Simplifying complexity : rhetoric and the social politics of dealing with ignorance / George E. Yoos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yoos, George E., author.

Contributor:

Randall-Schab, Magdalena, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in science.

Rhetoric.

Communication of technical information.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (188 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Warsaw/Berlin : De Gruyter Open, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Simplifying complexity explores how to eliminate ignorance, which in the view of the author, is the purpose of the sciences and technologies and their consequent developments. More specifically, the book deals with the plurality of the sciences and technologies. It is about the way in which each of them develops around the prosthetics of printed languages and the models used as visual aids to help us create new modes of communication to understand and solve human problems. Consequently, the task is to simplify the complexity that we find in different sciences, both social and physical. In his collection of essays, George E. Yoos surveys a number of different models that have evolved from the innate, biological forms of grammar, logic, and modes of orientation. He investigates the evolution of socially constructed systems of numeracy and measurement that have evolved and developed in different languages for the use in scientific and technological communication. He identifies methods derived from three distinct personal experiences: the use of types of prosthetic, mnemonic, and attention controlling devices, in order to yield simpler perspectives of complex states of affairs. George E. Yoos, emeritus professor, is a legend in the field of rhetoric. Founder and editor of the Rhetoric Society Quarterly [1972-1985], author of Reframing Rhetoric [2007], Politics and Rhetoric [2009], and fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

A Preface on Aims

1 Rhetorical limitations in the use of frames and perspectives

2 Aging and complexity

3 The human animal and its ascendance from ignorance

4 The work of Herbert Simon on Artificial Intelligence

5 Circular thinking and linear exposition Circling around a point to discover the point

6 Modern and postmodern thinking: rational and interpretive thinking

7 Use of different types of graphic display to interpret meaning

8 Stasis, observation, and facts

9 The apparent realism of naïve realism How really naïve is naïve realism?

10 Various types of modeling used for finding correlations, designing structures, discovering contrasts, and making comparisons

11 A sense of place as fundamental to our thinking about models about equilibriums

12 Fenced-off and fenced-in equilibriums: Outside and inside boundaries and fences

13 The rhetoric and politics of standardization: Measurements and needs for precision

14 Simple-minded simplicity of simples

15 Rhetorical Unity in Narrative and Exposition

16 Boolean algebra, Tűring machines, and the Sheffer stroke function

Appendix

Bibliography

List of Figures

List of Tables

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This eBook is made available Open Access. Unless otherwise specified individually in the content, the work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed May 2, 2017).

ISBN:

9783110450613

3110450615

9783110450576

3110450577

OCLC:

979883005