DOCSLIB.ORG

Bruner, Jerome S

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bruner, Jerome S ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: CHI-THINKING: CHIASMUS AND COGNITION Patricia Ann Lissner, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation Directed by: Professor Mark Turner Department of English The treatise proposes chiasmus is a dominant instrument that conducts processes and products of human thought. The proposition grows out of work in cognitive semantics and cognitive rhetoric. These disciplines establish that conceptualization traces to embodied image schematic knowledge. The Introduction sets out how this knowledge gathers from perceptions, experiences, and memories of the body’s commonplace engagements in space. With these ideas as suppositional foundation, the treatise contends that chiastic instrumentation is a function of a corporeal mind steeped in elementary, nonverbal spatial forms or gestalts. It shows that chiasmus is a space shape that lends itself to cognition via its simple, but unique architecture and critically that architecture’s particular meaning affordances. We profile some chiastic meanings over others based on local conditions. Chiastic iconicity (‘lending’) devolves from LINE CROSSING in 2-D and PATH CROSSING in 3-D space and from other image schemas (e.g., BALANCE, PART-TO-WHOLE) that naturally syndicate with CROSSING. Profiling and iconicity are cognitive activities. The spatio-physical and the visual aspects of cross diagonalization are discussed under the Chapter Two heading ‘X-ness.’ Prior to this technical discussion, Chapter One surveys the exceptional versatility and universality of chiasmus across verbal spectra, from radio and television advertisements to the literary arts. The purposes of this opening section are to establish that chiasticity merits more that its customary status as mere rhetorical figure or dispensable stylistic device and to give a foretaste of the complexity, yet automaticity of chi-thinking. The treatise’s first half describes the complexity, diversity, and structural inheritance of chiasmus. The second half treats individual chiasma, everything from the most mundane instantiations to the sublime and virtuosic. Chapter Three details the cognitive dimensions of the macro chiasm, which are appreciable in the micro. It builds on the argument that chiasmus secures two cognitive essentials: association and dissociation. Chapter Four, advantaged by Kenneth Burke’s “psychology of form,” elects chiasmus an instrument of inordinate form and then explores the issue of Betweenity, i.e., how chiasma, like crisscrosses, direct notice to an intermediate region. The study ends on the premise that chiasmus executes form-meaning pairings with which humans are highly fluent. Key terms: chiasmus, rhetorical figure, cognitive rhetoric cognitive semantics, iconicity, Kenneth Burke CHI-THINKING: CHIASMUS AND COGNITION by Patricia Ann Lissner Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland at College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Professor Mark Turner, Chair Professor Per Aage Brandt Professor Jeanne Fahnestock Dr. Michael Israel Dr. Richard Klank Dr. Elizabeth Loizeaux ©Copyright by Patricia Ann Lissner 2007 ii PREFACE On an otherwise uneventful day in 2005 a friend telephoned to bemoan that her brother- in-law had decided to accept a new job in a city two thousand miles away. The upset traced to her unhappiness over the coming loss of his companionship and emotional support. Downhearted and distracted, she remarked of the relationship, really more to herself than to me, “We’re fric and frac.” Then, with only the barest of pauses, she continued, “We’re frac and fric. Always together.” What this brief story has to do with the text before you will become evident shortly. But first I want to share a second anecdote. In 2006, I received a birthday card from a different friend. The outside of the card had this salutation: “Like a great wine, we get better as we get older!” To this statement, the inside contained a corrective: “Or rather, as we get older, we feel better with lots of great wine!” These two communications—one glum, the other merry; one spoken in the spur of the moment, the other purposeful and dreamed up for commercial sale—bear, despite their considerable differences in purpose, context, and origination, a strong structural likeness. Both the fric–frac vocalization and wine–better–older message repeat and reverse linguistic items within the small compass of their respective wholes. These types of occurrences, whereby linguistic constituents double and crosswise (i.e., backward) arrange over the span of a stand- alone articulation, has a name. Chiasmus. The name may seem exotic, and, thus, suggestive of rarity. Indeed, some dictionaries or thesauri deem it not worthy of an entry. However, the linguistic phenomenon to which the word refers is not the least strange, nor is it at all uncommon. The chiastic examples are not iii provisions from friends intent on articulating or sending me chiasma to fill a treatise on the subject. I am gifted in my friends, but not in this particular regard. Neither the fric–frac speaker nor the birthday card selector, who are long-time personal friends, but not professional colleagues, know the term chiasmus nor have any concept about what it has to do with. Despite their unfamiliarity with the word and with any of its formal attributes, they exhibit a fluency and taken-for-granted preference for chiasmus. These ideas lay a cornerstone for the project ahead. The project takes as its suppositional foundation that chiasmus is not a specialty exclusive to rhetoricians, literature elitists, language adepts, or even those with