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Inventing Mosquitoes: Tracing the Topology of Vectors for Human Disease

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Topologies as Techniques for a Post-Critical Rhetoric

Abstract

This chapter draws on Aristotelian topoi to explore the topology of a genomic database. To accomplish this task, two complementary topical analyses are performed. The first analysis focuses on the Infectious Disease Ontology for Dengue and Malaria (IDODEN/IDOMAL), which yields a topology for VectorBase. Tracing the special topoi of the ontology reveals what types of arguments the database privileges by its very structure. The second analysis looks for patterns in the IDODEN/IDOMAL onto/topology using Aristotle’s common or universal topoi. This meta-analysis reveals that IDODEN/IDOMAL promotes consensus building over dichotomous, diachronic thinking. In this community, it seems that discovery is conceptualized as only a social activity—a habit that has consequences for problem-solving in this field and in others.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English and Foreign Languages, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, USA

    Molly Hartzog

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  1. Molly Hartzog
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA

    Lynda Walsh

  2. Department of Rhetoric and Writing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Casey Boyle

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Hartzog, M. (2017). Inventing Mosquitoes: Tracing the Topology of Vectors for Human Disease. In: Walsh, L., Boyle, C. (eds) Topologies as Techniques for a Post-Critical Rhetoric. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51268-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51268-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51267-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51268-6

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