Discourse

Discourse is a multi-valued concept:

1. In the history of classical philosophy, it was used to characterize a sequential transition from one discrete step to another and to develop thinking, expressed in concepts and judgments, as opposed to the intuitive grasp of the whole even before the identification and characterization of its parts.
2. In the French philosophy of postmodernism and poststructuralism, it is a characteristic of a special spiritual attitude and ideological orientations as they are expressed in a text that has coherence and integrity and is immersed in socio-cultural, socio-psychological and other contexts.

In classical philosophy, discursive thinking, unfolding in a sequence of concepts or judgments, is opposed to intuitive thinking, which immediately grasps the whole independently and outside of any sequential development.

The division of truths into direct (intuitive) and indirect (accepted on the basis of consistent and logical evidence) has already been carried out by Plato and Aristotle . Plato makes a distinction between a universal, integral, partial and non-individual single mind - and a discursive mind (reason), in its movement embracing and correlating individual meanings.

Thomas Aquinas contrasts discursive and intuitive knowledge, considering discursive thinking as a movement of intelligence from one object to another.

The development of science in the XVII — XVIII centuries. led to the construction of various interpretations of intuitive and discursive cognition. For Descartes , Spinoza and Leibniz, the universality and necessity of scientific knowledge is guaranteed by the intellectual intuition that underlies the evidence and provides discursive thinking and contemplation with consistent evidence. Hobbes , defining the specifics of human understanding, connects it with understanding the sequence (or study) of representations of one after another, which is called (in contrast to speech, expressed in words) speech in the mind. He connects the discursiveness of thinking with the ability of the words of the language to be signs of general concepts. Locke believed that fundamental truths are comprehended intuitively, while others, through other ideas, through demonstration or consistent reasoning, and the more steps in this sequence, the more clear the conclusion. The clarity of complex ideas depends on the number and location of simple ideas, and there are three ways of forming complex ideas (objects, relationships and general concepts).

In German philosophy of the Enlightenment, two lines emerged in the interpretation of discursive thinking, one of which ( H. Wolf , M. Mendelssohn ) exaggerated the role of discursive thinking, and the other ( F. G. Jacobi , I. G. Gaman ) contrasted mediated knowledge with intuition, feeling, faith.

Kant in The Critique of Pure Reason contrasts the discursive clarity of concepts with intuitive clarity achieved through contemplation, calling rational cognition through concepts discursive thinking. He uses the concept as a discursive representation of what is common to many objects. Hegel contrasts discursive thinking, which he identifies with formal and rational, speculative thinking , comprehending the unity of direct and indirect, the diversity of abstract definitions in a concrete life understanding. The interpretation of discursive cognition as an antithesis of the intuitive persisted in the 20th century.

The ambiguity in the interpretation of discourse in philosophy of the 20th century is expressed in the fact that it is understood as a language-speech construction developed in a monologue, for example. speech or text.

At the same time, discourse is often understood as a sequence of communicative acts performed in a language.

Such a sequence can be a dialogue, conversation, written texts containing reciprocal links and dedicated to a common topic, etc.

It is believed that discourse is associated with the activity of a language corresponding to a particular language sphere, and has a special vocabulary. In addition, the production of discourse is carried out according to certain rules (syntax) and with certain semantics, whence its restrictive nature. The discourse is thus created in a certain semantic field and is intended to convey certain meanings, being aimed at communicative actions with their grammar. The decisive criterion for discourse is the special language environment in which language constructs are created. In accordance with this understanding, discourse is “language in language”, that is, certain vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics and syntax, manifesting themselves as ideology in actualized communicative acts, speech and texts.

In this regard, the discourse in the 1960-1970s. understood as a connected sequence of sentences or speech acts ^[3] . In this understanding, it can be interpreted as a text close to the concept.