the flair, now and again, for a clever turn of phrase. Rather, we all use and understand chiasmus, because it is a major conductor of human thought, reasoning, learning, and expression. To erect and establish this idea is the major goal of the pages that follow this one. Over the course of this enterprise, I would ask that you, my reader, keep tucked in a corner of your mind, the fric-frac speaker and the greeting card selector. We will want to think on them as we examine chiastic performances that range from the humdrum to the virtuosic. The reason why? Because, they are us, originators and receivers fluent in and entirely up to the masterminding performed via chiasticity. iv DEDICATION Richard W. Weisbeck For the ‘funnies,’ tightly-laced ice skates, parades and licorice sticks, and the strength of hammer and nail construction Elizabeth J. Weisbeck For grace and favor, elegance and art, gentle selflessness, and gardens for beauty and dreaming Margaret J. (Lissner) Cartwright For non-berating berating, patient impatience, and uncompromising belief Christopher R. Lissner For Chris, without whom v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I take as true that accomplishment rests in passion. No better exemplifier of this truth is my academic advisor and guide, Mark Turner. What I was quick to learn about Mark is that his greatest investment, in enthusiasm, interest, participation, and time, is in that which intrigues others and prompts them to further inquiry. This project of multiple fascinations, with a tendency to grow like Topsie, found in Mark unstinting encouragement and intellectual support. Any portion of the treatise that might happen to capture a reader owes to Mark Turner’s willingness to allow those under his tutelage to take intellectual risks and follow their mind’s leads. On the personal level, his suggestions and counsel, always kept to a minimum, never failed to be that looked for, but seldom found combination of the carefully reasoned, the scrupulously fair, and the practical. It has been and will remain a privilege to call myself a student of his. Professor Jeanne Fahnestock opened the intellectual world of rhetoric for me and did so, I strongly believe, as no one else could. This belief is founded in classroom experience. The first weeks in Jeanne’s “Contemporary Rhetoric” graduate seminar found me, at first, recalcitrant to a subject I felt to be foreign. But well before the semester was over, I had redirected my scholarly interests, having gone from a resister of rhetoric to a convert. Jeanne Fahnestock’s depth of knowledge and her thoroughgoing, balanced examinations proved to be their own persuasive devices. Her ability to get to the quick of an issue, its rhetorical tipping-point, in whatever field astounds. Her mindfulness and considered approach carry over into her person. Jeanne is genuinely kind, caring, and delicately mindful of others. I was most fortunate to have Dean Elizabeth Loizeaux’s careful reading and assessment of the treatise. The exemplary scholarship Beth carries so lightly has furthered understanding. Despite a taxing administrative and teaching schedule, Beth has been a steadfast supporter of my work, encouraging me in large and small ways. I am indebted to her for her remarkable geniality and good graces. Appreciation is due to Michael Israel, also of the Department of English, for the vigor and earnestness with which his recommendations were detailed. Michael was kind enough to commit time and intellectual energy to a graduate student whose interests range outside his scholarly sphere. Professor Richard Klank of the University’s Art Department and Art Studio brought welcome lights to this project: a perspective from outside literature and linguistics and a readiness to seek out alignments between disciplines that tend to remain segregated in the academy. His insights, opinions, and questions added greatly to the conversation. Richard’s zest for discovery and challenge are infectious. I am pleased to have this new friend in the visual arts who shares several intellectual interests, Henri Focillon among them. It was a tremendous honor to have Professor Per Aage Brandt elected as a special member to the defense’s Advisory Committee. That Dr. Brandt should entertain my ideas and work, read the treatise with such a fine, deeply versed interest, and travel from Case Western University to attend the dissertation’s defense was a scholarly act of exceptional generosity and intellectual gallantry.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theoretical Implications of the Beachy Amish-Mennonites DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Th
    Theoretical Implications of the Beachy Amish-Mennonites DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Cory Alexander Anderson Graduate Program in Rural Sociology The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Joseph Donnermeyer, Advisor Richard Moore Edward Crenshaw Copyrighted by Cory Alexander Anderson 2014 Abstract One of the hallmarks of social science is the interaction of theory and methods/data, the former guiding the latter and the latter refining the former, in a cyclical relationship. The goal of theory is to provide explanations for and even predict a range of human behaviors. One potential cause of theoretical stagnation is an over focus on a singular, usually easily accessible group. Given the persistence of plain Anabaptists like the Amish as a highly distinct subgroup in American society, their utility for refining sociological theories is persuasive, but has rarely been employed to this end because of their social inaccessibility, shyness towards social science research, and the popular interpretive frames placed on them that distract would-be investigators. Even with Amish-focused scholarship, the emphasis has been largely on describing the population or applying theory to understand the Amish case, but not returning findings back to theory in critique and revision. This dissertation introduces and contextualizes the plain Anabaptists, then describes the Beachy Amish-Mennonites, a group within the Amish religious tension, but dealing markedly with tensions between separatism and assimilation. Following this introduction are three independent studies that demonstrate the use of plain Anabaptists to refine theory.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhetorical Code Studies Revised Pages
