Pragmatic Semiotic Information (Ψ)

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Jon Awbrey

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Aug 21, 2018, 3:40:22 PM8/21/18
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Cf: http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/08/21/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%cf%88/

Ontologists, Systers, Modelers,

I remember it was back in '76 when I began to notice a subtle shift of
focus in the computer science journals I was reading, from discussing X
to discussing Information About X, or X → Info(X) as I came to notate it.
I suppose this small arc of revolution had been building for years but it
struck me as crossing a threshold to a more explicit, self-conscious stage
about that time.

And thereby hangs a number of tales ...

Jon

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Ken Lloyd

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Aug 21, 2018, 6:10:02 PM8/21/18
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When speaking of most things, say x, we are indirectly referencing all the meta-levels of x - meta signifying beyond which can include higher levels of abstraction as well as lower levels of realizations.
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Aleksandar Malečić

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Aug 22, 2018, 4:20:45 AM8/22/18
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In your opinion, how (and why) will Kent Palmer's work on schemas (http://schematheory.net/) be remembered in some distant future? Or Len Troncale's Systems Processes Theory (http://lentroncale.com/?page_id=30)?

Aleksandar

Jon Awbrey

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Aug 22, 2018, 9:32:28 AM8/22/18
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Ken,

Thanks for the comment. It made me realize that the notation Info(X) is
probably not the best. It tends to mislead us into thinking we already
have X in hand, in other words, that we already have perfect information
about X and are merely abstracting Info(X) as some derivative of it.
But that is not the sort of situation we are concerned with here.

It might be better to say that Info is all the information we have at
a given moment of investigation and X abstracts the portion of Info
that has to do with X. That might lead us to notate it as X(Info).
This brings to mind the way we speak of observables in physics,
as operators on the total state or wave function or whatever.

If I had to concoct an informal linguistic example — which I'd do solely by way
of rough analogy to the formal mathematical situations we'd have much hope of
resolving in our lifetimes — I'd say the sorts of X we're facing here are what
used to be called “definite descriptions” like “Desdemona's infidelity” or
“Manafort's guilt on the 10 mistried counts”.

In those sorts of situations, discussed to death in years gone by,
what a modicum of pragmatic-semiotic insight adds to the mix is that
all descriptions are indefinite to some degree, all syntax is lax to
some extent.

There are, as usual, clear foresights of that insight in Peirce.
And that is what I'll be getting around to prescently.

Regards,

Jon

Lenard Troncale

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Aug 22, 2018, 12:32:47 PM8/22/18
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In my humble opinion (IMHO), neither has a distant future unless they write books and publish them.     Len

George Mobus

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Aug 22, 2018, 2:30:00 PM8/22/18
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Exactly Len. And the IFSR book series with Springer is great venue.


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University of Washington Tacoma

Street mail: 1900 Commerce St. Tacoma, WA 98402-3100 Box 358426
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From: syss...@googlegroups.com <syss...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Lenard Troncale <lrtro...@cpp.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2018 9:25:21 AM
To: syss...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [SysSciWG] Pragmatic Semiotic Information (Ψ)
 

Jack Ring

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Aug 22, 2018, 4:44:07 PM8/22/18
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Len’s SPT will bebremembered and applied widely because it leads to pathology detection and prevention.
Jack Ring

Jack Ring

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Aug 22, 2018, 4:44:57 PM8/22/18
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Although books are effective, scripts for computer-based learning environments may be moreso. c.f., audio books and the Kahn Academy. 
Currently books have an advantage because they undergo a “proofreading and editing (second opinion)" phase. Perhaps the alternatives will learn to include a pathology prevention phase as well..
Jack

Ken Lloyd

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Aug 22, 2018, 7:38:10 PM8/22/18
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WRT to Kent Palmer’s and Len Troncale’s work, I see these as some of the many dots in a very large pointillist painting from which a “picture” emerges.

 

Ken Lloyd

 

From: syss...@googlegroups.com [mailto:syss...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aleksandar Malecic


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Ken Lloyd

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Aug 22, 2018, 7:42:41 PM8/22/18
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Hopefully, in whatever medium we find it, we can avoid the “Pablum” in the pabulum of knowledge. Adequate communication is hard task.


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Lenard Troncale

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Aug 22, 2018, 9:07:24 PM8/22/18
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Jack,

Thank you for your suggestion in answer to Alex Malecic’s question. Re: that, I fully agree, and that is why perhaps INCOSE Foundation funded our group to produce an open source, computerized, online relational data base on Systems Processes Theory. We are building a website to introduce the SPT-RDB as well as one on Systems Pathology itself as well as one on Systems Processes Theory in overview (to join the four related websites we already have up).

We are also collaborating with the Monterey Phoenix group at Naval Postgraduate School and Odum’s ISAER groups to develop “mini-models” in EXTEND for each isomorphy of the SPT. We also hope to engage many in group or cloud research on using these. You should also go to
if you have not already done so, as it is the website shell for our effort to establish a new International Society for Systems Pathology (which was also partially funded by one of the first INCOSE Foundation grants)(and for which you were the FIRST Founding Member).

Of course, following my own advice I am now writing two books entitled:
Systems Processes Theory: The Other Theory of Everything,             and
Introduction to Systems Literacy: From Systems Thinking to Systems Science
and after being pushed by Wilby and Singers and Tuddenham, I am re-publishing my first book Nature’s Enduring Patterns from 1978 in the Lawson Systems Engineering series. Or at least I will offer it to them.
Of course, my friends and colleagues will also tell you I have been working on those titles for years and they will never come about interrupted by my passing.

If all or any of these come about, then we will have followed your suggestion and mine and Malecic to enable a legacy for SPT. And remember you were the beginning of it all by introducing me to INCOSE and setting up the first Webinars (for the Fellows and for the CAB).

Of course, I also should say that “these are the opinions of the author and not necessarily of the sponsor” to protect you from fallout.

Len

Aleksandar Malečić

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Aug 23, 2018, 6:05:54 AM8/23/18
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I didn't mean to hijack the topic by mentioning Kent Palmer and Len Troncale. I think that pragmatic semiotic information ("contained" within or learned from natural and engineered entities) is the making or breaking point of their approaches, the place where they gain or lose their validity.

