A AMPLA NOÇÃO DE LINGUAGEM DE CHARLES S. PEIRCE: COMPARTILHAMENTO DE HÁBITOS

Resumo: O método científico de investigação de Peirce, conjugado com seu antropomorfismo, o conduziu à elaboração de uma noção tão ampla de linguagem que estende em muito o universo estritamente humano relacionado à língua verbal. O antropomorfismo como método ajudou Peirce a elaborar uma semiótica que busca compreender a lógica que está subjacente à produção de significado nos mais distintos sistemas, compreendendo desde o reino humano, passando pelo reino biológico animal e vegetal, alcançando até mesmo o reino físico. Talvez o conceito peirceano que esteja na intersecção da compreensão desses diversos sistemas de significação seja o conceito de hábito, não só pelo fato de que a aquisição de hábitos pode ser verificada em todos os sistemas do universo, mas também pelo fato de que o hábito parece ser o elo desses sistemas entre si. Dessa maneira, a lei de aquisição de hábitos, segundo Peirce, é a efetiva lei do universo, formando uma grande estrutura complexa inteligível por meio de processos informacionais, o cosmos. O presente artigo busca explicitar como esse processo de aquisição de significado se dá, desde o universo humano, até o universo da física. Com isso, explicitamos como a noção de linguagem de Peirce (lógica-semiótica, relativa à produção de significado e de conhecimento) atingiu seus extremos.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Peirce; Linguagem; Hábito; Conhecimento; Significado.   ABSTRACT: Peirce’s scientific method of investigation associated with his anthropomorphism has conducted him to the elaboration of a broader notion of language which in turn extends the human universe related to verbal language. The anthropomorphism as method helped Peirce in the elaboration of a semiotic which seek for understanding the underlying logic in the production of meaning in several systems, since human and biological realms until reaching even the physical one. The concept of habit seems to be in the very intersection of the understanding of these systems, inasmuch as habit acquisition process can be verified in all of them, including the possible relationships between these domains of reality. According to Peirce, the law of habit acquisition is the law of the universe, constituting a large intelligible and complex structure by means of informational processes, the cosmos. This paper intends to make explicit this process of acquisition of meaning (habits), taking briefly into account human mind and behavior (process of inquiry), animal communication (E. coli bacteria) and physical processes (atomic structure). Thus, we make explicit how Peirce’s notion of language (logical-semiotic, related to meaning and knowledge) has reached a large extend. KEYWORDS: Peirce; Language; Habit; Knowledge; Meaning

Scaffolding development and the human condition

This paper addresses the concept of semiotic scaffolding by considering it in light of questions arising from the contemporary challenge to the humanities. This challenge comes from a mixture of scientistic demands, opportunism on the part of Western governments in thrall to neo-liberalism, along with crass economic utilitarianism. In this paper we attempt to outline what a theory of semiotic scaffolding may offer to an understanding of the humanities’ contemporary role, as well as what the humanities might offer to the elucidation of semiotic scaffolding. We argue that traditional humanist positions adopted in defence of the humanities fail to articulate the enhancement of humanity that semiotic scaffolding represents. At the same time, we note that the concept of scaffolding is sometimes in danger of taking on a functionalist perspective which understanding the humanities modus operandi is likely to dispel. Putting forward these arguments, we draw on the work of Peirce, Cassirer and Sebeok in elucidating the structural and ‘future-orientated’ benefits of the scaffolding process as it suffuses the humanities

Scaffolding development and the human condition

This paper addresses the concept of semiotic scaffolding by considering it in light of questions arising from the contemporary challenge to the humanities. This challenge comes from a mixture of scientistic demands, opportunism on the part of Western governments in thrall to neo-liberalism, along with crass economic utilitarianism. In this paper we attempt to outline what a theory of semiotic scaffolding may offer to an understanding of the humanities’ contemporary role, as well as what the humanities might offer to the elucidation of semiotic scaffolding. We argue that traditional humanist positions adopted in defence of the humanities fail to articulate the enhancement of humanity that semiotic scaffolding represents. At the same time, we note that the concept of scaffolding is sometimes in danger of taking on a functionalist perspective which understanding the humanities modus operandi is likely to dispel. Putting forward these arguments, we draw on the work of Peirce, Cassirer and Sebeok in elucidating the structural and ‘future-orientated’ benefits of the scaffolding process as it suffuses the humanities