    Revised Pages rhetorical code studies Revised Pages Sweetland Digital rhetoric collaborative Series Editors: Anne Ruggles Gere, University of Michigan Naomi Silver, University of Michigan The Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Book Series publishes texts that investigate the multiliteracies of digitally mediated spaces both within academia as well as other contexts. Rhetorical Code Studies: Discovering Arguments in and around Code Kevin Brock Developing Writers in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Study Anne Ruggles Gere, Editor Sites of Translation: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us about Digital Writing and Rhetoric Laura Gonzales Rhizcomics: Rhetoric, Technology, and New Media Composition Jason Helms Making Space: Writing, Instruction, Infrastrucure, and Multiliteracies James P. Purdy and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, Editors Digital Samaritans: Rhetorical Delivery and Engagement in the Digital Humanities Jim Ridolfo diGitalculturebooks, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press, is dedicated to publishing work in new media studies and the emerging field of digital humanities. Revised Pages Rhetorical Code Studies discovering arguments in and around code Kevin Brock University of Michigan Press ann arbor Revised Pages Copyright © 2019 by Kevin Brock Some rights reserved This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Note to users: A Creative Commons license is only valid when it is applied by the person or entity that holds rights to the licensed work. Works may contain components (e.g., photo- graphs, illustrations, or quotations) to which the rightsholder in the work cannot apply the license. It is ultimately your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use.
    [Show full text]
  • Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund Carita B
    The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors Honors Research Projects College Fall 2015 Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund Carita B. Keim Ms. University of Akron Main Campus, [email protected] Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects Part of the Nonfiction Commons Recommended Citation Keim, Carita B. Ms., "Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund" (2015). Honors Research Projects. 215. http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/215 This Honors Research Project is brought to you for free and open access by The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Research Projects by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. “To the praise of God . though very coarse”: Sketching the Stories of the Ausbund Critical Essay The Ausbund, a hymnbook, is a historical anomaly for its tenacious usage. The Amish, one of the few surviving folk cultures in the United States, still sing the hymns in the original German. Their ancestors penned the words to these hymns nearly five hundred years ago on another continent. Ironically, the Amish arose in opposition to the Latin Christian Church (later known as the Roman Catholic Church), yet could be considered to be nearly their equal in their tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Board of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics
    Book of Abstracts for the 3rd Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics Multimodalities Book of Abstracts for the 3rd Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics Multimodalities Toronto, Ontario (Canada) July 13–15, 2018 IACS-2018: Third Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics | 1 Local Organizing Committee of IACS-2018 Some rights reserved. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Among other sponsors, this project was made possible by funding from the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Ryerson University, in addition to funding from the Ryerson University Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and the Ryerson University Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, including a Knowledge Dissemination Grant (KDG), an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Grant (URO) and an Event Funding Grant. Please see the back cover of this manuscript for a full list of project partners. No responsibility is assumed by the IACS-2018 Local Organizing Committee for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of product liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Printed in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) 2 | IACS-2018: Third Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics About the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics The International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS) was founded in 2013 at Aarhus University, Denmark, in connection with the Eighth Conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS). Cognitive semiotics is the study of meaning-making, both in language and by means of other sign vehicles, as well as in perception, and in action.
