Section: N/A ReadChanges --- title: Idealogs:Types of Articles --- is an explanation of the four types of articles in a [@0xB57941 | synesiary]. ## Background A synesiary catalogs and analyzes four things: subjects, writings, statements, questions. Each has its own article type and domain associated with it: <figure class="fullwidth"> | Item | Article Type | Domain | ---- | --- | ------- | [Subjects] | Definite | \@0 | [Writings] | Transfinite | \@T | [Statements] | Infinite | \@I | [Questions] | Finite | \@F </figure> ## Subjects The definite article[^definite] in a synesiary catalogs a **subject** and defines it. *Defining* a subject means a writing a literature review of the most important writings, statements, and questions that constitute man's current understanding of it. This is comparable to a literature review that one would write for a research proposal: a document which sketches out all the prior human efforts to understand a narrowly defined topic, and which is organized in a logical, clear way. [^definite]: A reference to the original *definite article*: "the" ## Writings The transfinite article catalogs a **writing** and defines it. *Defining* a writing means writing a brief summary of its contents, and then commenting on it by picking out specific phrases in the text that address other writings, claims, or questions in the synesiary and linking to them. This article is unique in that it has two functions: it catalogs and defines the writing in its [@0x66F7B7#article-page | Article page], *and* either links to hosts the writing itself in its [@0x66F7B7#text-page | Text page]. A writing is "transfinite"[^transfinite] in that, like all creative products of man, it is both infinite and finite in nature: infinite in that it represents a deeper, infinite truth that the author is trying to express, and finite in that it has a physical, finite form which enables that truth to be shared with others. ### Usage The transfinite article is special in that it is the starting point for all activity in the synesiary. All creative thought discussed on the site must originate from a source which is cataloged in this type of article. Further, the transfinite article should make links to the underlying text using the [@0x66F7B7#direct-linking | direct linking] system. The article should also make inter-wiki links to other writings, statements, questions, and subjects (when appropriate) that describe the writing in order to give it the exposure that it has earned. The goals of this system are: 1. to provide a system for an all-encompassing catalog of all writings in the world worth reading, and a mechanism--via [@0x2A91BA | reciprocal linking]--for exposing readers to the best writings that match the topics they are interested in. 2. to force the reader to grapple and interact with the text of the writing itself, both for the reader's benefit in pushing them to come to their own conclusions about the text, and for the author/publisher's benefit in generating traffic and revenue for their site, and 3. to incentivize writers around the world to write [@0x2A91BA#solution | creatively] in order to get their work exposed on the site and make a living off their craft. [^transfinite]: The word comes from the concept of the Transfinite numbers, a set of numbers which contain properties of both infinite and finite sets. The prefix "Trans" means across, ie transfinite translates to something that bridges across the infinite and the finite. ## Statements The infinite article catalogs a **statement** and summarizes the best proofs--sourced from writings that are cataloged elsewhere on the site--that exist for it. A statement is "infinite" in that it establishes some deeper truth about the world which exists outside of man. ## Questions The finite article catalogs a **question** and analyzes the claims that constitute it, establishing (to the best of our abilities) all the relevant facts that make it such a good question. A question is "finite" in that it represents a contradiction between two or more mutually exclusive statements which are purporting to be true. Since the two contradictory statements cannot both be true, it follows that every question can *eventually* be resolved with additional information that clarifies one of the statements or proves it to be false, whether or not that additional information can be known now, or even in the future. ReadChanges
