The centrality of practice in ideographic communication, and the perennial puzzle of positivistic thinking

Abstract

To the extent that we expect ideographs to be closer to the reality they depict than spoken or written words we are succumbing to the perennial allure of positivistic thinking. Morin powerfully argues that human communication, including ideography, cannot be understood apart from practice, thus removing the positivistic assumption that made the "puzzle of ideography" puzzling in the first place.