By the end of the 1980s. discourse begins to be understood as a complex communicative phenomenon, a complex system of the hierarchy of knowledge, which includes, in addition to text, extralinguistic factors (knowledge of the world, opinions , attitudes , goals of the addressee, etc.) as ideological settings, the account of which is necessary for understanding the text ^[3] . A tradition originating from M. Foucault is connected with this, which requires the inclusion in the context of consideration of the discourse of power relations and other ideological forms, under the influence of which the discourse becomes socially relevant. In this sense, even today, discourses have important social consequences for individual countries and peoples, local and corporate social groups ^[4] .

This tradition has now evolved into socio-constructionist approaches to discourse analysis. As its representatives, M.V. Jorgensen and L.J. Phillips, note, discourse often means "the general idea that the language is structured in accordance with the patterns that determine the statements of people in various areas of social life. Famous examples are “medical discourse” or “political discourse” ” ^[5] .

A discursive field is a mixture of intellectual and social fields, where social interaction passes into a certain type of practice ^[6] .

The founder of this understanding of discursiveness can be considered Karl Marx . Subsequently, in a similar plan began to consider the ideas of Sigmund Freud .

Processes Providing Discursive Fields

1. Reproduction of the general categorical apparatus - the language of communication
2. Maintaining the boundary of a discursive field - where boundaries are areas of limited understanding or complete misunderstanding.
3. The presence of a common theoretical framework, which is a single intellectual flow
4. The power nature of the discursive field
5. Institutionalization Trend
6. A discursive community is formed on the basis of the discursive field.

Discursive Field Hierarchy

• Founders - founders (in each field their own)
• Interpreting leaders are successor successors who develop and adapt the idea to a specific time period and place.
• Activists - energetic figures of the discursive field
• Adherents - follow the rules, reason in categories, often just consumers.
• Fellow travelers - "random passers-by";

It is assumed that the maximum interest in the topics discussed is located in the center of the discourse fields, and the closer to the borders, the more the interest and intensity of communication are weakened.

• Arutyunova N. D. Discourse // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary . - M .: SE, 1990. - ISBN 5-85270-031-2 .
• Babayan V.N. Critical analysis of the theory of discourse in terms of accounting for a silent observer // Yaroslavl Pedagogical Bulletin. - Yaroslavl: YAGPU named after K. D. Ushinsky , 1997. - No. 2 . - S. 30-32 .
• Babayan V.N. Dialogue in a triad with a silent observer. - Yaroslavl: RIC MUBiNT, 2008 .-- 290 p.
• Van Dyck, Theun A. Language. Cognition. Communication / Per. from English / Comp. V.V. Petrova; Ed. V. I. Gerasimova; Entry Art. Yu. N. Karaulova and V.V. Petrova. - M .: Progress , 1989 .-- 312 p.
• Jorgensen, Marianne W., Phillips, Louise J. Discourse Analysis. Theory and Method / Per. from English .. - 2nd ed., rev. - Kharkov: Publishing House "Humanitarian Center", 2008. - 352 p. - ISBN 966-8324-06-4 .
• Ilyin V.I. Consumption as a discourse: a training manual. - SPb. : Intersocis, 2008 .-- 446 p. - ISBN 978-5-94348-049-2 .
• Gutner G. B. , Ogurtsov A. P. Discourse // New Philosophical Encyclopedia / Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences ; Nat social science fund; Pres scientific ed. Council V. S. Styopin , alternate representatives: A. A. Huseynov , G. Yu. Semigin , school. sec. A.P. Ogurtsov . - 2nd ed., Rev. and extra. - M .: Thought , 2010 .-- ISBN 978-5-244-01115-9 .
• Chernyavskaya V.E. Linguistics of the text. Linguistics discourse. - Moscow: Flint: Science, 2013 .-- S. 194. - ISBN 978-5-9710-0917-7 .
• Chernyavskaya V. E. Discourse / ed. M. N. Kozhina // The Stylistic Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language .. - Moscow: Flint: Nauka, 2003. - P. 53–55.

• Doctor of Philology Andrei Kibrik about the concept of "discourse"
• Glossary containing the definition of the word "Discourse" (inaccessible link)
• Van Dyck, T. On the Definition of Discourse