    [Show full text]
  • The Three Phases of Arendt's Theory of Totalitarianism*
    The Three Phases of Arendt's Theory of Totalitarianism* X~1ANNAH Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, first published in 1951, is a bewilderingly wide-ranging work, a book about much more than just totalitarianism and its immediate origins.' In fact, it is not really about those immediate origins at all. The book's peculiar organization creates a certain ambiguity regarding its intended subject-matter and scope.^ The first part, "Anti- semitism," tells the story of tbe rise of modern, secular anti-Semi- tism (as distinct from what the author calls "religious Jew-hatred") up to the turn of the twentieth century, and ends with the Drey- fus affair in Erance—a "dress rehearsal," in Arendt's words, for things still worse to come (10). The second part, "Imperialism," surveys an assortment of pathologies in the world politics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, leading to (but not direcdy involving) the Eirst World War. This part of the book examines the European powers' rapacious expansionist policies in Africa and Asia—in which overseas investment became the pre- text for raw, openly racist exploitation—and the concomitant emergence in Central and Eastern Europe of "tribalist" ethnic movements whose (failed) ambition was the replication of those *Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the University of Virginia and at the conference commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of The Origins of Toudilarianism hosted by the Hannah Arendt-Zentrum at Carl Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Ger- many. I am grateful to Joshua Dienstag and Antonia Gnmenberg. respectively, for arrang- ing these (wo occasions, and also to the inembers of the audience at each—especially Lawrie Balfour, Wolfgang Heuer, George KJosko, Allan Megili, Alfons Sollner, and Zoltan Szankay—for their helpful commeiiLs and criticisms.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origins of Beowulf Between Anglo-Saxon Tradition and Christian Latin Culture
    The Origins of Beowulf Between Anglo-Saxon Tradition and Christian Latin Culture Autor: Rubén Abellán García Tutor: Agustí Alemany Villamajó Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2019-2020 Index 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2 1.1. The structure and transmission of Beowulf. ......................................................... 2 1.2. Literacy context during the creation period of Beowulf ....................................... 3 1.3. Historical Oral-formulaic and literacy research in Old studies ............................. 3 2. Latin Tradition in Beowulf ........................................................................................ 5 2.1. Latin syntax in Beowulf ...................................................................................... 5 2.2. Literary devices .................................................................................................. 6 2.2.1. Alliteration ...................................................................................................... 7 2.2.2. Formulas .......................................................................................................... 7 2.2.3. Compounding and Kennings ............................................................................ 8 2.2.4. Rhymes............................................................................................................ 8 2.2.5. Litotes and irony .............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 245 LIST A'brakel, Wilhelmus the Christian's Reasonable Service
    LIST 245 1. A’BRAKEL, The Christian’s Reasonable Service. S.D.G.-1992. d.w’s. 4 £ 45.00 Wilhelmus volumes. ills. 2. ADAMS, J. E. The Time is at Hand. Prophecy and the Book of Revelation. £ 3.95 Timeless Texts-2000. lfpb. 16+138pp. 3. ADAMS, J. E. A Theology of Christian Counselling More than Redemption. £ 4.95 Zon.-1979 lfpb. 338pp. 4. ADAMS, J. E/FISHER The Time of the End. Daniel’s Prophecy Reclaimed. Timeless £ 3.95 Text-2000. lfpb. 120pp. Frwd. by R. C. Sproul. 5. ADAMS, J. G. The Big Umbrella. (Christian Counselling) BBH.-1975. lfpb. £ 4.50 265pp. 6. ALLISON, D.C Jesus of Nazareth Millenarian Prophet. Fortress-1998. lfpb. £ 4.50 255pp. 7. ALTHUSIUS, J. (1557 Politica. An abridged translation of Politics methodically set £ 8.50 -1638) forth and illustrated with Sacred and Profane examples. Trans. by F. S. Carney. Liberty -1995. lfpb. 62+238pp. From 1614 edition. 8. ALVARDO, R. A Common Law, the Law of Nations and Western Civilization. £ 3.50 Pietas-1999. lfpb. 161pp. 9. AMBROSE, Isaac Looking Unto Jesus. A View of the Everlasting Gospel etc. £ 8.00 Sprinkle-1986. hb. 694pp. Large volume, Puritan devotional classic. 10. ANON The Truth of the History of the Gospel Made Out by Heathen £ 22.00 Evidence. Edin.-1741. 38pp. XL. Pam. 11. ANON Queries Concerning the Reasonableness of Reclaiming the £ 22.00 Corporation Test Acts as Far as They Relate to Protestant Dissenters. Lon.-1732. 23pp. XL. Pam. Scarce. 12. ASHTON John F. Edt. In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists choose to Believe in Creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Selected Books, Articles, and Monographs for the Guidance Of
