Thinking with diagrams : the semiotic basis of human cognition / edited by Sybille Krämer and Christina Ljungberg.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Krämer, Sybille, editor.

Ljungberg, Christina, editor.

Series:

Semiotics, communication and cognition ; Volume 17.

Semiotics, Communication and Cognition, 1867-0873 ; Volume 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cognitive psychology.

Semiotics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston, [Massachusetts] ; Berlin, [Germany] : De Gruyter Mouton, 2016.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Diagrammatic reasoning is crucial for human cognition. It is hard to think of any forms of science or knowledge without the "intermediary world" of diagrams and diagrammatic representation in thought experiments and/or processes, manifested in forms as divers as notes, tables, schemata, graphs, drawings and maps. Despite their phenomenological and structural-functional differences, these forms of representation share a number of important attributes and epistemic functions. Combining aspects of linguistic and pictorial symbolism, diagrams go beyond the traditional distinction between language and image. They do not only represent, yet intervene in what is represented. Their spatiality, materiality and operativity establish a dynamic tool to exteriorize thinking, thus contributing to the idea of the extended mind. They foster imagination and problem solving, facilitate orientation in knowledge spaces and the discovery of unsuspected relationships. How can the diagrammatic nature of cognitive and knowledge practices be theorized historically as well as systematically? This is what this volume explores by investigating the semiotic dimension of diagrams as to knowledge, information and reasoning, e.g., the 'thing-ness' of diagrams in the history of art, the range of diagrammatic reasoning in logic, mathematics, philosophy and the sciences in general, including the knowledge function of maps.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of contents

Thinking and diagrams – An introduction

1. On the “thing-ness” of diagrams

2. The role of diagrams in abductive reasoning

3. Behind the diagrams: cognitive issues and open problems

4. Diagrammatic problem solving

5. Is there a general diagram concept?

6. The diagrammatic nature of maps

7. Is there a diagrammatic impulse with Plato? ‘Quasi-diagrammatic-scenes’ in Plato’s philosophy

8. The diagram as board game: Semiotic discoveries in Alfonso the Wise’s Book of Games (1283 CE) – with some observations as to Gudea as Architect (2000 BCE)

9. Pattern language and space syntax: Alexander, Chomsky, Peirce and Wittgenstein

References

Index of names

Index of subjects

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed August 4, 2016).

ISBN:

1-5015-0368-5

1-5015-0375-8

OCLC:

954046442