Aleksandar

Jack Ring

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Aug 24, 2018, 6:33:10 AM8/24/18
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All good news. TKU.

Be aware, though, that I do not qualify as Sponsor. More like the guy who, according to General George S. Patton Jr., rides in the chariot behind the Conquerer and whispers in his ear a warning: that "all glory is fleeting"

I understand that ISSPath dues are $100 annually. Sending today. More for the Patho part tha SPT.

Onward.
Jack

Jack Ring

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Aug 24, 2018, 6:34:37 AM8/24/18
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Which is interpreted in a variety of ways by various observers. The important issue is ‘how shall ‘we’ cohere?’
Jack Ring

Jon Awbrey

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Aug 24, 2018, 10:30:35 AM8/24/18
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Systems Science, Structural Modeling,

Here's my blog rehash of a couple earlier comments on the Ontolog list that
may help to explain my use of the term "pragmatic semiotic information".
I forgot that I hadn't shared those comments here, so sorry about that.

Inquiry Driven Systems • Comment 5
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/08/19/inquiry-driven-systems-%e2%80%a2-comment-5/

Re: Ontolog Forum • Bruce Schuman
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/ontolog-forum/vo8CmL8jt30/2zAl5v_zDQAJ

I would call that the pragmatic-semiotic point of view
and not find anything shocking in it.

One can find earlier foreshadowings — Plato’s Cratylus and the Stoic lekton
are often mentioned in this connection — but the clearest precursor of the
pragmatic-semiotic perspective occurs in Aristotle’s recognition of the
triadic sign relation, most succinctly in his treatise On Interpretation.

Here’s the little essay Susan Awbrey and I wrote on that, tracing
the continuities of pragmatic semiotics from Aristotle up through
Peirce and Dewey and teasing out the intimate relationship between
the theory of signs and the theory of inquiry.

Interpretation as Action : The Risk of Inquiry
https://www.academia.edu/1266493/Interpretation_as_Action_The_Risk_of_Inquiry

Regards,

joseph simpson

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Aug 24, 2018, 7:58:19 PM8/24/18
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Jon:
Interesting section of your paper:

"We discuss the role of the interpreter in the activity of interpretation. 
Aristotle assumes that objects and impressions in the mind are constant across all interpreters. 
Confronting this assumption with the needs of hermeneutic and educational practice, we argue that a comparative 
and developmental understanding of interpreters is required. This in turn demands the more complete theory of 
signs envisioned by Peirce and Dewey, which continues to be developed in the semiotic and pragmatic traditions."
We are working on a paper that addresses different kinds of languages, each that have a 
different type of interpreter.  The augmented model-exchange isomorphism (AMEI) provides a
framework in which the semantics of a given natural language relationship may be evaluated and 
explored to identify a common isomorphic expression across all thee language types.

The ability to convert a informal language (natural language) into a formal language in an isomorphic
manner is very valuable for a number of reasons.

At this time we are addressing three natural language relationships that are at the heart of systems science and systems engineering.  These three natural language relationships are:
  1) Part-of  (Necessary to discuss a system with more than one part, part <=> whole)
  2) Precedes (Necessary to discuss a time based process, like creating a system)
  3) Influence (Necessary for the evaluation of system interaction.)

The plan is to have the paper up on Research Gate in a  few days and present the paper contents 
at the September 1st Structural Modeling Project video conference at 9 AM Pacific time.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe

Lenard Troncale

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Aug 26, 2018, 8:17:01 AM8/26/18
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Well, Jack,

as always IMHO, I do not have to worry about “glory” because I am still decidedly unknown, and a guru to no one (I hope). Still, it is always a very good thing to be advised that glory is fleeting qualified by the telling “all.” (thank you)

I do understand that you are interested mostly in the Systems Pathology application than the original Systems Processes Theory (SPT). Although I have to say that SysPath derives from SPT. It is the detailing of the “mechanisms” (processes) that have resulted in sustainable natural systems for billions of years that is the KEY. Once one has a detailed version of the “steps” in each isomorphic process from studying the science behind it, then it is easy to derive “mistakes” or “dysfunctions” in the process that lead to the many manifestations of human complex system problems I collected in the SE lists (n=151). And I didn’t even include the many cited in Gall’s opus because they require analysis and synthesis first. Great progress would be made, again IMHO, and power attained by associating the actual systems process CAUSES (etiologies) with identified systems dysfunctions (SYMPTOMS).

 I wonder if you will sign or agree with the Systems Manifesto? Let me send a draft to you first.

Len

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 2, 2018, 9:54:42 AM9/2/18
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I've been following the discussion on the SysSci list that asks
the question, “What Is Systems Science?”. I haven't found the
free time to join in yet but it is very interesting to me on
account of the fact my work on Inquiry Driven Systems for the
last 30 years or so can be seen to ask the converse question,
“How Is Science A (Cybernetic or Dynamic) System?”.

The idea that the sciences operate as (some order of) cybernetic systems
is of course nothing new but there is a lot of work to do detailing that
insight and especially building intelligent software systems that assist
scientific research by availing themselves of that task and user model.

Regards,

joseph simpson

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Sep 2, 2018, 10:12:26 AM9/2/18
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Jon:

Many interesting view points and aspects associated with the methods, goals and artifacts associated with science.

Our next focus is the refactoring and refinement of the existing structural modeling software.

Things are moving along slowly, but moving in the right direction.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe
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joseph simpson

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Sep 3, 2018, 6:05:49 PM9/3/18
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FYI ..
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John F Sowa <so...@bestweb.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 3, 2018 at 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Re: Pragmatic Semiotic Information (Ψ)
To: <ontolo...@googlegroups.com>


On 9/2/2018 9:54 AM, Jon Awbrey wrote:
> I've been following the discussion on the SysSci list that asks
> the question, “What Is Systems Science?”.

Systems science, like every other science, is applied semiotic.
The primary difference between the sciences is the subject matter
to which they are applied.

The reason for differences in terminology is historical and
egotistical.  The names that are given to things depend on changing
circumstances, historical accidents, popular fads, and egotistical
desires by people who want to claim that they made a novel discovery.

