Patterns before recognition: the historical ascendance of an extractive empiricism of forms

Berkay Üstün ()
Additional contact information
Berkay Üstün: Fenerbahçe University

Palgrave Communications, 2024, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract This article explores the complex convergence between cybernetics and Gestalt theory and its influence on the concept of pattern recognition. It finds a departure in the analogous ways each discipline extends their core frameworks toward social and anthropological objects. However, this shared ground is not without tensions. In the post-war American context, what is formalizable and realizable in mechanical structures has a certain explanatory authority—even if often misplaced-- concerning perception and human intelligence. Cultural patterns feed into mechanical recognition of patterns, exemplifying “extractive empiricism” or the process of outsourcing experiential processes to mechanical systems. This mode of “proof” is also evident in cybernetic and cognitive psychological strategies toward Gestalt theory, leaving a significant legacy for contemporary machine learning approaches. By examining the early interactions between these rival paradigms, known for their quest for generalization, and disentangling their source status, this inquiry contributes to understanding the broad conceptual possibilities of pattern recognition beyond its narrow confines in engineering perspectives and machine learning discourse.

Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02574-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02574-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02574-1

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().