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One of the main problems that the present TOI has to address is how a TOI can address the problems of self-reference that an inquiry into inquiry involves.  If a sonnet can say something true about sonnets, then a TOI, far less limited in the number and measure of its lines, ought to be able to say something true about TOIs in general, unless the removal of these limitations takes away the only things whereof and whereby it has to speak, the ends and means of its own form of speech.

One of the main problems that the present TOI has to address is how a TOI can address the problems of self-reference that an inquiry into inquiry involves.  If a sonnet can say something true about sonnets, then a TOI, far less limited in the number and measure of its lines, ought to be able to say something true about TOIs in general, unless the removal of these limitations takes away the only things whereof and whereby it has to speak, the ends and means of its own form of speech.

Using the pragmatic theory of signs, the forms of self-reference that have to be addressed in this project can be divided into two kinds, or classified in accord with two dimensions of referential involvement.  Roughly speaking, reference in the broader sense can suggest either a denotative reference to an object or a connotative reference to a sense.  Therefore, a projected self-reference can be classified according to the ways that its components of reference propose to recur on themselves:  how much pretends to be a self description along denotative lines and how much purports to be a self address in the connotative direction.

Using the pragmatic theory of signs, the forms of self-reference that have to be addressed in this project can be divided into two kinds, or classified in accord with two dimensions of referential involvement.  Roughly speaking, reference in the broader sense can suggest either a denotative reference to an object or a connotative reference to a sense.  Therefore, a projected self-reference can be classified according to the ways that its components of reference propose to recur on themselves:  how much pretends to be a self description along denotative lines and how much purports to be a self address in the connotative direction.

Under suitably liberalized conditions of interpretation, then, what is meant by "a self referent text", whether one that denotatively describes or connotatively addresses itself?  Apparently, it can mean a text that addresses, describes, refers to, or speaks to either one of two issues:  (1) the outwardly passing features of its own succession of signs, or (2) the inwardly relied on properties of its own regenerative sources.

Under suitably liberalized conditions of interpretation, then, what is meant by “a self-referent text”, whether one that denotatively describes or connotatively addresses itself?  Apparently, it can mean a text that addresses, describes, refers to, or speaks to either one of two issues:  (1) the outwardly passing features of its own succession of signs, or (2) the inwardly relied on properties of its own regenerative sources.

It is one thing for a text to be generated according to the laws laid down in another.  This takes place, for example, in devising or following a proof according to the axioms and rules of inference that are recorded in a proof system.  It is another thing entirely for a text or a corpus of texts to derive or induce the very principles of their own generation and then return to disclose the process of derivation or induction itself according to which the whole text or corpus is divined or drafted.

It is one thing for a text to be generated according to the laws laid down in another.  This takes place, for example, in devising or following a proof according to the axioms and rules of inference that are recorded in a proof system.  It is another thing entirely for a text or a corpus of texts to derive or induce the very principles of their own generation and then return to disclose the process of derivation or induction itself according to which the whole text or corpus is divined or drafted.

What the discussion of reflection has so far been leading up to, if I stop to reflect on what might be the implicit project behind its scheme of development, is tantamount to a "monadology", a project of a complete and total provision for a system of perfect but virtual self reflections.  But I suspect that such a project is unsupportable in reality outside the realm of infinite resources and pre established harmonies, while my present aim is to see what can be done with finite and empirical means.  A monadology, if it entertains itself with any form of investigation at all, addresses the task as a sheer masquerade, styling its inquiry after the fashion of a "complete logical analysis" (CLA).

What the discussion of reflection has so far been leading up to, if I stop to reflect on what might be the implicit project behind its scheme of development, is tantamount to a ''monadology'', a project of a complete and total provision for a system of perfect but virtual self-reflections.  But I suspect that such a project is unsupportable in reality outside the realm of infinite resources and pre-established harmonies, while my present aim is to see what can be done with finite and empirical means.  A monadology, if it entertains itself with any form of investigation at all, addresses the task as a sheer masquerade, styling its inquiry after the fashion of a ''complete logical analysis'' (CLA).

On principle, there is nothing inherently the matter with the form of the CLA itself, but it does not embody all by itself the spirit of suspense that accompanies a genuine human inquiry.  A real inquiry cannot know before it starts what the answer is and how the end will be achieved, and it cannot, if it wishes, merely trick out the foils of an already completed and pre arranged survey, parading them as a passing series of plotted and transient complications in the guise of an honest quest.  Some types of completeness are far more complete than others, however.  Taken with respect to a properly limited and workably modest context, and treated as "relatively complete" rather than "absolutely complete", the ideal substrate of the CLA forms a suitably plastic material for modeling many forms of concretely reasonable inquiry.

On principle, there is nothing inherently the matter with the form of the CLA itself, but it does not embody all by itself the spirit of suspense that accompanies a genuine human inquiry.  A real inquiry cannot know before it starts what the answer is and how the end will be achieved, and it cannot, if it wishes, merely trick out the foils of an already completed and pre-arranged survey, parading them as a passing series of plotted and transient complications in the guise of an honest quest.  Some types of completeness are far more complete than others, however.  Taken with respect to a properly limited and workably modest context, and treated as ''relatively complete'' rather than ''absolutely complete'', the ideal substrate of the CLA forms a suitably plastic material for modeling many forms of concretely reasonable inquiry.

Invoked with a spirit of moderation, the idealized model envisioned in the CLA can nevertheless serve as virtual guide for practical inquiries, highlighting the space of conceivable models and projecting a standard against which to measure every approximate, likely, and partial result.  An inquiry of this self controlled kind, that considers in addition the logical alternative to every hypothesis it finds itself making, if it is addressed appropriately to the conditions of its constraining resources, can achieve complete success only within a tightly circumscribed sphere of action.  Thus, the ideal of CLA informs a workable genre of inquiry, but the experimental variations that it enables and permits an agent to contemplate are bound up with the experiences that can be expressed in a language of finite and discrete signs, and exactly to the extent that they are in fact expressible.

Invoked with a spirit of moderation, the idealized model envisioned in the CLA can nevertheless serve as virtual guide for practical inquiries, highlighting the space of conceivable models and projecting a standard against which to measure every approximate, likely, and partial result.  An inquiry of this self controlled kind, that considers in addition the logical alternative to every hypothesis it finds itself making, if it is addressed appropriately to the conditions of its constraining resources, can achieve complete success only within a tightly circumscribed sphere of action.  Thus, the ideal of CLA informs a workable genre of inquiry, but the experimental variations that it enables and permits an agent to contemplate are bound up with the experiences that can be expressed in a language of finite and discrete signs, and exactly to the extent that they are in fact expressible.