For example, where are the boundary lines between psychiatry,
psychology, behavioral science, cognitive science, social science,
sociology, educational psychology, and anthropology?

Answer:  It all depends on which textbook you use.

However, there is one basic distinction:  all sciences, whether
the scientists know it or not, are versions of applied mathematics.

Fundamental reason:  Pure mathematics does not depend on any empirical
observation.  Every other subject, including so-called common sense,
use math (formal or informal) to analyze some observable phenomena.

See the attached cspsci.gif.  Note that formal logic and formal
semiotic are two names for the same branch of pure mathematics.
The distinction is whether you call logic a subset of semiotic or
semiotic a subset of logic -- if undecided, flip a coin.

John

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cspsci.GIF

joseph simpson

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Sep 4, 2018, 8:07:59 AM9/4/18
to Aleksandar Malečić, Sys Sci, structura...@googlegroups.com, mjs...@gmail.com
Aleksandar:

You wrote:

"Aren't all sciences versions of applied Knowledge Representation Ontology also known as the Sowa Diamond? http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/toplevel.html"

Great question.

Sowa wrote:

"However, there is one basic distinction:  all sciences, whether
the scientists know it or not, are versions of applied mathematics.

Fundamental reason:  Pure mathematics does not depend on any empirical
observation.  Every other subject, including so-called common sense,
use math (formal or informal) to analyze some observable phenomena."

It seems that there needs to be some empirical observation somewhere in the mix.

Take care and have fun,

Joe

On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 3:17 AM Aleksandar Malečić <ljma...@gmail.com> wrote:
Aren't all sciences versions of applied Knowledge Representation Ontology also known as the Sowa Diamond? http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/toplevel.htm

Aleksandar

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 4, 2018, 10:20:21 AM9/4/18
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Ontologists, Systems Scientists, Structural Modelers,

What I find lacking in these ontological bat-capping games is the
dynamic, functional, transformational side of scientific inquiry,
the process that produces the product. If sciences are bodies
of organized knowledge, what is the physiology of those bodies?
That is the variety of systems theory I learned in my schools,
focusing on the states of systems and how they change over time.

When we apply that systems perspective to information systems,
knowledge systems, systems of belief, received opinion, whatever,
the state under investigation is a state of information, knowledge,
and so on, and the question becomes, “What influences and operations
actually do and optimally ought to update that state of info over time?”

For ease of reference, here is my blog rehash of my last post,
seeing as how the main point of it somehow got snipped out:

Pragmatic Semiotic Information • Discussion 2
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/09/02/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-discussion-2/

Regards,

Jon
>>>> I've been following the discussion on the SysSci list that asks
>>>> the question, “What Is Systems Science?”.
>>>
>>> Systems science, like every other science, is applied semiotic.
>>> The primary difference between the sciences is the subject matter
>>> to which they are applied.
>>>
>>> The reason for differences in terminology is historical and
>>> egotistical. The names that are given to things depend on changing
>>> circumstances, historical accidents, popular fads, and egotistical
>>> desires by people who want to claim that they made a novel discovery.
>>>
>>> For example, where are the boundary lines between psychiatry,
>>> psychology, behavioral science, cognitive science, social science,
>>> sociology, educational psychology, and anthropology?
>>>
>>> Answer: It all depends on which textbook you use.
>>>
>>> However, there is one basic distinction: all sciences, whether
>>> the scientists know it or not, are versions of applied mathematics.
>>>
>>> Fundamental reason: Pure mathematics does not depend on any empirical
>>> observation. Every other subject, including so-called common sense,
>>> use math (formal or informal) to analyze some observable phenomena.
>>>
>>> See the attached cspsci.gif. Note that formal logic and formal
>>> semiotic are two names for the same branch of pure mathematics.
>>> The distinction is whether you call logic a subset of semiotic or
>>> semiotic a subset of logic -- if undecided, flip a coin.
>>>
>>> John
>>>

joseph simpson

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Sep 4, 2018, 11:10:55 PM9/4/18
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Jon:

Interesting point of view and approach.

Another interesting approach was taken by John Warfield.

John's approach explored the minimal, necessary context needed to support the activity of science.  The necessary contextual, environmental components are:
 1) Human beings (more than one)
 2) Language
 3) Reasoning through relationships
 4) Archival representation of artifacts.

These four components are given as the "Universal Priors to Science," in Chapter 2 of "A Science of Generic Design."

The ability of a given group of human beings to clearly communicate and reason has a significant impact on the development of any type of science.

It may be that expending effort on refining and developing these contextual components will have a great impact on the quality and quantity of science produced.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe






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Lenard Troncale

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Sep 5, 2018, 12:36:46 PM9/5/18
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Joe and Teams,

I think your summary of Warfield’s “minimal, necessary context for support of the activity of science” 4 components indicates why John and I had so many disagreements about systems science in our day. Please note that all 4 are on the human level ONLY. There is nothing there about experiments, applying the scientific method, hypotheses, past results, falsifiability, measuring & empirical approaches, or arranging nature to tell us how SHE works and not how WE HUMANS work. Missing these might explain the human role in trying to do science, but it does not explicate in any way the essentials of doing science IMHO. And so his tools might be great for helping humans begin to recognize how their human problems are really systems-level problems, but they do little to harvest and apply the “way nature has settled down to work” or its prescriptions to our newly developing human systems.

Len

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 8, 2018, 11:00:36 AM9/8/18
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Ontologists, Systems Scientists, Structural Modelers,

A question arising on another blog, perhaps incidentally, perhaps of the essence,
bought to mind recent discussions in these forums regarding the nature of systems,
variables, and the measurements that give systematic state variables their values.
My current focus being what it is, I couched my answer in pragmatic semiotic terms.



Measurement is an extension of perception.
Measurement gives us data about an object
system the way perception gives us percepts,
which we may consider just a species of data.

If we ask when we first became self-conscious about this
whole process of perception and measurement, I don't know,
but Aristotle broke ground in a very articulate way with his
treatise “On Interpretation”. Sense data are “impressions”
on the mind and they have their consensual, communicable
derivatives in spoken and written “signs”. This triple
interaction among objects, ideas, and signs is the
cornerstone of our contemporary theories of signs,
collectively known as “semiotics”.



