Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
“And I ain't a master-mind.” (1861/1946, 50)
The implied association between the perceived need for definitions
and written literacy has been more formally stated, with the commonly
encountered insistence on preliminary definitions regarded as a product
of the cultural transition from orality to literacy (Goody and Watt 1968).
A structuralist perspective in linguistics implies a finally circular under-
standing of meaning. In
The Course in General Linguistics
, Saussure
regarded linguistic signs as obtaining meaning from their negative dif-
ferences from other signs within a network of signs (1916/1983; Culler
1988, 52). Most radically (and seemingly independently), Wittgenstein
admitted the impossibility of defining primitive signs by further decom-
position and advocated elucidation rather than definition:
The meaning of primitive signs can be explained by elucidations. Elucidations
are propositions which contain the primitive signs. They can, therefore, only be
understood when the meaning of these signs are already known. (1922/1981, §
3.263)
Wittgenstein continues to pursue rigorous logical development regarding
the possibilities of combining primitive signs. Therefore, the commitment
here to a logical structure and finally formal and discursive presenta-
tion does not imply adherence to logical positivism, where empirical
propositions must correspond to sense impressions (Ayer 1936/1980).
Technically, this topic offers elucidations rather than deinitions.
The primitive signs to which Wittgenstein refers correspond to atomic
facts also distinguished in the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
and “From
the existence or non-existence of an atomic fact we cannot infer the exist-
ence or non-existence of another” (Wittgenstein 1922/1981, § 2.062).
Selection power is understood as an atomic fact or primitive term not
amenable to further decomposition, and elucidations rather than defini-
tions are offered. Furthermore, we cannot infer from selection power that
other atomic facts exist. The process of elucidation here will begin with
an example and then indicate concepts analogous to selection power in
independent scholarly and ordinary discourses, implicitly acknowledging
that practical understanding of constructing and using information sys-
tems has preceded theoretical articulation. The discussion will rise from
the concrete to the abstract.
