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

• VerfasserIn: Yoos, George E.,
• TeilnehmendeR: Randall-Schab, Magdalena,
• Place / Publishing House: Warsaw/Berlin : : De Gruyter Open,, [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (188 pages) :; illustrations
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

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.

Table of 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