Regards,

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 10, 2018, 10:54:11 AM9/10/18
to ontolo...@googlegroups.com, Azamat Abdoullaev, SysSciWG, Structural Modeling
Azamat, All,

Of course it's not that simple. I called it a cornerstone
not a whole building but it gives us a starting point and
a first approach to a pragmatic semiotic architecture
still being built as we speak.

There is more detail and a trace of semiotic's later development in this paper:

• Awbrey and Awbrey (1995), “Interpretation as Action : The Risk of Inquiry”
https://www.academia.edu/1266493/Interpretation_as_Action_The_Risk_of_Inquiry

We began by quoting the founding paragraph from Aristotle:

<QUOTE>

Words spoken are symbols or signs (symbola) of affections or impressions (pathemata) of
the soul (psyche); written words are the signs of words spoken. As writing, so also is
speech not the same for all races of men. But the mental affections themselves, of which
these words are primarily signs (semeia), are the same for the whole of mankind, as are also
the objects (pragmata) of which those affections are representations or likenesses, images,
copies (homoiomata). (Aristotle, De Interp. i. 16a4).

</QUOTE>

We used the following Figure to highlight the structure of the triadic
relation among objects (pragmata), affections or impressions (pathemata),
and symbols or signs (symbola, semeia) as given in Aristotle's account:

• Figure 1. The Sign Relation in Aristotle
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/awbrey-awbrey-1995-figure-1.png

The triadic nexus marked “R” in the Figure is what graph theorists
would call a node or point of degree 3 and it provides a graphical
picture of a relational triple that can be taken in any convenient
order so long as we keep it constant throughout a given discussion.
For example, we could take Aristotle's object, sign or symbol, and
impression in the order (o, s, i), mostly just because I find that
convenient in later developments.

Diagrams of that sort, whether triangular or tri-radial in form, have long been
in common use for conveying the properties of triadic sign relations. But the
intervening years have taught me to my dismay that people tend to be led astray
by pictures like that, often getting stuck on square one, or rather triangle one.
That is, they get stuck on single triples of sign relations rather than grasping
them as they should, as prototypical examples of a whole class of ordered triples.

Regards,

Jon

On 9/10/2018 3:23 AM, Azamat Abdoullaev wrote:
> It is not so simple.
> There are generally two kinds of signs: conventional and natural.
> Mental ideas and images are also signs, natural signs, being themselves
> meanings and intentions, or "mental words".
> Natural signs are causally related.
> Natural signs are the source of meaning for conventional signs.
> Thus the mind is the medium through which words signify things.
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 4:55 AM Jon Awbrey <jaw...@att.net> wrote:
>
>> Ontologists,
>>
>> A question arising on another blog, perhaps incidentally, perhaps of the essence,
>> brought to mind recent discussions in these forums regarding the nature of systems,
>> variables, and the measurements that give systematic state variables their values.
>> My current focus being what it is, I couched my answer in pragmatic semiotic terms.
>>
>> ⁂
>>
>> Measurement is an extension of perception.
>> Measurement gives us data about an object
>> system the way perception gives us percepts,
>> which we may consider just a species of data.
>>
>> If we ask when we first became self-conscious about this
>> whole process of perception and measurement, I don't know,
>> but Aristotle broke ground in a very articulate way with his
>> treatise “On Interpretation”. Sense data are “impressions”
>> on the mind and they have their consensual, communicable
>> derivatives in spoken and written “signs”. This triple
>> interaction among objects, ideas, and signs is the
>> cornerstone of our contemporary theories of signs,
>> collectively known as “semiotics”.
>>
>> ⁂
>>
>> Regards,
>>
Awbrey & Awbrey 1995 -- Figure 1.png

joseph simpson

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Sep 11, 2018, 10:39:45 PM9/11/18
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Jon:

Interesting collection of concepts and insights.

It appears to me that it is very difficult to fully grasp the fundamental issues associated with pragmatic semiotic information when the natural language of the individual conducting the inquiry is the main object of study.

I find that the analysis of the languages supported by the "Talking Drums" of Africa help me understand the signaling process at a deeper level.

John Carrington produced some work in this area in the 1940's.
See:

A key feature of these "sign exchanges" or "communication events" is the use of redundant signs or "signal phrases" to eliminate the uncertainty associated with the information exchange.

The physical medium of communication (drum, impact vibration, air pressure) is different between human speech and drum speech.

Human speech has much greater pitch control and tonal variability than "drum speech."  The information loss associated with the restricted drum mechanics is compensated for by repeating many phrases that only make logical sense if they are interrupted in a specific manner.

For example, assume drum speech can not make a clear distinction between the words baby and tree.  

If the drummer wanted to communicate about a tree then there would be statements like, 'Go climb high in the XXX' or 'The fruit is on the XXX."

If the drummer wanted to communicate about a baby the there would be statements like, 'Feed the XXX' or 'The XXX is little and smart."

This type of redundant sign transmission may be used to achieve the semantic goals of the communication. 

However, the redundant sign transmission is just preparing the state of the interpreter.

There are interesting connections between Shannon's information theory and Carrington's analysis of the talking drums.

It would be interesting to map these different views of information exchange to the components of your Figure 1 - The Sign Relation in Aristotle.  Another task to add to the very long "to do" list.

Given the structure of your Theme One Program, you may have already given this type of approach some consideration.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe

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joseph simpson

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Sep 12, 2018, 10:47:09 AM9/12/18
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This section above:
"The information loss associated with the restricted drum mechanics is compensated for by repeating many phrases that only make logical sense if they are interrupted in a specific manner."

Should read:

"The information loss associated with the restricted drum mechanics is compensated for by repeating many phrases that only make logical sense if they are interpreted in a specific manner.

H

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Sep 12, 2018, 12:17:19 PM9/12/18
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Len

I could not agree more. 

Hillary

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Jon Awbrey

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Sep 12, 2018, 3:10:37 PM9/12/18
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Joe, All,

The subject of natural languages and their relation to formal languages,
for example, logical calculi, logical graphs, and programming languages,
has come up periodically in our discussions and I've been struggling to
arrive at something both cogent and coherent to say about it. But what
the heck, here's a few thoughts off the cuff.