    Dnet,MFti R F SUMF CG 002 982 ED 023 121 24 By -McGuire, Carson Behavioral Science Memorandum Number10. Texas Univ., Austin. Research andDevelopment Center for TeacherEducation. Spons Agency -Office of Education(DHEW), Washington, D C. Report No -BSR -M -10 Bureau No -BR -5 -0249 Pub Date 66 Contract -OEC -6 -10 -108 Note -36p.; Includes Addenda toBehavioral Science MemorandumNumber 10. EDRS Price MF -$025 HC -$190 Development, *Teacher Education Descriptors -*Annotated Bibliographies,*Child Development, *Human Number 10 was theinitial venture intoannotating Behavioral Science Memorandum of busy instructors selected books, articles,and monographsfor the guidance responsible for teacher education.The responses to theannotated bibliographies Apparently some sortof handbook forlearning throughguided have been positive. teacher discovery is a possible meansof orienting collegeprofessors and students in education to the realizationthat the mafor objective inthe educational encounter is regurgitation" in examinationsbut the not "soaking vp"information for later "selective information as it intellectual capabilities necessaryto relate new acquisition of the annotated entries) develops to theunderlying principles of afield study. (137 (AUTHOR) via_57-0.240 EDUCATION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENTCENTER TN TEAChTH THE UNIVERSITY OFTEXAS Behavioral ScienceMemorandum No. 10 July, 1966 S.H. 308 Bibliographies other Child and HumanDevelopment and the The two bibliographies in thismemorandum, one on and literature. They point to books on Human Development andEducation, merely sample the well as some tiresomereading. What the journals which provide many ideasand explanations, as be of interest toother persons. writer regards as "tiresome" orirrelevant, of course, may IMPORTANT NOTE without much writtenfeedback. The A number of memoranda and aNewsletter have been issued from our readers.
    [Show full text]
  • Four Perspectives
    Educational Psychology important notes Theories about human learning can be grouped into four broad "perspectives". These are Behaviorism - focus on observable behavior Cognitive - learning as purely a mental/ neurological process Humanistic - emotions and affect play a role in learning Social - humans learn best in group activities The development of these theories over many decades is a fascinating story. Some theories developed as a negative reaction to earlier ones. Others built upon foundational theories, looking at specific contexts for learning, or taking them to a more sophisticated level. There is also information here about general theories of learning, memory, and instructional methodology. Read brief descriptions of these four general perspectives here: Learning www.allonlinefree.comTheories: Four Perspectives Within each "perspective" listed below, there may be more than one cluster of theories. Click on the name of the theorist to go to the page with biographical information and a description of the key elements of his/her theory. www.allonlinefree.com Educational Psychology important notes 1. Behaviorist Perspective Classical Conditioning: Stimulus/Response Ivan Pavlov 1849-1936 Classical Conditioning Theory Behaviorism: Stimulus, Response, Reinforcement John B. Watson 1878-1958 Behaviorism Edward L. Thorndike 1874-1949 Connectivism Edwin Guthrie 1886-1959 Contiguity Theory B. F. Skinner 1904-1990 Operant Conditioning William Kaye Estes 1919 - Stimulus Sampling Theory Neo-behaviorism: Stimulus-Response; Intervening Internal
    [Show full text]
  • Chiasmus in Ancient Greek and Latin Literatures
