We can best assess function by assessing the degree of life in various centers.

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

• We see then that life, as it occurs in buildings or in works of art, can be measured. But it can only be measured, or estimated, in a way which relies on the degree of development, or enlightenment, of the observer.quote0.829
  A key methodological statement encapsulating the chapter's conclusion.
• Life, as it occurs in buildings or in works of art, can be measured, but only by a method that relies on the degree of development or enlightenment of the observer.claim0.828
  The fundamental methodological conclusion of the chapter.
• In Alexander's framework, a center's degree of life is a function of surrounding centers' configurations and their life-degree—a recursive definition.claim0.823
• Degree of life varies with relative configuration of surrounding centers, not absolute properties.claim0.818
• 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.claim0.814
  Proposition 2 of the Mid-Book Appendix; the claim that self-likeness is a universal, species-wide measure of life.
• The degree of life is not merely a distinction between beautiful and ugly things but is detectable in every corner of the world.claim0.813
  Broadens the scope of life from aesthetics to a fundamental property.
• the degree of life of different things and places and events is objective - not solely in the individualquote0.809
  Load-bearing assertion of objectivity, summarizing the chapter's thesis.
• The degree of life is well defined, objectively existing, and measurable.claim0.808
  Part of the fundamental hypothesis, asserting empirical accessibility.