Symmetry, Analogy, Proportionality

Ioannis Vandoulakis (University of Thessaly, Open University Of Cyprus), Tatiana Denisova (University of the Aegean)

Symmetry, Analogy and Proportionality

Organiser 

Katarzyna GAN-KRZYWOSZYNSKA (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Philosophy, Poland)

Description 

The workshop proposes an interdisciplinary reflection on three relational concepts that are closely connected and sometimes even overlapping, namely symmetry, analogy and proportionality. It seems that the difference between symmetry and analogy is quite clear. However, proportionality is correlated with both. These three concepts are very useful in philosophical and artistic analysis. 

During the workshop, we want to investigate both theoretical approaches to these concepts and the relation between them. We also wish to study examples of applications of the triad to such concepts as justice, dialogue, generosity, and mutuality. Therefore, we are particularly interested in contributions investigating symmetry, analogy and proportionality as heuristic tools from the perspective of social and gender issues and political and legal relations, among others. 

For instance, Leszek Nowak (1943 – 2009), one of the founders and active members of the Poznań Methodological School (Poznańska Szkoła Metodologiczna) and the author of the theory of action (the so-called non-Christian model of man), introduces three models of relations based on proportionality 

1. normal situation and inverse proportionality 

2. situation of constrain (also called enslavement), and 

3. situation of exasperation/satanisation. 

They correspond to the assumption of rationality (when a subject maximises their preferences), counter-rationality (maximisation of someone else’s, not one’s own, preferences) and irrationality (maximization of someone else’s counter-preferences), respectively. 

We also invite contributions on symmetry, analogy, and proportionality as a basis for artistic expression and creativity in music, literature, architecture, and painting, especially in the context of such oppositions as academism/classicism versus baroque.