Autism and the Crisis of Meaning

Alexander Durig

feb 1996 · State University of New York Press

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Autism and the Crisis of Meaning presents a systematic way of understanding the logic of meaningful perception in everyday life. Working from concepts of formal logic and logical inference, the author suggests that informal logics of social inferencing may address part of the way we organize our perceptions in social life. By discussing the way our social inferencing reflects inductive, deductive, and abductive logics, the social inferencing theory of meaningful perception is shown to entail a theory of autistic perception.

Durig shows that everyday meaningful perception may be organized largely by a balanced ratio of inductive to deductive logics, and that autistic perception is comprised of significantly higher levels of deductive social inferencing relative to inductive social inferencing. This perception theory is capable of addressing the five core behaviors associated with autism. By presenting meaningful perception and autistic perception in terms of ratios of social inferencing, Durig introduces a concept of slight autism: an individual may have normative inductive social inferencing, and super deductive social inferencing, thus accounting for a highly intelligent person who nevertheless has difficulty expressing themselves in formal social situations.

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Alexander Durig Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, San Marcos.