Logic as Semiotic and theory of Signs.html.ppt

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1. Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs
Charles Sanders Pierce

2. Timeline
•Born on 10 Sept 1839, Cambridge, Massachusetts
•At 12, read a standard book on logic by Bishop Richard Whately
•Began reading Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason at age 13
•At 16, decided to devote his life to the study of and research in logic
•Received a graduate degree in chemistry from Harvard
•Published Photometric Researches, 1878
•Published Studies in Logic, 1883
•Died on 19 Apr 1914, Milford, Pennsylvania.

3. Preview
• Signs
•Icon
•Index
•Symbols
•Semiotics
•Definition
•Abstraction
•Object>Sign>Interpreter
•Three Divisions of Semiotics

4. Signs: Icon
•Represents its signified.
•Observer can derive information about its signified.
•Types of Icons
•Images: Similarity of aspect.
•Diagram: Represent relationships of parts rather than tangible features.
•Metaphors: Posses a similarity of character, representing an object by using
parallelism in some other aspect.

5. Signs: Index
•Think of the word “indicate”.
•Indices are directly perceivable events that can act as a reference to events that are not
directly perceivable, or in other words they are something visible that indicated something
out of sight.
•Hyposeme: No actual connection (other than casual) with their object, such as first names,
relative pronouns. Work like labels.

6. Signs: Symbol
•Represents something in a completely arbitrary relationship.
•Connection between signifier and signified depends entirely on the observer, or more
exactly, what the observer was taught.
•Symbols are subjective, dictated either by social convention or by habit.
•Types of Symbols
•Singular symbol: Denotes tangible things
•Abstract symbol: Signifies abstract notions.

7. Semiotic: Definition
•“Semiotics is the investigation of apprehension, prediction and meaning; how it is that we
apprehend the world, make predictions, and develop meaning.”
•“Logic is another name for semiotics”

8. Semiotic: Abstraction
• “… simplification of detail, wherein formerly concrete details are left ambiguous, vague, or
undefined; thus speaking of things in the abstract demands that the listener have an intuitive
or common experience with the speaker, if the speaker expects to be understood. Signs are
abstractions.”
•Sign is not the object; a sign is perceptual data that refers to an object.
•“The sign can only represent the Object and tell about it. It cannot furnish acquaintance with
or recognition of that Object; for that is what is meant in this volume by the Object of a Sign;
namely, that with which it presupposes an acquaintance in order to convey some further
information concerning it.”

9. Semiotic: Object-Sign-Interpreter
•Sign (representamen)
•Something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It
addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or
perhaps a more developed sign.
•Interpretant
•Stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea.
•A context for understanding a sign and what it stands for or represents.
•A potential or capacity to recognize meaningful distinctions.
•As a sign expresses an object or meaning, the interpretant is a sign in the mind
of an interpreter. As one becomes conscious of signs, signs express a meaning.
•Ground
•Meaning is based upon an existing epistemological ground, the knowledge and
experience that determine conduct.
•Communication is dependant on a capacity to perceive and interpret signs.

10. Semiotics: Three Divisions of Semiotics
•Three divisions of semiotics; different levels of cultural meanings. If any of these divisions of
semeiotics is mistaken, there is a risk of missing the truth.
•Pure Grammar: The formal conditions for a sign to exit as an expression of
communication, to stand for or represent something.
•Critical logic: The necessary conditions for a sign, an expression of communication
such as a word, sound, or image, to represent an object or idea.
•Speculative Rhetoric: The formal conditions for one idea to generate another, and to
convey meaning from one mind to another mind.