    Chiasmus in Ancient Greek and Latin Literatures John W. Welch Notwithstanding the fact that most recent scholarly attention has dealt with the occurrence of chiasmus in ancient Near Eastern languages and literatures, a signicant amount of chiasmus is to be found in ancient Greek and Latin literatures as well. Indeed, the word ,,chiasmus” itself stems from the Greek word chiazein, meaning to mark with or in the shape of a cross, and chiasmus has been earnestly studied in Greek and Latin syntax and style far more extensively and many years longer than is has even been acknowledged in the context of Semitic and other ancient writings. That chiasmus has received more attention in the Classical setting than in other ancient literatures is at the same time both ironic and yet completely understandable. The irony lies in the fact that more scholarly acceptance and utilization of chiasmus is found in connection with the appreciation of Western literary traditions than in the study of other ancient literatures, whereas chiasmus is relatively simple and certainly less informative in respect to the Greek and Latin authors than it is in regard to many of the writers from other arenas of the ancient world. One would expect the greater efforts to be made where the rewards promise to be the more attractive. Yet this situation is also easily explained. For one thing, numerous Western scholars have exhaustively studied secular Greek literary texts since the thirteenth century, and Latin, since it was spoken in Rome. The use of literary devices in Hebrew literature, on the other hand, has only been given relatively sparse scholarly treatment in the West for something over two hundred years, and the study of gures of speech in most other ancient languages, dialects and literatures can still be said to be somewhat in a state of infancy.
    [Show full text]
  • JEROME SEYMOUR BRUNER COURTESY of RANDALL FOX 1 October 1915
    JEROME SEYMOUR BRUNER COURTESY OF RANDALL FOX 1 october 1915 . 5 june 2016 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 161, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2017 biographical memoirs s a student of narrative, Jerome (Jerry) Seymour Bruner knew well that one can tell many stories about an individual person, Aevent, and life. Indeed, at the start of his autobiography, Jerry Bruner wrote, “I can find little in [my childhood] that would lead anybody to predict that I would become an intellectual or an academic, even less a psychologist.” And yet, it is appropriate—if not essential—to begin this memoir with the fact that Jerry Bruner was born blind. Only at age 2, after two successful cataract operations (Jerry spoke of “good luck and progress in ophthalmology”) could Jerry see. For the rest of his lengthy and event-filled life, he wore memorably thick corrective lenses. And when he was not peering directly at you—be you an audience of one or of one thousand—he would grasp his glasses firmly in his palm and punctuate his fluent speech with dramatic gestures. As a younger child of an affluent Jewish family living in the suburbs of New York City, Jerry was active, playful, and fun-loving—not partic- ularly intellectual or scholarly. His sister Alice wondered why he was always asking questions; Jerry later quipped that he was “trying out hypotheses.” Freud said that the death of a father is the most important event in a man’s life. Whether or not cognizant of this psychoanalytic pronouncement, Bruner seldom referred to his mother; he devoted much more space in his autobiography and much more time in conver- sation to commemorating his father: “Everything changed, collapsed, after my father died when I was twelve, or so it seemed to me.” And indeed, as he passed through adolescence and into early adulthood, Bruner became a much more serious student, a budding scholar, a wide-ranging intellectual.
    [Show full text]
  • Danish University Colleges the Format of Things a Philosophical
    Danish University Colleges The Format of Things A philosophical inquiry into matters of importance for the conceptualization of future computer interfaces Jørnø, Rasmus Leth Vergmann Publication date: 2016 Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication Citation for pulished version (APA): Jørnø, R. L. V. (2016). The Format of Things: A philosophical inquiry into matters of importance for the conceptualization of future computer interfaces. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Download policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 The Format of Things A Philosophical Inquiry into matters of importance for the conceptualization of future Computer Interfaces By Rasmus Leth Jørnø Submitted Doctoral Thesis Manuscript for PhD Dissertation Submitted to: The Department of Learning The Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. The Format of Things - A Philosophical Inquiry into matters of importance for the conceptualization of future Computer Interfaces Author: Rasmus Leth Jørnø Former Supervisor: Hans Siggaard Jensen, Professor, The Danish School of Education, Aarhus University 2016 Summary The development of novel interfaces is one of the most important current design challenges for the intellectual, cultural and cognitive evolution of human imagination and knowledge work.
    [Show full text]