The double function of the interpretant in Peirce’s theory of signs

Semiotica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (225) ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Jimmy Aames
Keyword(s):  
Second Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Logical Operation ◽  
Order Function ◽  
First Order ◽  
Formal Identity ◽  
Double Function ◽  
Hypostatic Abstraction ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThere seem to be two distinct aspects to the role played by the Interpretant in Peirce’s account of the sign relation. On the one hand, the Interpretant is said to establish the relation between the Sign and Object. That is, the Sign can “stand for” its Object, and thereby actually function as a Sign, only by virtue of its being interpreted as such by an Interpretant. On the other hand, the Interpretant is said to be “determined” by the Sign in such a way that it is thereby mediately determined by the Sign’s Object. How can we understand the relation between these two aspects of the Interpretant? This is the question with which this paper is concerned. I begin by drawing a distinction between what I call the first-order function and second-order function of the Interpretant, and illustrating this distinction using Peirce’s example of comparing the letters p and b in § 9 of the 1867 “On a New List of Categories.” I then show that this same distinction can be discerned in a significant passage in the second section of Peirce’s 1903 “A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic,” as well as in his early definition of the Interpretant in the “New List.” This double function of the Interpretant has been noted in the Peircean literature, specifically by Joseph Ransdell in his 1966 dissertation, and more recently by André De Tienne. However, an important aspect of what I call the second-order function of the Interpretant remains unclarified in Ransdell and De Tienne’s approaches, namely, its relation to the logical operation of hypostatic abstraction. I will show that the Interpretant, in its second-order function, plays a role formally identical in the sign process to the role played by hypostatic abstraction in Peirce’s demonstrations of the Reduction Thesis. This formal identity will afford us with a way of understanding the relation between the two aspects of the Interpretant in terms of hypostatic abstraction.

A theorem on deducibility for second-order functions

1939 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Langford
Keyword(s):  
Second Order ◽  
Order Function ◽  
Usual Definition ◽  
First Order ◽  
Free Variables ◽  
Usual Convention ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Image Position

It is known that the usual definition of a dense series without extreme elements is complete with respect to first-order functions, in the sense that any first-order function on the base of a set of postulates defining such a series either is implied by the postulates or is inconsistent with them. It is here understood, in accordance with the usual convention, that when we speak of a function on the base , the function shall be such as to place restrictions only upon elements belonging to the class determined by f; or, more exactly, every variable with a universal prefix shall occur under the hypothesis that its values satisfy f, while every variable with an existential prefix shall have this condition categorically imposed upon it.Consider a set of postulates defining a dense series without extreme elements, and add to this set the condition of Dedekind section, to be formulated as follows. Let the conjunction of the three functions,be written H(ϕ), where the free variables f and g, being parameters throughout, are suppressed. This is the hypothesis of Dedekind's condition, and the conclusion iswhich may be written C(ϕ).

Reflections on the concept of symmetry

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (S2) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
KUNO LORENZ
Keyword(s):  
Binary Relation ◽  
Second Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Order ◽  
Broken Symmetries ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Logical Notion ◽  
The One ◽  
Ancient Usage

The concept of symmetry is omnipresent, although originally, in Greek antiquity, distinctly different from the modern logical notion. In logic a binary relation R is called symmetric if xRy implies yRx. In Greek, ‘being symmetric’ in general usage is synonymous with ‘being harmonious’, and in technical usage, as in Euclid's Elements, it is synonymous with ‘commensurable’. Due to the second meaning, which is close to the etymology of συ´μμετρoς, ‘with measure’ has likewise to be read as ‘being [in] rational [ratios]’ and displays the origin of the concept of rationality of establishing a proportion. Heraclitus can be read as a master of such connections. Exercising rationality is a case of simultaneously finding and inventing symmetries. On that basis a proposal is made of how to relate the modern logical notion of symmetry, a second-order concept, on the one hand with modern first-order usages of the term symmetric in geometry and other fields, and on the other hand with the notion of balance that derives from the ancient usage of symmetric. It is argued that symmetries as states of balance exist only in theory, in practice they function as norms vis-à-vis broken symmetries.

