I was struck by this section when reviewing the Design Thinking post on wikipedia. The Greek meaning of “to loosen up” and “to put together” are great concepts in regards to a standard “divergent” and “convergent” thinking and design methods.
I like it and hope to incorporate it into my Design Workshop sessions – loosen up ideas then put it all together in a cohesive solution…
The terms analysis and synthesis come from (classical) Greek and mean literally “to loosen up” and “to put together” respectively. In general, analysis is defined as the procedure by which we break down an intellectual or substantial whole into parts or components. Synthesis is defined as the opposite procedure: to combine separate elements or components in order to form a coherent whole. However, analysis and synthesis, as scientific methods, always go hand in hand; they complement one another.