Evolutionary Rhetorics of Science: Open Source Practices in Biosemiotics
Professor Richard Doyle
mobius@psu.edu
Bacterial RhetoricsSpring 2011
As a theoretical and practical course in the rhetoric of science, this graduate seminar will collectively investigate and test models from scientific discourse for the evolution of rhetorical faculties in humans, animals, plants and bacteria while contextualizing, analyzing and deconstructing contemporary arguments and narratives of evolution. Readings will focus on primary sources regarding the evolution of semiosis (.e.g.Darwin on birds and humans, Nottebohm and Pepperberg on birds, John Lilly on dolphin communicative rationality, Von Frisch on bee semiotics, McClintock on plant intelligence, biosemiotics and bacterial quora, Deleuze and Guattari on orchids, wasps and the Machinic Phylum, Pierre Levy on collective intelligence, etc.). Contemporary evolutionary discourses implicit and explicit in nanotechnology and nanoscience will provide the focus for the final segment of the seminar, where students will get a chance to collectively evolve and share "scenarios" mapping plausible outcomes of current research.