Toward a Volitional Definition of Religion

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 664-692
Author(s):  
John Nemec
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Second Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Inductive Approach ◽  
Stipulative Definition ◽  
Definition Of Religion ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract This article advocates for the production of stipulative definitions of religion, a type of nominal definition that articulates new ways of applying a word to a thing. I propose that scholars look to sites where phenomena historically have been labeled “religion” on lexical or real understandings of the term, this to query how religious agents there chose, implicitly or explicitly, to systematize thought, speech, emotion, and action. Such self-consciously ordered systems, I argue, may properly be labeled “religion.” Next, I apply this method to premodern South Asia, suggesting “religion” refers to the second-order structuring there that links normative social relations to normative states of subjectivity, any innovation in the one demanding innovation in the other. I conclude by inviting other efforts at stipulative definition, all with an eye toward an inductive approach, allowing that the myriad locations of religion present mutually distinguishable systems that may all properly be so labeled.

Neural computation of motion in the fly visual system: quadratic nonlinearity of responses induced by picrotoxin in the HS and CH cells

1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 2665-2684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kondoh ◽  
Y. Hasegawa ◽  
J. Okuma ◽  
F. Takahashi
Keyword(s):  
Mean Square Error ◽  
Order Term ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Second Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linear Component ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
Nonlinear Component ◽  
First Order ◽  
Order Kernel

1. A computational model accounting for motion detection in the fly was examined by comparing responses in motion-sensitive horizontal system (HS) and centrifugal horizontal (CH) cells in the fly's lobula plate with a computer simulation implemented on a motion detector of the correlation type, the Reichardt detector. First-order (linear) and second-order (quadratic nonlinear) Wiener kernels from intracellularly recorded responses to moving patterns were computed by cross correlating with the time-dependent position of the stimulus, and were used to characterize response to motion in those cells. 2. When the fly was stimulated with moving vertical stripes with a spatial wavelength of 5-40 degrees, the HS and CH cells showed basically a biphasic first-order kernel, having an initial depolarization that was followed by hyperpolarization. The linear model matched well with the actual response, with a mean square error of 27% at best, indicating that the linear component comprises a major part of responses in these cells. The second-order nonlinearity was insignificant. When stimulated at a spatial wavelength of 2.5 degrees, the first-order kernel showed a significant decrease in amplitude, and was initially hyperpolarized; the second-order kernel was, on the other hand, well defined, having two hyperpolarizing valleys on the diagonal with two off-diagonal peaks. 3. The blockage of inhibitory interactions in the visual system by application of 10-4 M picrotoxin, however, evoked a nonlinear response that could be decomposed into the sum of the first-order (linear) and second-order (quadratic nonlinear) terms with a mean square error of 30-50%. The first-order term, comprising 10-20% of the picrotoxin-evoked response, is characterized by a differentiating first-order kernel. It thus codes the velocity of motion. The second-order term, comprising 30-40% of the response, is defined by a second-order kernel with two depolarizing peaks on the diagonal and two off-diagonal hyperpolarizing valleys, suggesting that the nonlinear component represents the power of motion. 4. Responses in the Reichardt detector, consisting of two mirror-image subunits with spatiotemporal low-pass filters followed by a multiplication stage, were computer simulated and then analyzed by the Wiener kernel method. The simulated responses were linearly related to the pattern velocity (with a mean square error of 13% for the linear model) and matched well with the observed responses in the HS and CH cells. After the multiplication stage, the linear component comprised 15-25% and the quadratic nonlinear component comprised 60-70% of the simulated response, which was similar to the picrotoxin-induced response in the HS cells. The quadratic nonlinear components were balanced between the right and left sides, and could be eliminated completely by their contralateral counterpart via a subtraction process. On the other hand, the linear component on one side was the mirror image of that on the other side, as expected from the kernel configurations. 5. These results suggest that responses to motion in the HS and CH cells depend on the multiplication process in which both the velocity and power components of motion are computed, and that a putative subtraction process selectively eliminates the nonlinear components but amplifies the linear component. The nonlinear component is directionally insensitive because of its quadratic non-linearity. Therefore the subtraction process allows the subsequent cells integrating motion (such as the HS cells) to tune the direction of motion more sharply.

