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The core problems of sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge remain insoluble and unrelated as long as both theories start from static models. The problems can be solved, and the respective theories related to each other, without undue difficulties if the acquisition of knowledge is conceptualized as a long-term process which takes place within societies also considered as long-term processes. This approach has the added advantage of being in closer agreement with the evidence. The paper indicates what needs to be unlearned and what to be learned in order to prepare the way for such a unified theoretical framework which can serve as a guide to, and which can be in turn corrected by, empirical sociological studies of all types of knowledge, scientific and practical as well as non-scientific or ideological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the use of the computer in the humanities and fine arts, and indicates the relevance of available hardware and software for those applications areas. The first section covers (a) pattern recognition and analysis in art, architecture, music, and literature (with an emphasis upon the latter), and (b) pattern construction, or synthesis, in art, architecture, music, and language. In the second section, data representation and manipulation are described with reference to: first, transformation of the artifact into a form suitable for the computer; second, internal data storage and manipulation; and, third, output. The three types of artifacts dealt with are: aural, or auditory; visual, including both nonalphameric and alphameric forms; tactile. A discussion of data structures and of data manipulation occupies the subsection on internal data storage and manipulation, and the brief commentary on output concentrates on aural and visual modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]