Communication and the Origins of Personhood

This thesis presents a communicative account of personhood that argues for the inseparability of the metaphysical and the practical concepts of a person. It connects these two concepts by coupling the question “what is a person” (concerning the necessary conditions of personhood) with the question "how does one become a person"(concerning its genetic conditions). It argues that participation in social interactions that are characterized by mutual recognition and giving-and-taking reasons implied by the practical concept of a person is in fact an ecological and developmental condition for an entity to possess the kind of characteristics and capacities such as reflexive self-consciousness addressed by the metaphysical concept. The chief theoretical contribution of the dissertation research lies, accordingly, in demonstrating that an adequate metaphysical concept of a person has to make reference to the kind of social processes that are necessary for the emergence and development of the distinguishing attributes of persons among other moving, perceiving, desiring and cognizing agents. Methodologically, it undertakes an original philosophical analysis that is enriched by an interdisciplinary investigation of several notions and insights from semiotics, comparative and developmental psychology, cognitive science and anthropology. The main argument of the thesis is that one becomes a person through internally recreating a social, communicative process; namely, that of dialogical transformation of habits. We find the paradigmatic case of this social process in mutual persuasion. The internalization of this process in the form of an inner dialogue cultivates a social self that is in ongoing communication with the embodied, organismic self of uncritically habituated attitudes, convictions and desires. This inner dialogue can be conceived as a temporally extended process of self-persuasion, which is characterized by an ongoing strive for attaining higher degrees of self-control; that is, for achieving a more coherent alignment between our habits and the kind of person we would like to be. It starts with self-interpretation and self-evaluation, and culminates in the formation of higher-order desires that facilitate habit-change and novel habit formation in accordance with certain social, moral, aesthetical or intellectual categories and norms one comes to endorse. For this reason, self-induced, deliberate habit-change is also a process of appropriation or self-appropriation, through which we strive to cultivate habits of feeling, thinking, acting that we can deem more truly ours. The thesis demonstrates that the capacity for engaging in this kind of self-persuasion consists chiefly in the capacities for metasemiosis, perspective-taking, and for cultivating habits of reflexivity. It explicates how all these capacities have a social origin and ultimately a social function by showing that they all presuppose certain higher-order communicative patterns that arose through an evolutionary and cultural history, and develop through the internal reconstruction of these patterns as cognitive-semiotic processes. The thesis concludes that becoming a kind of being who can engage in self-persuasion, thus a person, consists ultimately in internalizing the patterns of communicative social interactions in the form of an ongoing auto-communication.  Väitöskirjassa käsitellään persoonuuden kommunikatiivista prosessia ja osoitetaan, että persoonan metafyysiset ja käytännölliset käsitteet ovat erottamattomat. Nämä kaksi käsitettä yhdistetään tarkastelemalla kysymyksiä ”mikä on persoona” ja ”miten tullaan persoonaksi”. Väitöskirjassa osoitetaan, että osallistuminen sosiaaliseen kanssakäymiseen, johon kuuluu persoonan käytännön käsitteeseen kuuluva vastavuoroinen tunnustaminen sekä kompromissi, on itse asiassa entiteetin ekologinen ja kehityksellinen olotila, jossa se saavuttaa piirteitä ja taitoja, kuten persoonan metafyysisen käsitteen mukainen refleksiivinen itsetietoisuus. Väitöskirjan keskeinen teoreettinen tavoite on osoittaa, että persoonan onnistuneessa metafyysisessä käsitteessä on otettava huomioon sosiaaliset prosessit, jotka ovat välttämättömiä persoonan erityisten attribuuttien kehittymiselle, kuten liikkuminen, havaitseminen, haluaminen sekä kognitiiviset agentit. Väitöskirjan metodologia koostuu filosofisesta analyysista, jota monitieteisesti rikastutetaan semiotiikan, vertailevan ja kehityspsykologian, kognitiivisten tieteiden ja antropologian lähestymistavoilla. Väitöskirjan keskeinen teesi on, että agentista tulee persoona, kun se luo uudestaan sisäisesti sosiaalisen, kommunikatiivisen prosessin, toisin sanoen tapojen dialogisen transformaation kautta. Tämän sosiaalisen prosessin paradigmaattinen esimerkki on molemminpuolinen vakuuttaminen. Sen sisäistäminen sisäisen dialogin muotoon kehittää sosiaalista minuutta, joka on jatkuvassa kommunikaatiossa epäkriittisten asenteiden, vakaumusten ja halujen elimellisesti ruumiillistuneen minän kanssa. Tämä sisäinen dialogi voidaan mieltää itsensä suostuttelun prosessiksi. Itsensä suostuttelu on jatkuva pyrkimys saavuttaa itsehillinnän korkeampia tasoja, toisin sanoen saattaa yhteen tapamme ja se persoona, joka haluaisimme olla. Se alkaa itsearviolla ja huipentuu niiden ylevämpien halujen muodostumiseen, jotka edistävät persoonan tapojen muutosta niiden tiettyjen sosiaalisten, moraalisten, esteettisten ja intellektuaalisten normien mukaisesti, joita yksilö alkaa noudattamaan. Tästä syystä itse toteutettu tapojen muutos on myös itsensä hallitsemisen prosessi, jonka kautta me voimme kehittää tapoja, joita pidämme aidommin ominamme. Väitöskirja osoittaa, että taito ryhtyä itsensä suostutteluun muodostuu pääsääntöisesti kyvystä metasemioosiin, perspektiivin ottamisesta sekä refleksiivisyyden kehittämisestä. Se esittää, että kaikilla näillä taidoilla on sosiaalinen alkuperä ja viime kädessä sosiaalinen merkitys, osoittamalla, että ne kaikki edellyttävät tiettyjä ylevämpiä kommunikatiivisia malleja, jotka nousevat kehitys- ja kulttuurihistoriasta ja kehittyvät näiden mallien sisäisen rekonstruktion kautta kognitiivis-semioottisina prosesseina. Lopuksi väitöskirja osoittaa, että tuleminen sellaiseksi olevaksi, joka voi toteuttaa itsensä suostuttelun, toisin sanoen persoonaksi, muodostuu viime kädessä sosiaalisen kanssakäymisen kommunikatiivisten mallien sisäistämisestä jatkuvan autokommunikaation muodossa.

