Integrating Approaches to Material Style in Theory and Philosophy

Abstract

First in the problems with dealing with style is how to define just what it is. The relation between style and function is tricky, for it’s seen as a derivative of the other or as completely separate (Carr and Neitzel, 1995: 3-6). Carr and Neitzel thus provide some of their own suggestions for how to integrate the current approaches to studying material style: 1. Describe the processes and constraints that determine style 2. Review high theory and its effects on style 3. Use middle range theory to link high theory with the causal processes and look at the phenomenological levels. Use this to also link these processes with attribute forms. Carr’s approach to middle range theory is quite complicated, and, one critique I have, is that its complication is perhaps just as bad as having no theory involvement at all. See Roe, 1995 and Braun, 1995 for more explanation of the intricacies of style.