Dynamical Discourse Theory

Abstract

This article explores the similarity between the modeling methods of dynamical systems theory and deconstruction. Both disciplines incorporate a new temporal sensitivity into the existing structural techniques of their predecessors. In this formalism, time cannot be reduced to a simple, space-like, fourth dimension along which events evolve: time predicates the many-leveled, fractally self-similar, hierarchical structure that our consciousness requires for the identification and organization of any continually evolving ensemble identity, including the self, family, organization, corporation and species. Both deconstruction and dynamical systems theory find local randomness in the shifting referentiality of signification, but whereas the response of the former is to reject any deterministic foundations, the latter retains them and so obtains a formalism with which to convey an observer via simulation across the reasonable but not logical jump to a new emergent identity, even as the continually shifting referentiality destroys any possibility for local determination. This new method of modeling allows for the unpredictable self-organization of order out of chaos.