SEMIOTIC REASONING EMERGES IN CONSTRUCTING PROPERTIES OF A RECTANGLE: A STUDY OF ADVERSITY QUOTIENT

Semiotics is simply defined as the sign-using to represent a mathematical concept in a problem-solving. Semiotic reasoning of constructing concept is a process of drawing a conclusion based on object, representamen (sign), and interpretant. This paper aims to describe the phases of semiotic reasoning of elementary students in constructing the properties of a rectangle. The participants of the present qualitative study are three elementary students classified into three levels of Adversity Quotient (AQ): quitter/AQ low, champer/AQ medium, and climber/AQ high. The results show three participants identify object by observing objects around them. In creating sign stage, they made the same sign that was a rectangular image. However, in three last stages, namely interpret sign, find out properties of sign, and discover properties of a rectangle, they made different ways. The quitter found two characteristics of rectangular objects then derived it to be a rectangle’s properties. The champer found four characteristics of the objects then it was derived to be two properties of a rectangle. By contrast, Climber found six characteristics of the sign and derived all of these to be four properties of a rectangle. In addition, Climber could determine the properties of a rectangle correctly

The Haunted Animal: Peirce\u27s Community of Inquiry and the Formation of the Self

American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce pioneered the concept of a community of inquiry as a superior method of investigation to the approaches of any one individual. Within Pierce’s philosophy, accounts of developmental subjectivity appear alongside their connections to community. Peirce grounded the application of the community of inquiry in the social. Here the application of the community of inquiry extends to the level of the individual, as a conceptual illustration of thought within the human psyche. Within this reading, haunted emerges through memory as a central condition of the individual. The term significant has here been used to represent the positions, arguments, and ideals personified in the memory of a person. As such, the following project visualizes Peirce’s individual as a haunted animal—a being fashioned over time through the personal inclusions of influential significants. In addition, this reading offers further continuity within Peirce’s system, redefining the formation of the individual though the community of inquiry. Overall, the haunted animal serves to signify a sentimental foundation of individual identity and thought as an ongoing synthesis of one’s memories of others

