Changes

All of these dimensions of concern focus on the circumstance that signs, especially written or recorded signs, moderate a complexly integrated sort of relationship between self and other, or between ''first person'' and ''second person'' POVs, in such a way that they render the paired categories of each scheme inextricably involved in one another.

All of these dimensions of concern focus on the circumstance that signs, especially written or recorded signs, moderate a complexly integrated sort of relationship between self and other, or between ''first person'' and ''second person'' POVs, in such a way that they render the paired categories of each scheme inextricably involved in one another.

There are well-known dangers of paradox, but not so well acknowledged risks of distortion, that arise in the interrogation of any reflection.  Although its outward signs are obvious, the source of the difficulty is remarkably difficult to trace.  Perhaps it can be approached as follows.  Without trying to say what consciousness is, I can still speak sensibly of its contents, and talk of their structures in relation to each other.  These contents, whether percepts or concepts or whatever, are all signs.  And so I can study the effects of reflection in the medium of its texts and develop a model of reflection as a process that evolves these texts.

There are well-known dangers of paradox, but not so well acknowledged risks of distortion, that arise in the interrogation of any reflection.  Although its outward signs are obvious, the source of the difficulty is remarkably difficult to trace.  Perhaps it can be approached as follows.  Without trying to say what consciousness is, I can still speak sensibly of its contents, and talk of their structures in relation to each other.  These contents, whether percepts or concepts or whatever, are all signs.  And so I can study the effects of reflection in the medium of its texts and develop a model of reflection as a process that evolves these texts.

What generally happens when one tries to model reflective consciousness and to formalize the reflective discourses that signify its public life?  In reaching for the available languages of logic and set theory, one is likely to use them as reductively as possible on the first attempt, and thus to state the relation of anything to awareness directly in terms of membership, in sum, by means of a globally overarching dyadic relation.  What does this picture of reflection pretend about the relation of the world to the mind, or conversely, the relation of awareness to anything?  Although it confuses the relation of "content" to "consciousness" with the relation of "object" to "concept", this degree of play in the imagery is a forgivable, occasionally useful, and a probably inescapable analogy.  In any case, it does not amount to the most serious distortion in the picture as a whole.

What generally happens when one tries to model reflective consciousness and to formalize the reflective discourses that signify its public life?  In reaching for the available languages of logic and set theory, one is likely to use them as reductively as possible on the first attempt, and thus to state the relation of anything to awareness directly in terms of membership, in sum, by means of a globally overarching dyadic relation.  What does this picture of reflection pretend about the relation of the world to the mind, or conversely, the relation of awareness to anything?  Although it confuses the relation of ''content'' to ''consciousness'' with the relation of ''object'' to ''concept'', this degree of play in the imagery is a forgivable, occasionally useful, and a probably inescapable analogy.  In any case, it does not amount to the most serious distortion in the picture as a whole.

What is really wrong with the dyadic picture of reflection is the fact that it treats both of the relations it surveys, of minds to ideas and of ideas to things, on the model of a consummation and a containment, as if to place everything being related in an all embracing hierarchy and in opposition to all forms of reciprocal participation among its entities.  This image renders a consciousness of contents and a concept of objects each in the likeness of a set and its elements, rather than presenting them as they most likely are, a relationship of systems or agents and of texts or signs to the ideals or objects that motivate them, constituting mutually embracing forms of participation in a unified textual activity.  In all, the initial attempt at explaining reflection lays it out according to a conception that grasps it prey, and loses the creature in the process, rather than a conception that releases the potential of what it imprisons.

What is really wrong with the dyadic picture of reflection is the fact that it treats both of the relations it surveys, of minds to ideas and of ideas to things, on the model of a consummation and a containment, as if to place everything being related in an all embracing hierarchy and in opposition to all forms of reciprocal participation among its entities.  This image renders a consciousness of contents and a concept of objects each in the likeness of a set and its elements, rather than presenting them as they most likely are, a relationship of systems or agents and of texts or signs to the ideals or objects that motivate them, constituting mutually embracing forms of participation in a unified textual activity.  In all, the initial attempt at explaining reflection lays it out according to a conception that grasps it prey, and loses the creature in the process, rather than a conception that releases the potential of what it imprisons.

One of the reasons for bringing the pragmatic theory of signs to bear on this discussion is deal with just these problems, constellated by the need for reflection and made acute by the defects of the dyadic picture.  By means of triadic sign relations, and given a capacity to create and modify the interpretant signs that fill out its original set of semantic equivalence classes, an interpretive agent has the "elbow room" needed to stand aside from the ongoing process of interpretation, to reflect on its present determinants, and to consider its possible developments.

One of the reasons for bringing the pragmatic theory of signs to bear on this discussion is to deal with just these problems, constellated by the need for reflection and made acute by the defects of the dyadic picture.  By means of triadic sign relations, and given a capacity to create and modify the interpretant signs that fill out its original set of semantic equivalence classes, an interpretive agent has the “elbow room” needed to stand aside from the ongoing process of interpretation, to reflect on its present determinants, and to consider its possible developments.

An inquiry that cannot clearly and completely comprehend itself as an object can at least inquire into the succession of signs that record its progress.  The writer of a text can use that text to describe, at least partially, the process of writing and using it so.  The reader of a text can understand that text to describe, at least partially, the process of reading and understanding it so.  Further, a discussion can generate a record that describes, more than just the transient proceedings of that discussion, the principles and parameters that determine its creation.  In each of these ways, a text can address the qualities that determine its intended character, comment on the context in which it takes a part, and act on behalf of its pretended objectives.

An inquiry that cannot clearly and completely comprehend itself as an object can at least inquire into the succession of signs that record its progress.  The writer of a text can use that text to describe, at least partially, the process of writing and using it so.  The reader of a text can understand that text to describe, at least partially, the process of reading and understanding it so.  Further, a discussion can generate a record that describes, more than just the transient proceedings of that discussion, the principles and parameters that determine its creation.  In each of these ways, a text can address the qualities that determine its intended character, comment on the context in which it takes a part, and act on behalf of its pretended objectives.