All rights reserved. This thesis igay not be reproduced in whole ort in ,+ri-, bjr ;)hot-ocopy or other means, xithout pemission of %he ~utiror. (ii) Name : Gregory Alan Xillbank Degee : isiaster of Arts (Cominunication Studies) Title of Thesis: Community and Common Sense The Roots of C oamunicztion Examining C ormizittee : Chairman: Dallas Smythe Fred Brown Senior Supervisor I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to uaere of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for. such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its 'own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is,understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/~issertation: Author: . - - (8 igna ture ) I (name) (date) (iii) The prtl:ynatist philosophical view as adumbrated by -. -. tlxmactional viev:?oint rstner than self-actionax or inter- action31 pe~~spectivesthat lie '&hind most contenporary ex2lanations in the sciences 2s vell as in purely philoso2hical literature. T3.e tern 'transaction' refers to the full on~oing pocess in CI field including all the aspects and phases of the field as :;tell as the inquirer hixself, seen in coinmon process, ?his differs frolo the self-actional view (wherein independent j?ol;:erS, forces, actol:s, ;ninas, etc, are seen as independent prixe movers) and froia the interactional view (in which independ- ent entities zre seen in sone sort of csuscl connection). 0r;;nnism and environmen-l; are seen 2s mutual participants in a trnnsaction and are understood to be inseparably connected. ?he vieu thnt cn orgmisn is cle~rlydistinct from, and in any lv~ay independent of tile field iil which it exists, is held to be fal.l:ici~usand an out;-;rowtin of a necessnry linguistic The ::o~d '5ehaviorf is t:us used to stand for all of the cccoliiodnt-ive ,:xxesses of' o~gsnismsin eiivironrnents. Uniquely human belxvior centres around n set of transactions about which it nay bo said that soaetking stnnds for, or refers to, some- thing; else. Such trans~.ctiom?lave been termed ' sign-behavior ' and very br.ozd1~cone under the head in^ of language. The tr~nscctionalapproach to Lin/3istic behavior focuses on the entire si[;n-9:-ocess rather thn nsti.ficizlly pronoting the ( iv) distinction between n sign, the user of the si~n,and that :!hich is sipified. The investi~;:~tionis thereby directed ;;iiclT f1'03 {ltxestions of inecnhn:; and reference and directed tuirrards beixiviorcl observation which includes the context in ~i'nichthe behavior occurs. In part 1 of this thesis, a transactional interpretation of 'object', 'intuition', 'habiti, 'custom', and 'common sense' is undertaken ilonr xith an analgsis of some relnted terms. ?his sives x5se to the gredication that the habits which comprise coninon sense arise in conjoint --activity and are consequent3.y conconitant l;:ith a certain kind of social or~;aniz?tion. It is argued that smlall co-operative cornunities me essentid for the creation znd maintenance of the habits of comion sense, end that uniquely huzlnn manif estatians such 3s 'nind' and 'consciousness' are products of social activity. The second pxt of the thesis outlines the steady rise in ~opulcrityof the ideals of individualism at the same tine as technolocical and econonic ch;:n~es began to erode the I coimunitn~isninstitutions 02 the middle ac;es. After the Refomation, an acceler3.tj-ng chzn~ein the structure of Western civilization reglcced a qussi-organic structure (in which small coaaunities mde up the flosgansil of the state) with an --ordered structu;:e (in ;ihich individu~11.sare utilized as uniform parts in an economic rnnchine). In g~acticalmatters, the medieval community c~estedsnd sustained cornmon sense. Inasmuch as conmon sense arises out of con~ointactlvitg, it serves as the link between consciousness and the actual (or real) world. (v> jut -the oi~dcr*edsociety does not p;.ovide the intisute and sustzincd circunst;tnces for shared activity that f oms the foundation of coaxon sense, and so common sense hos Seen' replaced ST :A surrognte which is termed populm -sense. In the third ?art oZ the thesis, it is argued that hunm intellik;eilce is ??-inol-ily social in nature and is closely connected with the evolutioi~x-*gflexibilitj. of habits. Since popul-nr seilse is remved fco:~shored activity in which such habits cze foi7j;cd zsd xshayed ns sctual. conditions deaand, 3cc-.