Mattering: A Recreation of the Realism of Charles S. Peirce

Mattering' is the process and the product of Reality. It is One from nothing. Whether there is more than one universe as the string theorists argue, is beyond my ken. Fortunately I am not concerned here with epistemology but with understanding. Nor am I preoccupied with revealing Truth. Rather, my purpose is to explore the meaning and consequences of 'mattering': to be able to say that, beyond reasonable doubt, I believe that 'it' matters – that 'it' is 'mattering'. This can be made intelligible by way of reflection on the Pragmatic Maxim of the American polymath Charles S. Peirce [1839-1914] and validated with his systematic method of inquiry. Part 1 of my thesis explores and presents Peirce's work. Part 2 is an exposition of my three part hypothesis of 'mattering', that: 1. value functions as a condition of intelligibility - purpose, as the ground of 'mattering' is dependent on value; 2. power - where power is the capacity to cause - is the enabler of force functioning as actual 'mattering'; 3. 'mattering' is evolutionary realization of universal telos. For Peirce, inquiry is triggered by genuine doubt. His method begins with imagination: with the generation of a hypotheses that, if valid, will relieve the irritation of doubt. Creating my hypothesis of 'mattering' free of consideration of truth was liberating. This is what Peirce called abduction: active imagination which can be considered as reasonable, but only in so far as it can be reasoned from by deduction and induction. This is Mathematics, the first of the heuretic sciences (the branch of sciences which treats of discovery or invention) and its aim is to draw necessary conclusions; Philosophy is the next class of the heuretic sciences, followed by the Special Sciences. The first order of Peirce's second class, Philosophy, is his Phenomenology - his doctrine of categories - the purpose of which is to describe what is before the mind and to show that the description is correct. It is the beginning of discovering meaning, and involves observation of what Peirce called the phaneron (whatever is before the mind) - in my case, my hypothesis. Through differentiation, abstraction or prescision, and dissociation it identifies the three irreducible categories of reality identified by Peirce as First (possibility), Second (actuality) and Third (probability). The second order of his philosophical method is the Normative Sciences of Esthetics (aesthetics), the ideal, Ethics, going for the ideal, and Semeiotic or logic, what can reasonably be hoped for. By practicing what he preached, Peirce built the third order of Philosophy, his Metaphysics of Tychism (chance), Synechism (continuity), and Agape. [In physics, Agape arguably is gravity and the still to be discovered something that will deliver the Holy Grail: the theory of everything.] This is 'mattering'. I argue it is grounded in the values of integrity, respect and transparency, values which are expressed through the enactment (or powering) of 'mattering's' purpose or telos which grows and develops. This is, 'mattering': universal realisation of evolutionary telos. Our species, which evolved, as did the Universe, from the Universe - the process and product of 'mattering' - appears set on a trajectory of ecocide for which we are responsible. One model for understanding this travesty is Freud's scheme of Id (desire) Ego (mediator) Superego (should). If Ego, which makes choices, sides with and empowers the unmitigated, individual wanting that is Id, by ignoring Superego - cooperative imperatives for universal growth and development - Earth's evolutionary trajectory is jeopardised. We ignore the categorial values of integrity, respect, and transparency with which evolutionary universal telos is co-dependent, at our peril. The global dysfunction of Egos, especially those that have commandeered power by disempowering others, can be healed. Together, but only together, we can get back on track and reclaim Earth's and our future. This one Universe from which we evolved and with which we are evolving, can do it, and, even granted that it has been practicing longer, we too can do it: we can make it matter. It matters. It is 'mattering'

Educating Semiosis: Exploring ecological meaning through pedagogy

This thesis consists of six essays – framed by introduction and conclusion chapters – that develop possibilities for philosophy of education and pedagogy from the lens of bio-semiotics and edu-semiotics (biological and educational semiotics). These transdisciplinary inquiries have found commonality in the concept of learning-as-semiosis, or meaning-making across nature/culture bifurcations. Here, quite distinct branches of research intersect with the American scientist-philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce’s (1839 - 1914) pragmatic semiotics. I argue in these essays that the research pathway suggested by the convergence of edu- and bio-semiotics, reveals possibilities for developing a (non-reductive) theory of learning (and pedagogy generally) that puts meaning-making processes in a central light. A fully semiotic theory of learning implores us to take an ecological and biological view of educational processes. These processes explore the complementarity of organism-environment relations and the relationship between learning and biological adaptation. They also unravel new implications for education through the basic recognition that meaning is implicitly ecological. Understanding semiotic philosophy as an educational foundation allows us to take a broader and less dichotomized view of educational dynamics, such as: learning and teaching, curriculum design, arts and music education, inter/trans-disciplinary education, literacy (including environmental and digital literacy), as well as exploring the relationships and continuities between indigenous/place-based and formal pedagogical processes and practices. From this meaning-based and ecological perspective, what is important in the educational encounter is not psychologic explanations of learning stages, predetermined competencies, or top-down implemented learning-outcomes, but rather meaning and significance and how this changes through time-space and with others (not only human others) in a dynamic and changing environment. As addressed more directly in the conclusion chapter, these essays unravel the implications of this emerging approach to the philosophy of education, pedagogy and learning theory, specifically by providing conceptual/philosophical possibilities for integrating arts education, science education, and indigenous place-based knowledge into holistic educational approaches and programs

Recent studies on signs: Commentary and perspectives

In this commentary, I reply to the fourteen papers published in the Sign Systems Studies special issue on Peirce’s Theory of Signs, with a view on connecting some of their central themes and theses and in putting some of the key points in those papers into a wider perspective of Peirce’s logic and philosophy