Reward or persuasion? The battle to define the meaning of a citation

[Phil Davis]

David E. Wojick wrote:
"So my view is that the terms reward and persuasion are incorrect when 
applied to the general theory of citations. Citations do not exist for 
either reason, rather they exist of the purpose of communication. 
Perhaps reward and persuasion are metaphorical, but then I have no use 
for schools of sociology that view metaphors as explanations."

David,
You are approaching the communication of science from an 18th century 
rationalist worldview; that is, communication is merely a transmission 
of facts and is completely devoid of contextual meaning.  From this 
viewpoint, a rational scientist needs no persuasion -- provide him with 
the facts and he will come to the same conclusions as the author.

While you have no use for schools of sociology that view science as a 
social process, ask scientists themselves how they use citations.  They 
will tell you it is more than just providing the facts, ma'am.

--Phil Davis

-- 
Philip M. Davis
PhD Student
Department of Communication
301 Kennedy Hall
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
email: pmd8 at cornell.edu
phone: 607 255-2124
https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/~pmd8/resume