Life, Literacy, Oppositions, Complexity and Information

Literacy in Traditional Societies

"Durkheim's work on primitive classification is being applied to societies within the orbit of major civilizations. The polarities and oppositions of la pensée sauvage turn up in ancient Greece, and tools developed in the study of the narratives of American societies are applied to the Oedipus story, the Book of Genesis and even contemporary literature, with little sense of the basic incongruity involved.

Polarities of some sort are of course present in all societies; their significance, however, varies widely. Aristotle describes one Pythagorean theory in the following terms:

 

Others of this same school say that there are ten principles, which they arrange in ten columns, namely:

limit unlimited
odd even
one plurality
right left
male female
at rest moving
straight crooked
light darkness
good bad
square oblong

. . . How these principles maybe brought into line with the causes we have mentioned is not clearly explained to them [quoted Guthrie 1962: 1, 245]."

Goody, J. (1968) Literacy in Traditional Societies, Cambridge: CUP. pp.10-11.


Taking each of these in-turn as may relate to Hodges' model (I may update/edit these):

limit  unlimited

As a template the model invites both a limit (boundaries) and some-thing unlimited.

odd  even

There is a symmetry - evenness to the model, but the invitation noted above is also a prospect for odd-ness. This may extend to the frustration experienced when a phenomena, account (patient's narrative . . .) defies explanation and classification.

one  plurality

This polarity is key in Hodges' model. 'One' refers to the person, patient, carer, any - individual who the model is applied to. In respect of plurality this can include the dyad of patient - nurse, couple, family, team, community, national or global population (and Biosphere).

 

right  left
 

The horizontal axis is not the last word in Hodges' model, as intra-domain we also find right and left. Of course, the vertical axis (indeed, the whole model if required?) can also be repeated in a domain.

 

male  female

 

You quickly recognise the potential for disagreement* which is fundamental in dichotomous situations, a point further reinforced below.

at rest  moving

 

The model is 'at rest' as a snap-shot, but as a frame it can represent the change over time and so has its own dynamic potential.

 

straight  crooked

 

The axes as continua are 'straight' but this distinction (as noted above) has distinct psycho-socio-political connotations. In the model, line-of-sight is acknowledged, while 'crooked' might suggest what is uncertain, and unseen?

 

light  darkness & good  bad

 

Again, these two oppositions seem 'loaded': especially socially - politically.

Tread carefully. If you have light, that's good, but if lost: bad.

 

square  oblong

 

Viewed as containers, or sets the model's domains can be represented as several shapes, as long as the axes are retained as part of the structure. The adopted rectilinear form is an affordance of the (underlying) HTML, and the traditional (paper-based) tabular format. From the domains being of equal area, the point where the axes intersect could be shifted, such that a single domain is enlarged (prioritised?), at the expense of another.

*Incredible harmony too!

Then prior to an anticipated move, and sorting through books and papers:

Complexity:
Life on the edge of chaos

“The discovery that universal computation is poised between order and chaos in dynamical systems was important in itself, with its analogies to phase transitions in the physical world. It would be interesting enough if adaptive complex systems inescapably were located at the edge of chaos, the place of maximum capacity for information computation. The world could then be seen to be exploiting the creative dynamics of complex systems, but with no choice in the matter. But what if such systems actually got themselves to the edge of chaos, moved in parameter space to the place of maximum information processing?” p.54.

Lewin, R. (1993) Complexity: Life on the edge of chaos. London: Phoenix.

The conclusion? 

Perhaps, the ubiquity of polarity, opposition and dichotomy is that they anticipate and presage an increase in information processing (for good or ill: there we go again!). 

This is also a ( the ) function of Hodges' model.

Previously:

Opposition  . . . See also - Polarity , Dichotomy , Literacy . . .