We naturally use our mother tongues as metalanguages to talk among ourselves
in fora like these, not only about well-formalized object languages but also
about the object domains that supply them with semantic substance, in a word,
“meaning”. Nothing about that makes “the natural language of the individual
conducting the inquiry ... the main object of study”. At least, that is not
how I'd personally understand the main task at hand.

I started using the run-on formula “pragmatic-semiotic point of view” during
a few exchanges with Bruce Schuman and John Sowa as a way of alluding to the
line of thinking about signs stretching from Aristotle to Peirce, Dewey, and
pragmatists of that stripe. Here's a link to my blog rehash of that episode:

• Inquiry Driven Systems • Comment 5
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/08/19/inquiry-driven-systems-%e2%80%a2-comment-5/

Have to break here ... to be continued ...

Jon

Janet Singer

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Sep 12, 2018, 4:53:55 PM9/12/18
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Len, Hillary,

I appreciate your concerns. But with all due respect I think you are jumping to conclusions, mixing apples and oranges (or arguing ‘an elephant is like a vine’ vs ‘an elephant is like a wall’).

Warfield‘s PhD was in electrical engineering with a specialization in communications engineering. He was also well-read in the history of science, and certainly appreciated the importance of the elements you listed – experiments, applying the scientific method, hypotheses, past results, falsifiability, measuring & empirical approaches, etc.

What Joe cited was Warfield’s characterization of the “minimal, necessary context needed to support the activity of science”.

Question 1: Do you not agree that each of the elements you listed (as above) requires every one of Warfield’s four factors?
 
 1) Human beings (more than one)
 2) Language
 3) Reasoning through relationships
 4) Archival representation of artifacts.

Question 2: Note that Warfield said the universal priors are necessary to support scientific activity: he did not say they were sufficient to qualify an activity as ’scientific'. What are candidates for a set which is minimally sufficient as well as necessary?

Janet

Lenard Troncale

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Sep 12, 2018, 7:37:20 PM9/12/18
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Well, Janet, I am happy to agree with most everything you say here. For science, as practiced by this species of sentient beings on this planet, those four are certainly necessary, but insufficient, prior conditions. I just maintain we should keep very open minds that something like science may exist in many other places and times; and may actually be different in these priors (so they are NOT universal). But the most important “attributes” of science (that distinguish it from many other practices of our species) are those you mention in your Paragraph Two. Without those, pure philosophical debates and many alternative theories would be science because they fulfill the priors. So JW’s priors may be useful to think about, but they are not a really good place to begin debates about what is science and what is not. Perhaps the most alarming item  is #3. It is the very technique used in many other human logical pursuits and arguments, and raw observations (like the sun moves around our position and our sky during the day)  and has been the source of many errors in our civilization history. Perhaps we were mostly reacting to not leaving it just at those. Or in the hands of ANY GURU of the past.

Len

Janet Singer

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Sep 12, 2018, 8:37:14 PM9/12/18
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Len, I think we can safely assume that Warfield was concerned with clarifying the foundational factors of science as practiced by humans on this planet. (Presumably that restricted universe of discourse is the focus of the Linz ‘What is Systems Science’ group as well?)

As for your answer, are you saying *all* the factors you listed are necessary elements of *all* human science? 

joseph simpson

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Sep 12, 2018, 11:02:12 PM9/12/18
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Jon:

My phrase:

"pragmatic semiotic information when the natural language of the individual conducting the inquiry is the main object of study."

Is cryptic and may not convey my original meaning (semantics), but I think it is close.

The drum example is designed to highlight a small number of ideas and aspects of communication. Two of these aspects are:
1) Multiple language encoding processes combined with two or more communication channels.
2) One communication channel having a higher rate of uncertainty that the other communication channels.  How does the rate of sign (or symbol) uncertainty impact the form and semantics of a specific message.  With an uncertain channel, the message form can be changed to support the intended semantics.  

Next, I will outline another  example based on highway signs.

During a construction and repair event involving a draw bridge and a number of interconnecting surface roads, temporary road signs were placed along the roadway. The existing permanent signs were covered with black plastic to block out the sign messages.  This specific work area was congested and contained many permanent traffic signs among which the temporary traffic signs were dispersed. 

The combined collection of temporary and permanent signs created a situation where the existing "blanked out" permanent signs blocked some areas of the temporary signs.  When I was driving down the road a temporary sign displayed the following:
"Reduce speed to 'blocked out'  5."

So what is the new speed limit?  The speed limit can not be read from the sign.

However, the new speed limit can be estimated using the following contextual information:

Speed limits are given in steps of 5 miles an hour.

The current speed limit is 40 miles an hour.

Traffic ahead appears to b going over 20 miles and hour.

So, the new speed limit is either, 25 or 35 miles an hour.

The information from the road signs is combined with:

Known rules,
Current observations,
Analytical process,
to produce the highest valued estimate of the new speed limit.

So the new speed limit is either 25 or 35 miles an hour.

In this case, the interpreter selects the relevant decision elements from existing the existing knowledge base and contextual facts and makes a decision to reduce speed.  The only question is how much to reduce speed.

In this case symbols exist but the message is incomplete.

Information theory allows some insight in to the value of the message.

These ideas are not well formed yet, but I wanted to send out an initial message to capture these first ragged thoughts.

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 14, 2018, 4:48:27 PM9/14/18
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Joe, All,

JS: It appears to me that it is very difficult to fully grasp the
fundamental issues associated with pragmatic semiotic information
when the natural language of the individual conducting the inquiry
is the main object of study.

That one took me a double take, but if I understand the “when” clause
as a hypothetical condition, not the assertion of a fixed intention
then I'd naturally agree:

IF the natural language of the individual conducting the inquiry
is the main object of study
THEN it is very difficult to fully grasp the fundamental issues
associated with pragmatic semiotic information.

It is naturally worth the effort to reflect on the properties of our
embedding languages but we normally meet with limited, partial, and
well-circumscribed success on any given trial. That is why we study
formalized object languages as microcosms of the enveloping spheres.

So we'll continue on that understanding ...

Regards,

Jon

On 9/11/2018 10:39 PM, joseph simpson wrote:

joseph simpson

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Sep 14, 2018, 11:22:38 PM9/14/18
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Jon:

Great restatement and comments.

