An exploration on the Topoi: How our conceptual frameworks create our world

These extended essays introduce the topoi, a conceptual framework that structures, mediates, and organizes our experience of the world. To develop my argument I describe the topoisitic perspective, a way of seeing the social and cultural world according to the affordances and limitations of specific frames of reference. I also explain how topoi change over time as new perspectives and points of view come to be accepted. The argument is illustrated with texts and ideas ranging from Darwinian evolution, to Achilles and The Iliad, Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shifts, Karin Knorr-Cetina’s epistemic cultures, Anthony Wallace’s revitalization movements, and N.R. Hanson’s work on the conceptual foundations of science.