claim

active

claim:the-degree-of-life-of-each-center-is-correlated-with-the-degree-to-which-that-center-is-a-picture-of-the-self-and-this-holds-for-all-people-not-just-individuals

The degree of life of each center is correlated with the degree to which that center is a picture of the self, and this holds for all people, not just individuals.

Proposition 2 of the Mid-Book Appendix; the claim that self-likeness is a universal, species-wide measure of life.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Findings (1)

finding

The mirror-of-self criterion allows a person with almost no training, after a few hours, to make quality judgments of carpets that would normally require years of connoisseurship.
supports
Empirical finding cited in Book 1 regarding oriental carpets, recapitulated in the Mid-Book Appendix to support the universality of the self-criterion.

Concepts (1)

concept

Picture of the Self (as measurement criterion)
supports
The experimental criterion by which degree of life in a center is measured: which of two things more resembles the observer's own eternal self.

Questions (2)

question

Why should the practical beauty and efficiency of a girder in a bridge have anything to do with I?
gates
Alexander's central puzzle motivating Proposition 2: the correlation between functional life and self-likeness extends even to engineering, not just aesthetic experience.
Why should what appears as my self, and what appears as your self, be in any sense similar? And why should the things of the world, rank-ordered by degree of life, have approximately the same rank order for you and for me and for almost everyone else?
gates
The question motivating the universality claim in Proposition 2: how can a subjective measure of self produce cross-observer agreement?

Claims (1)

claim

The structure of living centers appears in natural things — snowdrops, waves, clouds, mountains, foxes, grains of sand — and these too resemble the human self, requiring that there be a deep connection under the surface.
extends
Alexander's argument that self-likeness in natural forms cannot be explained by artistic intention alone, requiring Proposition 2 for theoretical coherence.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Degree of life varies with relative configuration of surrounding centers, not absolute properties.claim0.861
In Alexander's framework, a center's degree of life is a function of surrounding centers' configurations and their life-degree—a recursive definition.claim0.851
The degree of life is not merely a distinction between beautiful and ugly things but is detectable in every corner of the world.claim0.849
Broadens the scope of life from aesthetics to a fundamental property.
Centers themselves have life.claim0.847
One of the four key ideas, asserting that individual centers possess a degree of life.
Every living center may be distinguished as living, to the degree that it is a picture of the eternal self.claim0.846
Central proposition from Book 1 that grounds the beings model.
Each center gets its life, always, from the fact that it is helping to support and enliven some larger center.claim0.844
The fundamental recursive rule of living centers.
Life comes directly from the wholeness; the degree of life arises from the way centers in the wholeness cohere to form a unity.claim0.840
The fundamental thesis of the book: life is an emergent property of the structure of centers.
Space becomes more deeply functional and well-organized as it begins to resemble more deeply the human person; life in a center means the space begins to resemble the human selfclaim0.836
Extraordinary structural claim: functional organization converges on resemblance to the human self