Władysław Mantura Translation of complemented and revised version of “Overview of Qualitology” published by Publishing House of Poznan University of Technology in 2010. Publishing House of Poznan University of Technology Poznan 2020 Reviewer prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Borys Cover design Marek Derbich Computer typesetting Marek Derbich Translation Agata Kordylewska Translation Agency mTłumaczenia.pl Proofreading Anna Liberek Professional consultant dr inż. Joanna Majchrzak ISBN 978-83-7775-600-3 (printed version) ISBN 978-83-7775-601-0 (digital version available at: www.ed.put.poznan.pl) Edition I Permission to use Overview of Qualitology under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Alike 4.0 License (also known as CC-BY-SA), available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or any other language version of this license or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons. Publishing House of Poznan University of Technology Piotrowo 5, 60-965 Poznań tel. +48 61 665 3516 e-mail: [email protected] www.ed.put.poznan.pl Binding and duplication in Perfekt Druk ul. Skórzewska 63 60-185 Skórzewo TABLE OF CONTENTS List of notations .................................................................................... 5 Introduction ......................................................................................... 9 1. Practical and theoretical premises for the development of qualitology ................................................................. 13 1.1. Practical considerations of qualitology ...................................... 13 1.2. Theoretical sources of qualitology ............................................ 19 2. Subject of qualitology as the science of quality ............. 29 2.1. Specification of the scope of reality as the object of qualitological research ......................................................... 29 2.2. Description of the research consideration ................................. 35 2.3. Main goals of qualitology ......................................................... 37 2.4. Methodological instruments ..................................................... 38 2.5. Qualitology division concept .................................................... 40 3. Elements of terminological convention .......................... 45 3.1. Basic terms and definitions ...................................................... 45 3.2. Classification profiles of features and qualities .......................... 54 3.3. Information approach to quality .............................................. 68 4. Basic qualitative operations ........................................... 85 4.1. Operation of determining non-evaluated quality ....................... 85 4.2. Quality systematisation operation ............................................ 92 4.3. Quality comparison operation .................................................. 94 4.4. Quality evaluation operation .................................................. 100 4 Table of contents 4.5. Quality optimisation operation ............................................... 107 4.6. Quality management operation .............................................. 110 5. Qualitative approach in studying and shaping objects .. 119 5.1. Essence of qualitative approach ............................................. 119 5.2. Principle of qualitative mapping ............................................. 122 5.3. Principle of anthropocentrism ................................................ 122 5.4. Principle of complexity .......................................................... 125 5.5. Systemic principle ................................................................. 130 5.6. Synergy principle .................................................................. 134 5.7. Kinetics principle ................................................................... 139 5.8. Probability principle ............................................................... 142 5.9. Evaluation principle ............................................................... 145 5.10. Optimisation principle ........................................................... 149 5.11. Standardisation principle ....................................................... 153 5.12. Economics principle .............................................................. 160 6. Selected applications and functions of qualitology ...... 171 6.1. Scope of application of qualitology ......................................... 171 6.2. Language and the semantic function of qualitology ................. 176 6.3. Classification function of qualitology in systematics of objects ... 179 6.4. Category of the quality of human life ..................................... 181 6.5. Management quality category ................................................ 184 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 187 Literature .......................................................................................... 191 LIST OF NOTATIONS A – set of abstract objects, b – absolute measure of similarity of states of quantitative feature with absolute or uniform measurement scale, bw – relative measure of similarity of states of quantitative feature with absolute or uniform measurement scale, c – feature, cp – object feature, Cs – set of stimuli and motives, D – set of acceptable solutions to a qualitative decision-making problem, ej – quotient indicator of the economic effectiveness of qualitative decision, ej' – differential indicator of the economic effectiveness of qualitative decision, Ei – set of economic categories, F(c) – property of features belonging to objects, F(s) – property of states of features belonging to objects, F(J) – property of quality belonging to objects, F(S) – property of states of quality belonging to objects, Fc – function of quality for features, Fd – diagnostic function, FJ – function of quality for quality, Fk – classification function assigning qualitative categories to classes, Fp – classification function assigning classes to objects, Fs – semantic function, Ft – transformation function, Fz – quality management function, 6 List of notations Fji – function of value of the ith qualitative category for the jth feature of value, Fpr – design function, Fsm – stimulating and motivating function, Fdec – decision-making function, gn – relative measure of similarity of object quality, gbn – absolute measure of similarity of object quality, Gn – relative measure of similarity of states of object quality, Gbn – absolute measure of similarity of states of object quality, J – quality, Ji – individual quality, Jp – level of quality, Jr – fuzzy quality, Js – state of quality, Jw – common quality, Js – fuzzy state of quality, Jsdl – deterministic and random state of quality, Jp – object quality, JW – set of object components quality, JZ – set of quality of object’s environment components, Jnp – non-evaluated quality of object, Jwe – input function quality, Jwe – output function quality, Jwp – evaluated quality of object, Jsz – quality of management signals, Jzs – quality of managed subsystem, p Js – state of object quality, J(1,2) – difference in quality of object 1 against object 2, J(2,1) – difference in quality of object 2 against object 1, J(1,2–2,+1) – difference in quality between objects 1 and 2, J(x,n) – difference in quality of object x against quality of objects from set of n-cardinality, (1,2) Js – difference in state of quality of object 1 against the state of quality of object 2, List of notations 7 (2,1) Js – difference in state of quality of object 2 against the state of quality of object 1, (1,2–2,1) Js – difference in states of quality between objects 1 and 2, (x,n) Js – difference in state of quality of object x against states of quality of objects in set of n-cardinality, p Jwł – qualitative proper synergy effect, expressed by a set of features, p Jswł – qualitative proper synergy effect, expressed by a set of states of features, ki – ith qualitative category, ksi – state of ith qualitative category, w ki – ith evaluated qualitative category, Ki – set of states of the ith qualitative category, Kj – set of qualitative categories, Kl – set of classes in object classification, Kdec – set of qualitative decisions, L – set of subjects, M – set of material objects, O – object, p – subject, pc – level of quantitative features of absolute or uniform measurement scale, pcw – intensity of quantitative features of absolute or uniform measurement scale, pki – intensity of ith criterion of quality comprehensiveness, pwsr – mean intensity of quantitative features of absolute or uniform mea- surement scales, P – predicate, P – set of objects, Pc – material scope of feature, Ps – material scope of state of feature, PJ – material scope of quality, PS – material scope of state of quality, Ppr – set of designed objects, R – relation, 8 List of notations Rw – evaluating relation, Rwz – evaluating relations according to model, R – matrix of relations, RJ – family of sets of features, Rje – set of relations between qualitative and economic categories, Rwew – set of internal relations, Rzew – set of external relations, Rs – family of sets of states of features, s – state of feature, sb – base state of feature, smin – minimum state of quantitative feature, smax – maximum state of quantitative feature, sopt – optimum state of feature, S – set of states of feature, Sm – set of possible states of feature, Sr – set of actual states of feature, Sej – economic stimulating