Academic Ethos, Pathos, and Logos RESEARCH ETHOS
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Academic Ethos, Pathos, and Logos RESEARCH ETHOS Nagib Callaos and Bekis Callaos Simón Bolívar University and The International Institute of Informatics and Cybernetics (IIIS, www.iiis.org) ABSTRACT has been admitted for a long time as necessary condition for effective academic communication Elsewhere (N. Callaos and B. Callaos, 2014)1 we and informing. That academic writing is, or should have shown the conceptual necessity and the be, persuasive is not news. Ken Hyland affirms that pragmatic importance of including Ethos, Pathos, “It dates back at least as far Aristotle and it is widely and Logos in any systemic methodology for accepted by academics themselves.”2 This includes Information Systems Development (including scientific communication. An increasing number of software-based systems) and for the design and articles and books have been published lately implementation of informing processes. This is the regarding the importance of persuasiveness in first article of a planned series in which we will try scientific communications and on the Rhetoric of to apply what has been shown and concluded in the Science.3 But, the focus has been, up to the present, mentioned article to the specific case of Academic on academic writing. Our academic and professional Informing or Academic Information Systems. experience show that persuasiveness is, or should Research activities include informing processes, be, implicitly or explicitly, an essential which should address the respective Ethos. Our characteristic in all academic activities: research, purpose in this article is to address one of the issues education, and consulting or problem solving, and involved in this aspect. With this article we are not just in academic writing. Experience-based trying to make a step forward according to the reflections show that a more comprehensive and recommendations we included in the conclusions of systemic approach is required for enhancing the the referred article (N. Callaos and B. Callaos, effectiveness of Academic Informing in its societal 2014). To do so, we will briefly abridge previous and civic contexts. A main purpose of the articles work, provide some facts via real life examples, series, mentioned above, is to examine and reflect give few opinions and ask many questions. Few of on a more comprehensive approach to Academic these questions will be rhetorical ones while most of Informing for a higher effectiveness of these them will be oriented to generate reflections activities. This will be attempted from a pragmatic- regarding the respective issue and potentially some teleological perspective, i.e. oriented by the ends of research, intellectual enquiry, or practice based Academic Informing and by the potential means position papers. that might be used to achieve these ends. We will focus in applying classical means which have effectively been applied in the past but they are not GENERAL CONTEXT being applied (at least not explicitly) in the last few decades to support academic informing. It is evident that effective communication is a Consequently, we will examine the relationships necessary condition for Academic Informing. This between academic activities and persuasive effectiveness has been basically related to academic processes or methodologies, focusing mostly on writing, pedagogical innovations, and educational Academic Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, as fundamental technologies, mostly in the context of disciplinary and necessary characteristics of more persuasive logic and rigor. Persuasiveness in academic writing academic informing and, hence, more effective academic activities. 1 This article is based on previous articles and on practice-based reflections as well as on Action-Research 2 Italics added and Action-Learning in the context Methodological 3 See for example Alan G. Gross, 1996, 2006, and H. W. Action-Design. Simon (Ed.), 1990. 76 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 12 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2014 ISSN: 1690-4524 SPECIFIC CONTEXT Higher Education organizations. We noticed this educational gap while teaching Information Systems A main source of the mentioned series of articles, (to students in Computer Engineering) and and of this first one, will be our about 45 years of practicing in the area of Information Systems academic and professional activities. This will be a Engineering, for about 35 years simultaneously in main input to applying a mostly Reflexive both cases. We have discussed at length (including Methodology,4 regarding the issue described above. conferences presentations and publications6) during Part of this practice-based reflections and these 35 years that Computing and Software conclusions was the article mentioned above which Engineering are necessary conditions for the mostly represent a product of our professional development of computing-based information experience in the context of Information Systems systems, tailored to the specific needs and and Informing Processes analysis, design, and requirements of a specific organization or sub- implementation. organization. But, they certainly are not sufficient conditions for the professional effectiveness in In the mentioned article, we basically applied what developing this kind of information systems. Donald Schön (1983) proposed, in “The “Reflective Computer or software engineers need to adequately Practitioner” in the context of our professional communicate with machines, but they also need to Practice. Now we will try to apply it in the context have the skills for effective communication with of our academic activities. Our aim in this paper is human beings (the users) for adequately eliciting the to make a short presentation of the main reflections respective requirements, designing an adequate and conclusions we have had during our academic system, training the users for an effective use of the practice in research-oriented informing activities system, and maintaining the system especially when (including peer review, conferences organization, new requirements emerge as a consequence of the journal editing, research administration, etc.). dynamics, uncertainties, and changes in which the Educations and consulting will be addressed in organizations are always immersed in. This means following articles, and mentioned in this article that the system analyst/synthesist needs to when they have relationships with the main topic communicate with both computers via artificial here. languages and the users via natural languages. He/She also need to make adequate translation between both languages. Otherwise, there will be a INTELLECTUAL AND PRAGMATIC high probability of failure no matter how good IMPORTANCE OF ACADEMIC ETHOS, he/she is as computer or software engineer or PATHOS, AND LOGOS computer scientist. Skills in natural languages and effective communication are what the Medieval In this section we will address the intellectual and Trivium is about. This is why we included a detailed pragmatic importance of Academic Ethos, Pathos, exploration regarding this issue in our detailed work and Logos. Next articles will go in more details regarding a “Systemic Systems Methodology” (N. regarding this issue. Let us her provide a very brief Callaos, 1995) which might contain local systematic discussion on this issue which objective is to parts but it is a systemic one as a hole. provide Intellectual and Pragmatic context for following sections. As a communicational process, academic informing effectiveness depends, at least, on the adequacy of We have been for a long time explicitly and the communicational means used; which, in turn, frequently emphasizing in our classes, to our depends on the comprehensiveness of the students and colleagues, in both Higher Education possible/feasible means, as well as on the potential and Industrial contexts, that the very well known synergies and emergent properties that might be Medieval Trivium is not being adequately applied generated in their simultaneous design and Higher Education5, or not applied at all in some implementation. In order the increase the probability of being comprehensive, it might be advisable to 4 See for, example, M. Alvesson and K. Sköldberg, 2001, 2009; and K. Etherington, 2004. 6 In Callaos and Callaos, 2014, we integrated and 5 See, for example, Callaos N. and Callaos B., 2014, pp. resumed what we presented in many conferences, written 21-25; and N. Callaos, 1995, pp. 527-534 for the case of in many publications, and emphasized in many academic Systems Engineering and Computing Engineering. and industrial courses. ISSN: 1690-4524 SYSTEMICS, CYBERNETICS AND INFORMATICS VOLUME 12 - NUMBER 5 - YEAR 2014 77 explore the product of many years of reflection This might be framed in the context of a 3x3 matrix, regarding the essence of human communication and i.e. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos as related to each of the means suggested as necessary for its the three basic academic activities, i.e. Research, effectiveness. Our experience shows us that the Education, and Consulting or Real Life Problem classical means are far from being obsoletes, Solving. With this framework we can though they require being adapted to the present relate/integrate the three academic activities and the objectives of academic informing as well as to the three persuading means, among each other and new communicational technologies, tools, and between activities and means. Consequently, nine methodologies. specific areas should be addressed. If we add to these areas the relationships among them and the Beside comprehensiveness,