scholarly journals Emotionally evaluative attitude of parents in the high conflict families to each other and the child

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-141
Author(s):  
S.S. Kulakov
Keyword(s):  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dysfunctional Families ◽  
Psychiatric Examination ◽  
High Conflict ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Conflictual Relationship

The increasing number of dysfunctional families causes an increase in the number of civil litigation on the education of the child, where the relationship between the persons are highly conflictual. The actual task is study the one of components in the structure of the psychological relationship - emotional and semantic constructs underlying semantic perception of each other and the child's parents. Examination of 42 testees (parents) from harmonious families and 54 testees (parents) during the forensic psychological and psychiatric examination (regarding the definition of child`s residence or the order of meetings for the child and the parent who don`t live with it) by methods "Geometric test of relations" and "Semantic Differential" showed that in families where is highly conflictual relationship, there is positive assessments of herself and her child, while assessment of the spouse (wife) characterized inversion. This negative attitude toward the spouse (wife) is not the other parent's negative characteristics. It is the ignoring the other parent's positive characteristics. The positive acceptance of all family members was revealed in harmonious families.

scholarly journals Handling i narratologien, litteraturen og livet

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (101) ◽  
pp. 122-139
Author(s):  
Thor Grünbaum
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Communicative Function ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

Action in Narratology, Literature, and LifeIn this article I argue that the representation of simple, bodily action has the function of endowing the narrative sequence with a visualizing power: It makes the narrated scenes or situations ready for visualization by the reader or listener. By virtue of this visualizing power or disposition, these narrated actions disrupt the theoretical divisions, on the one hand, between the narrated story and the narrating discourse, and on the other hand, between plot-narratology and discourse-narratology. As narrated actions they seem to belong to the domain of plot-narratology, but in so far as they serve an important visualizing function, these narrated actions have a communicative function and as such they can be said to belong to the domain of discourse-narratology. In a first part of the article, I argue that a certain type of plot-narratology, due to its retrospective epistemology and abstract definition of action, is unable to conceive of this visualizing function. In a second part, I argue that discourse-narratology fares no better since the visualizing function is independent of voice and focalization. In a final part, I sketch a possible account of the visualizing function of simple actions in narratives.

Self-Cognizing Intellect and Negative Attributes in Maimonides' Theology

1994 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Kasher
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Introductory Essay ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Guide Of The Perplexed ◽  
Negative Attributes

In his introductory essay on the philosophical sources of The Guide of the Perplexed, Shlomo Pines points out a well-known contradiction between two conceptions of God in Maimonides' theology. On the one hand, Maimonides borrowed the Aristotelian definition of God as the intellect that cognizes itself; on the other, in line with Avicenna's Neoplatonic theory of attributes, Maimonides denied the possibility of saying anything positive about God. Pines proposes two possible solutions; first, that Maimonides was well aware of the contradiction, or, second, that he fell into the contradiction inadvertently. As Pines himself admits, however, neither solution is satisfactory.

Boltanski, L. (2019). Mysteries and conspiracies. Translated by A. Zakharevich. St. Petersburg: Izdatelstvo Evropeyskogo universiteta. (In Russ.)

2021 ◽  
pp. 264-269
Author(s):  
P. A. Moiseev
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Police Procedural ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

The review deals with Luc Boltanski's Mysteries and Conspiracies [Enigmes et complots]. The following is noted as defects of the reviewed book: detective fiction is associated with anxieties that question the framework of modern reality. Such attribution, it is argued, results from inaccurate comparison of detective fiction to a spy novel. The reviewer identifies contradictions in the definition of detective fiction: on the one hand, it is characterised by the proverbial anxiety. On the other, the writer suggests that unravelling a mystery normalises the ‘integrity of predictable expectations.' In addition, Boltanski confuses detective fiction with police procedural novels as well as the concepts of genre and theme with regard to spy novels (as a result, he dwells on ‘the genre of the spy novel,' even though spy novels are written in a number of genres). The review particularly criticises Boltanski's assessment of A. Conan Doyle's prose.

