Ricoeur’s description of the “dynamic of emplotment” is pertinent. In narrative, “the textual configuration mediates between the prefiguration of the practical field and its refiguration through the reception of the work.”71 In other words, “the prefiguration of the practical field” becomes the story events, “the textual configuration,” the shaping of those events into the narrative plot, and “the reception,” the reader’s act of making meaning of that plot.72Similarly, dynamicists engage in a “dynamic of emplotment.” They observe the empirical data of a complex system—for example, atmospheric variables or the mass and rate of speed of drops falling from a dripping faucet—that they then build into a set of equations or model. Using Ricoeur’s terminology, we would call this model the prefiguration of the practical field. Computer simulation then uncovers a geometry of the system’s behavior over time in the state-space portrait that emerges— what we might, following Ricoeur, call the textual configuration. This graphical display for analysis compares with the narrative put forward for the reader’s reception. Weissert makes an explicit connection between the work of dynamicists and the work of those who construct narratives: “Modeling a physical system is nothing more or less than fixing the constraints for narrative construction, when we conceive of that system as a sequence of events.”73 In essence, dynamicists read and interpret patterns. Whether we confront a literary text or a dynamical system, similar processes of meaning making are concerned— processes that involve a complex interaction of system, model, and modeler.
Ricoeur’s description of the “dynamic of emplotment” is pertinent. In narrative, “the textual configuration mediates between the prefiguration of the practical field and its refiguration through the reception of the work.”71 In other words, “the prefiguration of the practical field” becomes the story events, “the textual configuration,” the shaping of those events into the narrative plot, and “the reception,” the reader’s act of making meaning of that plot.72<br>Similarly, dynamicists engage in a “dynamic of emplotment.” They observe the empirical data of a complex system—for example, atmospheric variables or the mass and rate of speed of drops falling from a dripping faucet—that they then build into a set of equations or model. Using Ricoeur’s terminology, we would call this model the prefiguration of the practical field. Computer simulation then uncovers a geometry of the system’s behavior over time in the state-space portrait that emerges— what we might, following Ricoeur, call the textual configuration. This graphical display for analysis compares with the narrative put forward for the reader’s reception. Weissert makes an explicit connection between the work of dynamicists and the work of those who construct narratives: “Modeling a physical system is nothing more or less than fixing the constraints for narrative construction, when we conceive of that system as a sequence of events.”73 In essence, dynamicists read and interpret patterns. Whether we confront a literary text or a dynamical system, similar processes of meaning making are concerned— processes that involve a complex interaction of system, model, and modeler.
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