards, a synthesis of the European past in the highest types of mind.
— from The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