Vladimir Titov’s Letter to Vladimir Odoevsky as a Well-Known Response to Ivan Turgenev’s Article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” (Contemporaries’ Reception of Turgenev’s Interpretation of the Image of Hamlet)

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-116
Author(s):  
Ivan O. Volkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
German Idealism ◽  
Don Quixote ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Library ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
First Time

For the first time, in the article, Vladimir Titov’s letter (dated 12/24 February 1869) is published and commented. In the 1820s, in Russia, Titov was well-known as a writer and literature theorist, the author of a romantic novella The Remote House on Vasilyevsky Island (1829) close to Society of Lyubomudriye. The letter extracted from the archives of the National Library of Russia is addressed to Duke Vladimir Odoevsky whose relationship with Titov was friendly from the very beginning of their acquaintance. The letter focuses on Ivan Turgenev’s speech published in the first issue of Sovremennik and titled “Hamlet and Don Quixote”. Reacting to Turgenev’s article, Titov shortly and critically accesses the comparison concentrating mainly on the image of Hamlet and thoroughly expresses his opinion on the essence of his tragic state. Titov’s opinion is just the opposite of Turgenev’s complex and multidimensional interpretation. Having experienced the great impact of the philosophy of German idealism at the beginning of his career, Titov to a great extent idealizes Shakespeare’s character whom he long knows and whom he is clearly eager to vindicate. Meanwhile, Titov does not pursue the aim to absolutely advocate the romantic halo of Hamlet as a Titanic personality (grandiose intellect and scale of feeling) and to enact the tragic pathos of the inner fight only. Developing Goethe’s definition of the essence of the character’s inner conflict, Titov, on the one hand, approaches its real understanding underlying the prince’s necessity to stay in a derogatory position of a “pitiful semiclown, indecisive grouch and shred”. On the other hand, the assessment can not be absolutely objective because Titov wants to see Hamlet as a victim of the fatal fortune which turns him into a character of an almost classical tragedy of fate. Titov’s bright and developed reaction (in the document of private nature) to Turgenev’s article is attractive and important first of all for its vividly demonstrated novelty and creativity of the writer’s view, wideness and multimodality of the author’s perception of Hamlet’s image. For the first time, Turgenev gave a developed interpretation of Shakespeare’s image in the tale “Hamlet of Shchigrovsky Province” (1848). Continuing his searches in the area of “Russian” (or “steppe”) Hamlet, Turgenev creates moral and philosophical problems of the English tragedy in the crisis socio-historical and cultural atmosphere of Russia of the 1840s. However, the principles of the artistic generalization and the peculiarities of the new reading, not mentioned and not fully comprehended by his contemporaries, were surprising and rejected when the speech “Hamlet and Don Quixote” appeared, in which Shakespeare’s character is presented ultimately vividly and lively in the then current interpretation.

Die Erklärbarkeit von Erfahrung

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Renz
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Subject Theory

Spinoza's ethics is grounded by a conviction which is as simple as it is programmatic: Subjective experience can be explained, and its successful explanation is of ethical relevance. For it makes us smarter, freer and happier. This is the programmatic conviction behind Spinoza's ethics and motivates many of the theses it puts forward. Ursula Renz shows which kind of a theory of the human mind informs this program. The systematic differentiation of theory parts in the architecture of ethics proves to be a decisive move: A theory part that deals with questions of the ontology of the mental is followed by a definition of the human mind as a kind of subject theory, which in turn is separated from a theory part dealing with the constitution of content. This structure makes it possible to deal separately with different problems that arise in the course of the explanation of experience. In the end, Spinoza succeeds in avoiding both reductionisms and skepticisms right from the start. In this way, two intuitions are brought together that are often considered incompatible: on the one hand, the view that experience is something irreducibly subjective, and on the other hand, the assumption that there are better and worse explanations of experience.

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