ONT Re: Inquiry Driven Systems
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| Document History
|
| Subject: Inquiry Driven Systems: An Inquiry Into Inquiry
| Contact: Jon Awbrey <jawbrey@oakland.edu>
| Version: Draft 8.70
| Created: 23 Jun 1996
| Revised: 06 Jan 2002
| Advisor: M.A. Zohdy
| Setting: Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA
| Excerpt: Section 1.3.4 (Discussion of Formalization: Concrete Examples)
| Excerpt: Subsection 1.3.4.14 (Application of OF: Generic Level)
|
| http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/library/aboutcsp/awbrey/inquiry.htm
1.3.4.14 Application of OF: Generic Level (cont.)
Returning to the examination of icons and indices, and keeping the criterion
of reality in mind, notice the radical difference that comes into play in
recursive settings between the two types of contemplated moves that are
needed to trace the respective signs back to their objects, that is,
to discover their denotations:
1. Icon -> Object. Taking the iconic sign as an initial instance,
try to go up to a property and then down to a different or perhaps
the same instance. This form of ascent does not require a distinct
object, since the reality of the sign is sufficient unto itself.
That is, if the sign has any properties at all, then it is an
icon of a real object, even if that object is only itself.
2. Index -> Object. Taking the indexical sign as an initial property,
try to go down to an instance and then up to a different or perhaps
the same property. This form of descent requires a real instance to
substantiate it, but not necessarily a distinct object. Consequently,
the index always has a real connection to its object, even if that
object is only itself.
In sum:
| For icons a separate reality is optional.
|
| For indices a separate reality is obligatory.
As often happens with a form of analysis, each term under the
above indicated sum immanently verges on unlimited expansions:
1. For icons, the existence of a separate reality is optional.
This means that the question of reality in the sign relation
can depend on nothing more than the reality of each sign itself,
on whether it has any property with respect to the OG in question.
In effect, icons can rely on their own reality to faithfully provide
a real object.
2. For indices, the existence of a separate reality is obligatory.
And yet this reality need not affect the object of the sign.
In essence, indices are satisfied with a basis in reality
that need only reside in an actual object instance, one
that establishes a real connection between the object
and its index with regard to the OG in question.
Finally, suppose that M and N are hypothetical sign relations intended
to capture all of the iconic and indexical relationships, respectively,
that a typical object x enjoys within its genre G. A sign relation in
which every sign has the same kind of relation to its object under an
assumed form of analysis is aptly called a "homogeneous sign relation".
In particular, if H is a homogeneous sign relation in which every sign
has either an iconic or an indexical relation to its object, then it
is convenient to apply the corresponding adjective to the whole of H.
Typical sign relations of the iconic or indexical kind generate especially
simple and remarkably stable sorts of interpretive processes. In regard to
arity or valence, they could almost be classified as "approximately 2-adic",
since the greater share of their interesting structure is wrapt up in their
denotative aspects, while their connotative functions are relegated to the
more tangential role of preserving the directions of their denotative axes.
In a metaphorical but true sense, iconic and indexical sign relations equip
objective frameworks with the semiotic equivalents of "gyroscopes", helping
them to maintain their interpretive perspectives in a persistent orientation
toward their objective worlds.
Of course, every form of sign relation still depends on the agency of a
proper interpreter to bring it to life, and every species of sign process
stays forever relative to the interpreters that actually bring it to term.
Still, it is an rather special circumstance by means of which the actions
of icons and indices are able to turn on the existence of independently
meaningful properties and instances, as recognized within an objective
framework, and this means that the interpretive associations of these
signs are not always as idiosyncratic as they might otherwise be.
The dispensation of consensual bonds in a common medium leaves room for many
otherwise isolated interpreters to inhabit a shared frame of reference, and
for a diversity of transient interpretive moments to take up and consolidate
a continuing perspective on a world of mutual interests. This even further
increases the likelihood that developing interpreters and differing observers
will become able to participate in coherent views and compatible values that
are held in relation to the aggregate of things, to collate information from
a variety of sources, and to bring concerted action to bear on an appreciable
distribution of extended realities and intended objectives. Instead of the
disparities due to parallax leading to disorder and paralysis, accounting
for the distinctive points of view behind the discrepancies can give rise
to stereoscopic perspectives. In a community of interpretation and inquiry
that has all of these virtues, each individual "try at objectivity" (TAO)
is a venture that all interpreters are nonetheless able to call their own.
Is this prospect a utopian vision? Perhaps it is exactly that.
But it is the hope that inquiry discovers resting first and last
within itself, quietly guiding every other aim and motive of inquiry.
Jon Awbrey
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