I have three general communication event types that I need to describe.

The Talking Drums communication event is Type One. (Preliminary description of this event is in progress.)

The Draw Bridge Sign event is Type Two. (First cut at describing this event is complete.)

The Native American Language event is Type Three. (This event is not described yet.)

Natural language derives meaning from contextual information.  The Talking Drums and Draw Bridge events are designed to help establish a rich event context that is needed to explore the impact of changing context information on event semantics.

Formal language derives meaning from two sets of rules: 1) Syntax rules detailing allowable symbols and 2) Semantic rules that detail the meaning of the symbols.

My goal is the establishment and refinement of three standard event communication types to serve as a rich contextual foundation that supports natural language to formal language analysis.  The event descriptions are simple stories that provide context.  

The ideas associated with the events and event descriptions are just forming now so, things may be in a dynamic state for a short while.

We will see if these ideas prove useful.

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 17, 2018, 3:54:11 PM9/17/18
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Joe, All,

The concept of a triadic sign relation, say L ⊆ O × S × I where O
is the object domain (think “universe of discourse”) and S and I
are domains of signs (think “channels” or “languages”) that we
are using to talk and think about O, is most often applied in
one of two ways.

1. S and I are really the same channel, language, medium, set of signs,
or state space of a system we are using to convey information about O.
In cases where S = I we are often concerned with transformations taking
place within a single set of signals and we may write I = S′ to signify
our focus on sign relational triples of the form (o, s, s′) where s′ is
a sign that follows s in a logical or temporal sequence, in short, where
s′ is the “next state” of s.

2. S and I are two different channels, languages, media, sets of signs,
or state spaces of systems being used to convey information about O.
In this case the issue is one of translation or “interoperability”.

So I think I'd start out viewing your “drum” example under the second case,
but when you really think about it you realize the first case is there, too.

Your “highway sign” example sounds like a traffic control version
of the issues they study in the subject of error correcting codes.

Regards,

Jon

joseph simpson

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Sep 17, 2018, 11:59:49 PM9/17/18
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Jon:

Thanks for your detailed reply.

I have had a few interruptions, in the last couple of days, and have not had time to provide the third case as a story or think about your response.

However, I think these context rich "stories" will help communicate the fundamental aspects of formal languages, natural languages and the communication process.

In any case, I hope to have a better response in a day or two.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe

joseph simpson

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Oct 1, 2018, 8:28:58 PM10/1/18
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All:

It has obviously been more than a couple of days and I still am engaged in a process that has expanded to requiring that we move out of our home for a couple of weeks.  Contractors need to address some damage to our home and this has been much more disruptive than I had  anticipated.  

Bottom line:  We will be in a disrupted state until late November.

My top priority is working the OSSMTools requirements development and conceptual code development.

See Github repo at:


I will return to the development of these three rich context examples when and as I get time.

However, it looks like it will be between a few weeks to a couple of months.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe


Jon Awbrey

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Oct 3, 2018, 11:15:40 PM10/3/18
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Joe (and all),

I am sorry to hear of the difficulties on your home front.
I know we all wish you the quickest of returns to comfort.

I'll also be experiencing intermittent interruptions from
now until the moving vans come and probably a while after
but I'm hoping things will settle down by Thanksgiving.

For the moment I'll just post a few links to matters I've
been trying to get back to and hope to develop further as
time goes by.

The topic named in the subject line is the same thing I used to call
just Semiotic Information but I added the Pragmatic to emphasize the
continuity with Aristotle's pragmata and to point up the intentional
or object-directed dimension of semiotics. Various excursions along
those lines are linked on the following Survey page:

• Survey of “Semiotic Theory Of Information” (STOI)
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/08/30/survey-of-semiotic-theory-of-information-%e2%80%a2-3/

Regards,

Jon

On 10/1/2018 8:28 PM, joseph simpson wrote:
> All:
>
> It has obviously been more than a couple of days and I still am engaged in
> a process that has expanded to requiring that we move out of our home for a
> couple of weeks. Contractors need to address some damage to our home and
> this has been much more disruptive than I had anticipated.
>
> Bottom line: We will be in a disrupted state until late November.
>
> My top priority is working the OSSMTools requirements development and
> conceptual code development.
>
> See Github repo at:
>
> https://github.com/jjs0sbw/OSSMTools
>
> I will return to the development of these three rich context examples when
> and as I get time.
>
> However, it looks like it will be between a few weeks to a couple of months.
>
> Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,
>
> Joe
>

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 21, 2018, 1:35:18 PM11/21/18
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Re: Pragmatic Semiotic Information • Discussion 10


Artem Kaznatcheev posted an interesting discussion on his blog under the title “Models as Maps and Maps as Interfaces” that I saw as fitting under this head  A reader of Peirce may recognize critical insights of pragmatic thought cropping up toward the end of his analysis, prompting me to add the following comment:


Map and “mirror of nature” metaphors take us a good distance in understanding how creatures represent their worlds to themselves and others.  But from a pragmatic semiotic point of view we can see how these metaphors lock us into iconic forms of representation, overstretching dyadic relations, and thus falling short of the full power of triadic symbolic relations that support practical interaction with the world.


Regards,


Jon

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 22, 2018, 10:13:06 AM11/22/18
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Perhaps a different approach that should be investigated is represented here:

http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/8/6/20180041.full

--

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 22, 2018, 10:54:49 AM11/22/18
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Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house.

Also the Awbrey house ...

Too much going on at present to reply in detail. But here’s a link to one of my earliest attempts to find common ground between Peirce’s and Shannon’s theories of information. 

Semiotic Information
http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Semiotic_Information

Regards,

Jon

joseph simpson

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Nov 22, 2018, 1:33:46 PM11/22/18
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Jon:

Interesting analysis and viewpoint.

An interesting question associated with this topic is:

"What happens when a sign (or message) does not reduce uncertainty?"

Uncertainty is not reduced when the message receiver (or sign interpreter) already has that information.

The same message (or sign) could provide information for one sign interpreter ( or message receiver) and provide no information to a different message receiver (or sign interpreter.)

We use the absence of information to reduce both computational complexity and cognitive complexity.

