On Complexity

                Among the topics of our discussion so far, I am interested  in complexity theory and ecology. Since I was assigned to lead a discussion on complexity and ecology, I did some more readings on these topics. I was not familiar with this topic, so I tried to search for more resources on complexity and ecology.

                Hawk’s Toward a Rhetoric of Network (Media) Culture, in my opinion, has succeeded to describe how the desire of simplicity has been a driving force for science, including rhetoric and composition (831). He states that simplicity is always derived from complex system, and that simplicity is utilized to understand that complex system. I totally agree with this idea since what we actually see in this world is that everything is interconnected and we cannot view an aspect of life without considering other factors. All these aspects create a network, an ecology in which all elements interact with one another and create such a complex system. I think, and I believe that I am not the only one to think about this, scientists have always attempted to avoid this complexity and tried to build a system that simplifies such complexity in order to understand the world.

                In linguistics, for example, Saussure, the founding father of modern linguistics has proposed that language be divided into two: Langue and Parole. He argued that langue , the abstract system of language should be the focus of linguistics. Parole , the actual use of the language, on the other hand should not be the focus. One of the reason was that Parole was not stable. And, it indeed is not stable, since whatever we do in the society, including communicating with each other cannot really be explained without regarding the other factors. That is, communication occurs in a complex system where each element influences and shapes one another.  

                Extending this to writing, in The Ecology of Writing, Cooper states that

 “An ecology of writing encompasses much more than the individual writer and her immediate context. An ecologist explores how writers interact to form systems: all the characteristics of any individual writer or piece of writing both determine and are determined by the characteristics of all the other writers and writings in the system” (368).  

Her statement I think successfully describes how writers and their writings create such an ecology where they interact with each other to build a complex system, that they determine one another, that the position and true meaning  of these can only be understood in relation to the other elements of this system.

For me, this idea is really intriguing even though there are a lot of things that I need to understand about complexity and how this can be applied in teaching writing.