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My broader interest lies in the theory of inquiry as a special application or a special case of the theory of signs.  Another name for the theory of inquiry is ''logic'' and another name for the theory of signs is ''semiotics''.  So I might as well have said that I am interested in logic as a special application or a special case of semiotics.  But what sort of a special application?  What sort of a special case?  Well, I think of logic as ''formal semiotics'' — though, of course, I am not the first to have said such a thing — and by ''formal'' we say, in our etymological way, that logic is concerned with the ''form'', indeed, with the ''animate beauty'' and the very ''life force'' of signs and sign actions.  Yes, perhaps that is far too Latin a way of understanding logic, but it's all I've got.

My broader interest lies in the theory of inquiry as a special application or a special case of the theory of signs.  Another name for the theory of inquiry is ''logic'' and another name for the theory of signs is ''semiotics''.  So I might as well have said that I am interested in logic as a special application or a special case of semiotics.  But what sort of a special application?  What sort of a special case?  Well, I think of logic as ''formal semiotics'' — though, of course, I am not the first to have said such a thing — and by ''formal'' we say, in our etymological way, that logic is concerned with the ''form'', indeed, with the ''animate beauty'' and the very ''life force'' of signs and sign actions.  Yes, perhaps that is far too Latin a way of understanding logic, but it's all I've got.

Now, if you think about these things just a little more, I know that you will find them just a little suspicious, for what besides logic would I use to do this theory of signs that I would apply to this theory of inquiry that I'm also calling ''logic''?  But that is precisely one of the things signified by the word ''formal'', for what I'd be required to use would have to be some brand of logic, that is, some sort of innate or inured skill at inquiry, but a style of logic that is casual, catch-as-catch-can, formative, incipient, inchoate, unformalized, a work in progress, partially built into our natural language and partially more primitive than our most artless language.  In so far as I use it more than mention it, mention it more than describe it, and describe it more than fully formalize it, then to that extent it must be consigned to the realm of unformalized and unreflective logic, where some say "there be oracles", but I don't know.

Now, if you think about these things just a little more, I know that you will find them just a little suspicious, for what besides logic would I use to do this theory of signs that I would apply to this theory of inquiry that I'm also calling ''logic''?  But that is precisely one of the things signified by the word ''formal'', for what I'd be required to use would have to be some brand of logic, that is, some sort of innate or inured skill at inquiry, but a style of logic that is casual, catch-as-catch-can, formative, incipient, inchoate, unformalized, a work in progress, partially built into our natural language and partially more primitive than our most artless language.  In so far as I use it more than mention it, mention it more than describe it, and describe it more than fully formalize it, then to that extent it must be consigned to the realm of unformalized and unreflective logic, where some say “there be oracles”, but I don't know.

Still, one of the aims of formalizing what acts of reasoning that we can is to draw them into an arena where we can examine them more carefully, perhaps to get better at their performance than we can unreflectively, and thus to live, to formalize again another day.  Formalization is not the be-all end-all of human life, not by a long shot, but it has its uses on that behalf.

Still, one of the aims of formalizing what acts of reasoning that we can is to draw them into an arena where we can examine them more carefully, perhaps to get better at their performance than we can unreflectively, and thus to live, to formalize again another day.  Formalization is not the be-all end-all of human life, not by a long shot, but it has its uses on that behalf.