-.ll. it follo%rs that the popular sense society is markedly less inteIlig-ent than o xore loosely organized system that permits small organic @'$-ouys to evolve in tune with local environmental conditons. Tile :.iuestion of :iiemw and ends in relation to socinl action and tho bearing; this has on theories of historical inevitn3S lit7 is discussed in the liqht of the f orecoing arpmnt, anti conclusions me dr-vn ns to the gossibility of social :teo~;;ogiz;.tion under present doctrines. Contents _r--._l 1ntz.oduc.t;ion C oxnor1 Sense '1, Sye~l:in:; of Thin,-,.s 2, Intuition 2nd CoiilL:ion Sense 9,-, I:aTuits 4. Custol,is, Tr;3taxblons"&' and, Laws 5, Inquiry 6, Goiili~u~itga*~d l4irid Intelligence and Change Iief ereiices 132 The rising tide of pessimism that threatens the stability of Western culture is not merely, as has been suggested, an artifact of the termination of a milleniwn, 1 Mere numbers, in themselves -not even when they are followed by three zeros- do not have the power to topple nations and undermine their ideals. The pessimism goes much deeper and appears to be well rooted in an often expressed feeling that technology has run amuck; that man's technological abilities have by far outstripped his social understanding and that we cast ourselves adrift on a fearful ocean of possibilities without oar or rudder. For perhaps the first time, man's ability with tools has amplified his strengths, and in relation thereby deepened his weaknesses to the point where he is able to do the entire race, even t&e living globe, genuine and lasting harm, We know far better -how to do things than we know -what to do, It seems that the current pessimism has broad roots, and this realization suggests that its causes cannot be understood nor rectified by a little specialized academic chiseling on one rootlet or another, No academic field or discipline seems broad enough in view or methodology by itself to grasp or grapple with such a broad and overwhelming problem. Various disciplines have come up against internal conditions of diminishing return suggesting failures of sense within the fundamental assunptions of the fields themselves, This realization has lead to an interest in the establishment 2, of multi-disciplinary approaches to important practical problems, In turn, the experienced difficulties of coordinntion 2nd communication within such interdisciplinary groups has lead to an interest in highly general theoretical approaches on one hand, and on the other hand, a renewed interest in the fundamental principles of human communication. Unfortunately, although it seems thzt the foundation of successful communication is a common framework of under- standing, it does not follow that efforts at communication necessarily result in better understanding. Fortunately, in large measure, the common practices of survival on the same planet assure a degree of congruence in the languages of ordinary life. Reasonable translations from one language to another are generally possible, although a considerable distortion of sense can occur over things which are not comon between two linguistic groups. But in strictly theoretical undertakings beyond the possibility of reference to actual common experiences, no degree of congruance of usuage is assured even among members of the same lingjuistic group, The sense of specialized jargon depends on the close cooperation and frequent comnunication of those who share an intense practical interest in the specific undertakings , of the field, The recognition that there are structural similarities in the various theoretical frnmeworks of different fields of investigation leads to the consideration that underneath the 3- surface there is a deep structure; a super-general kind of order that, if correctly interpreted, will enable men to tie everything together in a way that will generate sense where now there is only nonsense. Unfortunately, it is equally reasonable to assume that whatever structural similarities exist may simply be artifacts of a reliance on a limited pool of logical and mathematical resources rather than profound reflections of a deep order inherent in the universe itself, The earnest effort to avoid ontological and epistemological constructions, that is, intermediaryfithings" which have no demonstrable existence in the actual world leads a theoretician to positivism, or beyond, to pragmatism which attempts to build the universe of actual things directly onsthe foundations of observable human behaviors? with special attention to the fact that men are social animals whose behavior consists of transac- tions within contributing environment in which change ever present feature. To the extent that the pragmatic viewpoint stresses that the roots of knowing are behavioral and social, it represents an ideal philosophical foundation for an understanding of human coinmunication, It is a viewpoint which revolves around nan as an actor in a participating world, and which places man's sociality at the root of the uniquely human business of tallring. A fundaiiental thrust of this paper is to examine the social matrix communicztion from a pragmatist view and to view soae aspects of the current social scene in the light of sone implications of this view.