2 David Riesman' s observations on the stages of character development in the social order can also be illuminating when applied to the development of scholarly activity as it is demonstrated in published records. Especially pertinent are how referencing and other bibliographic practices and conventions, from a historical perspective, reflect his models of tradition-, inner-, and otherdirected character.To understand how the theories of Riesman and other thinkers apply to scholarly conventions, we will develop a framework that first discusses the function of concept in scholarly discourse, with special attention to how, through evolution, bibliographic citations have come to function as concepts, including how bibliographic citations have taken on a symbolic function, frequently substituting for substantive content.3 Finally, we will present evidence that demonstrates how Riesman' s theory of the historical development of human character provides a possible explanation of why our concept of the bibliographic citation has developed through these permutations.
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