For example:

Using a binary matrix to assign connections between and among objects, empirical and/or logical information is needed to determine if a specific matrix cell should be occupied with a one (1) or a zero (0.)

Once an initial matrix configuration is developed, then the task is to determine the highest value matrix configuration.  If the matrix of interest has rows or columns that are either completely filled or completely empty, then these specific rows and columns may be removed from the matrix.  These rows and columns are removed from the configuration analysis because the final configuration for these rows and columns are already known.  No amount of computation or configuration analysis will add additional information.

After these no-information rows and columns are removed, the remaining matrix components may be analyzed to select the highest value configuration.  The no-information rows and columns may then be recombined with the  selected matrix configuration using a variety of recombination rules and approaches.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe
 








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--
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“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. 

Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. 

All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”

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Jon Awbrey

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Nov 22, 2018, 7:36:27 PM11/22/18
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Joe, All —

If I recall correctly from a long ago coding theory course, in dealing with transmission through a noisy channel the simplest sort of error-reducing code amounts to simply repeating the bit or message again since the probability of getting the same error twice is lower.  Of course, more efficient error-reducing codes are possible but the principle of exploiting redundancy is the same. 

When you really think about it, the measures of uncertainty and information used in this application remain within the purely syntactic sphere and something more is required to address the object-referent dimension of pragmatic semiotics. 

More on that when I get more time …

Regards,

Jon

Aleksandar Malečić

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Nov 23, 2018, 7:20:35 AM11/23/18
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Kenneth Lloyd: Perhaps a different approach that should be investigated is represented here:

http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/8/6/20180041.full


It looks to me like a walk through that "maze" (a metaphor I'm still using even though only I like it) from the "mainstream" side towards Robert Rosen and Terrence Deacon (but still not Ilya Prigogine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine#The_End_of_Certainty) and Wolfgang Pauli). See also Daniel Dennett's intentional stance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_stance). I mean, where else to look for General Systems Theory? Although many people will probably forever see systems as human constructs, I'll forever be fine with calling consistency and causation in all shapes and forms systems theory.


Aleksandar

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 23, 2018, 8:24:25 AM11/23/18
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Joe, All —

Re: Pragmatic Semiotic Information

The thing that interested me about AK’s blog post was that practical reflection on map metaphors in his field led him to the threshold of fundamental insights about the role of signs in inquiry that we find in Peirce’s logic, pragmatism, semiotics. 

In my current understanding (and insufficiencies thereof) there are many open questions about Peirce’s approach to information and how it relates to Shannon’s.  When I get past my current preoccupations, closing on the sale of a house and all that fuss, I’ll be returning to my last breakpoint in that effort.  There are some hints of how far I got in the series of blog posts beginning here:

Information = Comprehension × Extension


Later,

Jon


On Nov 23, 2018, at 1:04 AM, joseph simpson <jjs...@gmail.com> wrote:

Jon:

It appears that I was not clear in my original post.

Two properties of information are being addressed.

The first property is the amount of information (number of transmitted messages or signs.)

The second property is the value of information (impact on the message receiver or sign interpreter.) 

If we consider discrete messages in a noiseless channel, then a quantitative measure of the amount of information in a message may be constructed.

However, the value of information in a discrete, noiseless message is dependent on the state and context of the message receiver. The value measure could be different for each message receiver.

Take care and have fun,

Joe

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 23, 2018, 8:49:13 AM11/23/18
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Aleksandar,

 

There are a couple of informational aspects that any system can “tell” us, while at the same time cause us to ask “How does that work?”. These (usually non-equilibrium*) exchanges happen all along a dimension of abstraction --> concretization. I come from a Brussels-Austin (Prigogine) non-equilibrium systems background which can be very different (physical and mathematical) than the purely philosophical approach most in this discussion have adopted. This is not to say that those perspectives cannot converge – they can – but they are very different.

 

The one area I caution about is in re: the connection of a symbol, like “GST”, to a (one or a small number) of persons identified by their names and philosophies. The problem is that any one perspective – Prigogine, Rosen, Bertalanffy, Popper, Penrose, Aristotle – is incomplete, and each contains errors and omissions (yes, and noise).   Yet there is value in each perspective. Can and do these sometimes incongruent perspectives ever converge? It depends, but often yes.

 

For example, consider the Lorenz Equations (aka Lorenz System of 3 coupled non-linear equations). At some parameters, these do converge at a deterministic result. Others seemingly don’t converge, they vacillate between different attractors (“strange” attractors). Yet, the areas of that attraction are, indeed, identifiable, even if they are never reached (similar to Newton-Raphson or Runge-Kutta). This is a system at (minimally) two levels of abstraction. It is a mathematical system that represents a (actually several) physical systems. More abstractly, it functions as a conceptual system. As we expand or understanding of “system” beyond the “thing” in front of us, the concept of a system emerges by convergence usually at a higher and higher levels of abstraction. It is difficult to “focus in” on any but a small part of that dimension of abstraction.

 

The concept of a system is an abstraction of patterns we recognize (from the informational patterns “communicated to us” when not at equilibrium) in physical and all “other” systems all along the homological chain from abstract to concrete existence. The problem seems to occur when we conflate “abstraction” with “generalization” (as in General Systems Theory - very different and incomplete perspective). What we need is not a General Systems Theory, but a more correct, more complete Abstract Systems Theory.

 

*Non-equilibrium of what? Ans. – matter, energy, information or entropy.

 

Ken Lloyd

Janet Singer

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Nov 23, 2018, 9:03:24 AM11/23/18
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Ken – You wrote
For example, consider the Lorenz Equations (aka Lorenz System of 3 coupled non-linear equations). At some parameters, these do converge at a deterministic result.

What do you mean by equations converging on a ‘deterministic’ result?

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 23, 2018, 10:12:46 AM11/23/18
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One might ask, “Is this a system”?

 

“From a technical standpoint, the Lorenz system is nonlinear, non-periodic, three-dimensional and deterministic. The Lorenz equations have been the subject of hundreds of research articles, and at least one book-length study.[11]

 

For example, values of rho < 1, it reaches equilibrium at the origin. There are values that have no periodic behavior.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_system

https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0469%281963%29020%3C0130%3ADNF%3E2.0.CO%3B2

Janet Singer

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Nov 23, 2018, 10:27:38 AM11/23/18
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I’m asking why you used ‘deterministic’ to characterize the result of the converging case. 

