Changes

===6.2. A Candid Point of View===

===6.2. A Candid Point of View===

This section discusses, in a general and informal way, the objectives inspiring and the requirements surrounding the elaboration of a RIF.  This is approached, in part, by taking up the intuitive notions of a ''point of view'' (POV) and a ''point of development'' (POD), as they stake out, respectively, the intellectual repertoire and history of a typical agent of inquiry.  Initially, these ideas serve in a familiar manner to characterize the intellectual skills and growth of agents, in particular, as they bear on the cultivation of the agents' reflective resources.  Increasingly, these concepts are subjected to formalization, partly by analyzing their relations to each other and gradually by relating their inherent structures and referent involvements to the already formalized concepts of objective frameworks, genres, and motifs.

This section discusses, in a general and informal way, the objectives inspiring and the requirements surrounding the elaboration of a RIF.  This is approached, in part, by taking up the intuitive notions of a "point of view" (POV) and a "point of development" (POD), as they stake out, respectively, the intellectual repertoire and history of a typical agent of inquiry.  Initially, these ideas serve in a familiar manner to characterize the intellectual skills and growth of agents, in particular, as they redound on the cultivation of the agents' reflective resources.  Increasingly, these concepts are subjected to formalization, partly by analyzing their relations to each other and gradually by relating their inherent structures and referent involvements to the already formalized concepts of objective frameworks, genres, and motifs.

As I reflect on signs and texts, I am led to enumerate more and more phenomena associated with the process of interpretation and with the models of it that I find in sign relations.  Some of the deepest and subtlest of these phenomena, at least, that I am able to observe and recount, take their theme from a certain "intermingling of categories" that is found at the basis of every real phenomenon.  This issue comes to prominence and makes itself evident as topic of inquiry whenever one tries to organize the original chaos of phenomena through the imposition of a suitable scheme of categories.

As I reflect on signs and texts, I am led to enumerate more and more phenomena associated with the process of interpretation and with the models of it that I find in sign relations.  Some of the deepest and subtlest of these phenomena, at least, that I am able to observe and recount, take their theme from a certain “intermingling of categories” that is found at the basis of every real phenomenon.  This issue comes to prominence and makes itself evident as topic of inquiry whenever one tries to organize the original chaos of phenomena through the imposition of a suitable scheme of categories.

What is the typical outcome of setting out such a scheme for nature?  No sooner does one institute a provisional scheme of categories for organizing phenomena than one discovers every system with a stamp of reality to it steadfastly ignoring the lines of one's naive imagination.  And yet it soon becomes clear that this seeming "perversity of nature" arises from an error of attribution on the part of the mind that casts the aspersion.  Ultimately, it stems from the fact that every scheme of categories that the mind can forge and foist on nature, for instance, "sign" and "object", "self" and "other", remains, after all, the scene of a mere abstraction, implicating the "pallid" and the "shadowy" sides of the same dissention, but all the while circling about and turning on the complex but unitary reality that underlies the phenomenon in question.

What is the typical outcome of setting out such a scheme for nature?  No sooner does one institute a provisional scheme of categories for organizing phenomena than one discovers every system with a stamp of reality to it steadfastly ignoring the lines of one's naive imagination.  And yet it soon becomes clear that this seeming “perversity of nature” arises from an error of attribution on the part of the mind that casts the aspersion.  Ultimately, it stems from the fact that every scheme of categories that the mind can forge and foist on nature, for instance, ''sign'' and ''object'', ''self'' and ''other'', remains, after all, the scene of a mere abstraction, implicating the ''pallid'' and the ''shadowy'' sides of the same dissention, but all the while circling about and turning on the complex but unitary reality that underlies the phenomenon in question.

In view of these complexities, that interfere with applying even the simplest of organizational paradigms to the material of signs and texts, it is necessary for me to pause a while and carefully contemplate how I can rehabilitate their use, at least, for the ends of this investigation.  First, I examine the distinction between "sign" and "object".  Then, I consider the duality between "self" and "other", or what amounts to the same thing, the relation between a "first person" and a "second person" POV.  In each case, the task is to discover how a distinction that seems so easy to subvert can ultimately be developed into a useful instrument of analysis and articulation.

In view of these complexities, that interfere with applying even the simplest of organizational paradigms to the material of signs and texts, it is necessary for me to pause a while and carefully contemplate how I can rehabilitate their use, at least, for the ends of this investigation.  First, I examine the distinction between sign and object.  Then, I consider the duality between self and other, or what amounts to the same thing, the relation between a ''first person'' and a ''second person'' POV.  In each case, the task is to discover how a distinction that seems so easy to subvert can ultimately be developed into a useful instrument of analysis and articulation.

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',

In every hour that passes, O;

In every hour that passes, O;