| 释义 |
heuristic, a. (n.)|hjʊˈrɪstɪk|
[irreg. f. Gr. εὑρίσκ-ειν (stem εὑρε-) to find, app. after words in -istic from vbs. in -ιζειν, -ize; cf. Ger. heuristik, -isch.]
A. adj.
a. Serving to find out or discover.
1821Coleridge Let. 8 Jan. (1971) V. 133, I am..getting regularly on with my Logic—in 3 parts—..3. Organic or Heuristic (εὑριστικόν). 1853N. & Q. i. Ser. VII. 320 Heuristic,..as an English scholar would write it, or Heuristisch, as it would be written by a German. 1860Whewell in Todhunter's Acc. W.'s Wks. (1876) II. 418 If you will not let me treat the Art of Discovery as a kind of Logic, I must take a new name for it, Heuristic, for example. 1877E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. xix. 662 The ideas of reason are heuristic not ostensive: they enable us to ask a question, not to give the answer. 1890J. F. Smith tr. Pfleiderer's Devel. Theol. iv. i. 321 Its proper place as an heuristic principle in practical sociology. 1955Sci. Amer. July 72/3 Einstein's 1905 paper, for which (nominally) he had been awarded the Nobel prize, did not contain the word ‘theory’ in the title, but referred instead to considerations from a ‘heuristic viewpoint’. 1967Listener 28 Sept. 386/2 His [sc. M. McLuhan's] style is jargon-ridden—all this talk of ‘heuristic probes’, as if a probe could be anything but heuristic. 1973N.Y. Times 2 May 36/2 The kind of criticism being written now is looser, more fluid, more ad hoc and heuristic.
b. Educ. (See quot. 1898.)
1848[implied in heuristical a. below]. 1884in Spec. Rep. Educ. II. 390 in Parl. Papers 1898 (C. 8943) XXIV. 1 The heuristic method is the only method to be applied in the pure sciences; it is the best method in the teaching of the applied sciences. 1898H. E. Armstrong Ibid., Heuristic methods of teaching are methods which involve our placing students as far as possible in the attitude of the discoverer—methods which involve their finding out, instead of merely being told about things. 1959Chambers's Encycl. VII. 80/2 Science-teaching should always be permeated by a heuristic bias (i.e. methods of investigation must be used whenever possible).
c. Computers. (See quot. 1964.)
1960Information Processing: Proc. Internat. Conf., 1959 (Unesco) 275/1 The technique of heuristic programming is under detailed investigation as a means to the end of applying large-scale digital computers to the solution of a difficult class of problems currently considered to be beyond their capabilities. 1964T. W. McRae Impact of Computers on Accounting 297 Under an ‘heuristic’ programming procedure the computer searches through a number of possible solutions at each stage of the programme, it evaluates a ‘good’ solution for this stage and then proceeds to the next stage. Essentially heuristic programming is similar to the problem solving techniques by trial and error methods which we use in everyday life. 1969P. B. Jordain Condensed Computer Encycl. 235 The heuristic program should be able to judge whether the problem is closer to solution after each attempt.
B. n.
1. a. = heuretic.
1860Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §35 (ed. 5) 56 Logic may be regarded as Heuristic, or the Art of Discovering truth. 1945G. Polya How to solve It p. vii, The subject of heuristic has manifold connections; mathematicians, logicians, psychologists, educationalists, even philosophers may claim various parts of it. Ibid. 102 The aim of heuristic is to study the methods and rules of discovery and invention. 1957Proc. Western Joint Computer Conf. XV. 218 (heading) Empirical explorations of the logic theory machine. A case study of heuristic.
b. A heuristic process or method for attempting the solution of a problem; a rule or item of information used in such a process.
1957A. Newell et al. in Proc. Western Joint Computer Conf. XV. 223 A process that may solve a given problem, but offers no guarantees of doing so, is called a heuristic for that problem. Ibid,. For conciseness, we will use ‘heuristic’ as a noun synonymous with ‘heuristic process’. 1958IBM Jrnl. Res. & Devel. II. 337/1 For the moment..we shall consider that a heuristic method (or a heuristic, to use the noun form) is a procedure that may lead us by a short cut to the goal we seek or it may lead us down a blind alley. 1962Ledley & Wilson Programming & utilizing Digital Computers viii. 349 Such criteria are called the heuristics of the problem. The field of heuristic programming is concerned with the investigation and understanding of various aspects of heuristics, such as how they are discovered, what kinds there are. 1967A. Battersby Network Analysis (ed. 2) xii. 192 It would..seem more reasonable to recalculate the float next time (6, 14) was a candidate for limited resources. Some heuristics do this.
2. pl. The study and use of heuristic techniques in data processing.
1963Times 8 June 11/2 Whether every manager needs to know about cybernetics, econometrics, and heuristics is arguable, but cost analysis, market research, production control, and other developing subjects should be within his purview. 1967Observer 9 Apr. 21/3 This branch of artificial intelligence—building machines to take short cuts to a solution—is known as ‘heuristics’ and is being actively pursued at the moment.
Hence heuˈristical a.; heuˈristically, in a heuristic manner; using heuristic processes.
1848W. Ross Teacher's Man. v. 92 The Heuristical method. 1935Jrnl. Theol. Stud. XXXVI. 314 The belief that the world's orderedness or knowability is an expression of mind, and that the category of purpose..is applicable to it otherwise than heuristically. 1963J. Lyons Structural Semantics ii. 17 What is not made clear is the purpose served by the semantic criterion (except heuristically) in the first place. 1965Language XLI. 507 Nonlinguistic context may be heuristically useful in establishing lexical fields. 1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax i. 52 It is historically accurate as well as heuristically valuable to distinguish these two very different approaches to the problem of the acquisition of knowledge. 1968P. A. P. Moran Introd. Probability Theory ix. 441 On solving this problem heuristically it is found that u(t), also, is a random process. |