Notability
Encyclopedia
Notability is the property of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity
to be such.
regarding aesthetic appraisal.Aesthetic Appraisal, Philosophy (1975), 50: 189-204, Evan Simpson There are criticism of art galleries determining monetary valuation, or valuation so as to determine what or what not to display, being based on notability of the artist, rather than inherent quality of the art work.
. Marketers and newspapers may try to create notability to create celebrity
, fame
, or notoriety, or to increase sales, as in the yellow press.
: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia, Andrew Lih
writes that notability is at the center of the debate as to what the world's greatest encyclopedia should be -
Emily Artinian compares this passage with Borges' The Library of Babel
.
Persons wanting to delete an article on the grounds of non-notability are called deletionists. Those not wanting to delete the article are called inclusionists.
A team of computer scientist
s at MIT and Rutgers University
has used notability at Wikipedia to create a measure of hierarchy in a directed online social network.
The number of hits from a search engine has been proposed as a measure of notability; Wikipedia does not recommend the use of Google's results.
The number of citation
s has been proposed as a measure of notability of a publication or author; the field of study is called citation analysis
.
There is a distinction between a capacity
to be notable in the abstract
, and having already realized this capacity, it being reified. Once defined, notabiity is established by convention, such as considering all names of places to merit placement in an encyclopedia, and can thus be objectively assessed as inherent notability,. A person might consider a work of art to be notable based on their own personal reaction to it, which is an example of subjective notability.
Notability may be considered to be absolutely objective
, e.g., inherently as the big bang
; relative
ly objectively determinable using a convention
al definition, which is subjective
ly determined by consensus, e.g., an online encyclopedia consensus to consider all towns as being notable, no matter how small; or subjective
, such as a notably emotional day for an individual.
Conferring notability is related to transitivity
and the syllogism
. If all A's are notable, and x is an A, then x is notable is true by syllogism
, but if A is notable, and x is an element of A, then x is not necessarily notable. If x is more notable than y, and y is more notable than z, then x is more notable than z, but if person x considers A to be notable, and A is a subset of B, then x does not necessarily consider B to be notable; an example of an intentional context in the paradox of the name relation.
Capacity
Capacity is the ability to hold a fluid, very similar to volume.Capacity may also refer to:* Capacity utilization, in economics, the extent to which an enterprise or a nation actually uses its potential output...
to be such.
Aesthetic theory
The concept arises in the philosophy of aestheticsAesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
regarding aesthetic appraisal.Aesthetic Appraisal, Philosophy (1975), 50: 189-204, Evan Simpson There are criticism of art galleries determining monetary valuation, or valuation so as to determine what or what not to display, being based on notability of the artist, rather than inherent quality of the art work.
Journalism and marketing
Notability arises in decisions on coverage questions in journalismJournalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. Marketers and newspapers may try to create notability to create celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, fame
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, or notoriety, or to increase sales, as in the yellow press.
Notables as the privileged class
The privileged class are sometimes called notables, when compared to peasants.Wikipedia content
Notability of a subject determines which articles will be included or not at Wikipedia. In his book, The Wikipedia RevolutionThe Wikipedia Revolution
The Wikipedia Revolution: How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The World's Greatest Encyclopedia is a 2009 history book by new media researcher and writer Andrew Lih....
: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia, Andrew Lih
Andrew Lih
Andrew Lih is a new media researcher, consultant and writer, as well as a noted authority on both Wikipedia and internet censorship in the People's Republic of China. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Southern California....
writes that notability is at the center of the debate as to what the world's greatest encyclopedia should be -
Emily Artinian compares this passage with Borges' The Library of Babel
The Library of Babel
"The Library of Babel" is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges , conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format....
.
Persons wanting to delete an article on the grounds of non-notability are called deletionists. Those not wanting to delete the article are called inclusionists.
A team of computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
s at MIT and Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
has used notability at Wikipedia to create a measure of hierarchy in a directed online social network.
The number of hits from a search engine has been proposed as a measure of notability; Wikipedia does not recommend the use of Google's results.
The number of citation
Citation
Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
s has been proposed as a measure of notability of a publication or author; the field of study is called citation analysis
Citation analysis
Citation analysis is the examination of the frequency, patterns, and graphs of citations in articles and books. It uses citations in scholarly works to establish links to other works or other researchers. Citation analysis is one of the most widely used methods of bibliometrics...
.
There is a distinction between a capacity
Capacity
Capacity is the ability to hold a fluid, very similar to volume.Capacity may also refer to:* Capacity utilization, in economics, the extent to which an enterprise or a nation actually uses its potential output...
to be notable in the abstract
Abstraction
Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal concepts, first principles, or other methods....
, and having already realized this capacity, it being reified. Once defined, notabiity is established by convention, such as considering all names of places to merit placement in an encyclopedia, and can thus be objectively assessed as inherent notability,. A person might consider a work of art to be notable based on their own personal reaction to it, which is an example of subjective notability.
Notability may be considered to be absolutely objective
Objective
Objective may refer to:* Objective , to achieve a final set of actions within a given military operation* Objective pronoun, a pronoun as the target of a verb* Objective , an element in a camera or microscope...
, e.g., inherently as the big bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
; relative
Relative
-General use:*Kinship, the principle binding the most basic social units society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be relatives-Philosophy:...
ly objectively determinable using a convention
Convention
Convention may refer to:* Treaty, an agreement in international law* Convention , a large gathering of people who share a common interest** Political convention, a formal gathering of people for political purposes...
al definition, which is subjective
Subjective
Subjective may refer to:* Subjectivity, a subject's personal perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or discovery, as opposed to those made from an independent, objective, point of view** Subjective experience, the subjective quality of conscious experience...
ly determined by consensus, e.g., an online encyclopedia consensus to consider all towns as being notable, no matter how small; or subjective
Subjective
Subjective may refer to:* Subjectivity, a subject's personal perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or discovery, as opposed to those made from an independent, objective, point of view** Subjective experience, the subjective quality of conscious experience...
, such as a notably emotional day for an individual.
Conferring notability: name dropping, syllogism, transititvity, paradox of the name relation
Name dropping and argument by authority is an attempt to confer notability, i.e., to use the name of a notable associated with something, or to attempt to establish notability of that thing.Conferring notability is related to transitivity
Transitive relation
In mathematics, a binary relation R over a set X is transitive if whenever an element a is related to an element b, and b is in turn related to an element c, then a is also related to c....
and the syllogism
Syllogism
A syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition is inferred from two or more others of a certain form...
. If all A's are notable, and x is an A, then x is notable is true by syllogism
Syllogism
A syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition is inferred from two or more others of a certain form...
, but if A is notable, and x is an element of A, then x is not necessarily notable. If x is more notable than y, and y is more notable than z, then x is more notable than z, but if person x considers A to be notable, and A is a subset of B, then x does not necessarily consider B to be notable; an example of an intentional context in the paradox of the name relation.