modes of expression |
Working Definition:
the differences among the
necessary, the probable, and the possible outcomes of signification 
Disciplinary Definitions:
In his Uses of Argument, Stephen Toulmin notes that "logicians built up the simplest and most compact set of categoreis which would serve them reasonably in criticising arguments of this first kind [syllogistic]. As a result, they were led to neglect the differences between [arguments]." A "crucial distinction" he argues is
The distinction between necessary arguments and probable arguments: i.e., between arguments in which the warrant entitles us to argue unequivocally to the conclusion (which can be labelled with the modal qualifier 'necessarily') and arguments in which the warrant entitles us to draw our conclusions only tentatively (qualifying it with a 'probably') subject to possible exceptions ('presumably') or conidtionally (provided that ...'). 148
"Verstehen is knowledge of the inner mental life of man, whereas Erklarung is knowledge of the laws of the causal order of natural phenomena" Ermarth 246
See Seymour Chatman (1990), "Narrative and Two Other Text Types" Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell UP) [Are text types the outcomes of modes of cognition? ]
Comments:
IP models assume only one mode of communication. However, the communication depends on adjusting to a range of discursive modalities that form a spectrum from very abstract to very concrete features, from a predominately mathematical language to predominantly figurative language. This range is usually assumed to be covered by a difference in codes, but this is only a part of the process. What is left out are the different memory systems involved in the different transactions. Also the different linguistic features (given axiom of predominacne and prototype theory )
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The definition of MODE as "The operational state of a computer or a program. For example, edit mode is the state in which a program accepts changes to a file" offers a "computational view of different types of mental operations.
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IT IS EASY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN EXPRESSIONS (DISCOURSES) THAT ARE PREDOMINANTLY ABSTRACT & PROPOSITIONAL, ONES THAT ARE PREDOMINANTLY NARRATIVE, AND ONES THAT COMBINE BOTH TYPES OF EXPRESSION: E.g., Fauconnier & Turner's The Way We Think is a highly theoretical and abstract text that depends heavily on narratives. Similarly, psychology texts that are expositions of theory depend heavily on narratives of cases. In fact, evidence in the social scienes is usually highly narrative in nature but combined with computations based on the narratives. On the other hand, the narrative elements of mathematics or programming are quite minimal AND the computational elements of fictions are almost non-existent.
Notes:
Dilthey
"Dilthey asserted emphatically that inner and outer experience were "two sides of the same experience [which is] viewed from different vantage points." (Ermarth, Wilhelm Dilthey, 1981, 102ff) This seems to correspond to the position Cognitive linguists take, namely that language and cognition are inseparable, one cannot be understood with correlation to the other.
"All capacities of the mind cooperate to form a world-view, although one may come to predominate over the others" (Ermarth, Wilhelm Dilthey, 1981, 326)
The modes of cognition have to have correlatives in modes of discourse. The modes in my analysis have to do with necessity, probability, and possibility. In studying expressions of these modes I need to find features of the unreflective use of them. "Dilthey distinguished three classes of expressions and an order (and criterion) of understanding pertaining to each: (1) scientific and theoretical judgments; (2) practical actions; and (3) expressions of lived experience (Erlebnisausdrucke) in a direct and specific sense" (Ermarth, Wilhelm Dilthey, 1981, 372)
: "The distinction between these
two bodies of knowledge rested finally upon differing "attitudes of mind," "orientations
of consciousness," "standpoints toward experience," or "realms
of experience." The separation could not be resolved into the dubious
metaphysical assertion of two different kinds of "being," but rather
"At the basis of the distinction lay two different modes of experiencing reality: "inner lived experience" (das Erleben, Erlebnis, or occasionally erlebende Erfahrung) and "outer sensory experience" (aussere Erfahrung). The human sciences are based upon lived experience and constantly have reference to it, whereas the natural sciences build their constructs and laws upon abstractions from sensory experience." (Ermarth, Wilhelm Dilthey, 1981, 97)
"Stories as Tools for Thinking" (Herman, Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences, 2003, 163ff) Though he says he is extending Bruner's view, he avoids describing narrating as a form of thinking. Narratives are a "tool." This is useful to me because it opens the door for using the term configuring.
See also Allport's The Individual and His Religion and his remarks on doubt vs. faith. It may be that a person in whom a doubting attitude predominates is a person who requires certainty in order to believe something, hence unadaptability, inflexibility.
Check:
mdoels of inter-personal communication in texbooks
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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