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 23, 2018, 11:40:41 AM11/23/18
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It is the term used by Lorenz the discoverer of the phenomenon:

 

Please click on the hyperlinked word “deterministic” in my original post. It will explain what the word means.

 

See also Sparrow, Colin (1982). The Lorenz Equations: Bifurcations, Chaos, and Strange Attractors. Springer. Referenced by the quote below.

image001.png

Duane Hybertson

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Nov 23, 2018, 11:56:28 AM11/23/18
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My understanding is that the Lorenz system (and any classical chaotic system) is deterministic because, starting from exactly the same state, it will always yield the same result. But "starting from exactly the same state" is problematic in the real/physical world. The Lorenz equations were developed as a model of atmospheric convection. The atmosphere is rarely if ever at exactly the same state at two different times or two different places. The sensitive dependence of the Lorenz system on initial condition means that even when the initial states are almost identical, the equations do not yield the same results. This is why the system is said to be (technically, mathematically) deterministic but at the same time (practically) unpredictable.

If I misunderstood your question and am stating the obvious, my apologies.

Duane

Janet Singer

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Nov 23, 2018, 12:55:37 PM11/23/18
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Ken, Duane – To clarify my question: I understand why Lorentz used ‘deterministic’ to characterize his model in general. 


But why would a qualifier be used on a special case if it is recognized as applying to all cases? Why was ‘deterministic’ was used to characterize the result of the converging case *in particular*?


On Nov 23, 2018, at 11:40 AM, <kall...@gmail.com> <kall...@gmail.com> wrote:

It is the term used by Lorenz the discoverer of the phenomenon:

<image001.png>

joseph simpson

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Nov 23, 2018, 1:56:01 PM11/23/18
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Jon:

Thanks for the additional information.

Take care and have fun,

Joe

joseph simpson

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Nov 23, 2018, 2:18:39 PM11/23/18
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Jon:

This topic reminded me of a couple of pages in the Peirce's Logic Notebook.

Some interesting calculations and a reference to 'constant information.'

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe



M2JT0027.jpg
M2JT0028.jpg

Lenard Troncale

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Nov 23, 2018, 4:20:15 PM11/23/18
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Dear All,

I believe, in my limited knowledge, this is a specific illustration of a much larger set of cases. I agree with Duane here that while deterministic with the understanding “starting from exactly the same case,” there is never in reality a case where things start at exactly the same case. So it is realistic to say that those equations indicate unpredictability, not deterministic predictability. The larger case I refer to is that many equations in physics show formal relationships ONLY when they are put in the unrealistic situation of being in an ideal state (as in ideal gasses). Thus nature is far more unpredictable than our conventional science leads us to think because we are concentrating on relations (equations) that do not reflect the vast percentage of cases in nature. So what do we do, we humans who want both something to rely on (determinism) and predictability in the new world?
Len

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 23, 2018, 6:22:33 PM11/23/18
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I think deterministic was used by Lorenz as a classifier of the definition of the term “deterministic” for all such 3-coupled, non-linear Lorenz-like systems using the same input perturbation values and the same model parameters, the same behavioral results follow. Compare that behavior, giving  the same initial conditions, to systems which do not yield the same behavior given the exact same initial conditions, such as non-deterministic finite automata (NDFA). These are covered and compared with DFAs, almost ad nauseum, in Stephen Wolfram’s “A New Kind of Science”. A specific example might include pseudo-random number generators - such as a Mersenne Twister – given the exact same initial seed value the subsequent resulting patterns cannot be perfectly determined.

 

WRT encoding data, information, knowledge and meaning, there is a concept of “universal representation” identified by D. Hofstadter based upon A. Turing and K. Gödel. While it has been demonstrated (by Turing and von Neumann) that universal representation is theoretically possible, it is precisely the question of initial conditions that make the conjectures of the resulting behaviors “probably non-deterministic” in practice.

 

This leads to my conjecture that “there are many more ways to mis-interpret any encoded message than to resolve upon a correct interpretation”. This is probably why Stanley and Lehman identified deception in exploring under-determined problem spaces – the so-called Myth of the Objective.

 

Ken Lloyd

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 23, 2018, 8:56:51 PM11/23/18
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Perhaps a different subject line would be appropriate for a different topic. 

Regards,

Jon


On Nov 22, 2018, at 10:13 AM, <kall...@gmail.com> <kall...@gmail.com> wrote:

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 24, 2018, 8:19:25 AM11/24/18
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Len,

 

Please consider how we go about weather prediction (one of the physical phenomena associated with Lorenz). First, is this attempt at prediction a useful endeavor? Today, we do not consider “one true model” of the weather, but a plethora of models. These provide probable outcomes given alternative perturbations and different contexts (some consider these “assumptions”). One of the things we attempt to realize is the sensitivity of the system to initial conditions to condition our predictions. We refine which potential model is the most likely, plausible and probable. It has been shown that people seem to have a hard time understanding probabilities and their relationships with frequency of occurrence (Yudkowsky, Wasson).

 

There have been considerable studies regarding expectations and predictions using models – from social science to bio-pharmaceuticals. The underlying problem often relates to the necessity and sufficiency of knowledge encapsulated in the model. All too often, these have been oversimplified by “forgetting” the important parameters – i.e. friction or random variation such as noise.

 

In systems engineering, it often boils down to determining this necessity and sufficiency of information WRT the system of interest (which is related to risk). One weakness in the current application of SE is relying on too few models (where the SE develops what is believed the “one, true model” of a system). The reality is there are many, and perhaps infinitely many models to consider (which is impossible) so in our search through the under-determined possibility space is incomplete within time and budgetary constraints. In engineering, we tend to apply what we think we know. Sometimes, this is incomplete to a fault, or even wrong. What did you expect (the Sunny Day Paradox)?

 

Ken Lloyd

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 24, 2018, 8:43:26 AM11/24/18
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Re: “Mersenne Twister – given the exact same initial seed value the subsequent resulting patterns cannot be perfectly determined.” … should be qualified within certain time constraints. Over very long periods, this does resolve into a deterministic pattern.

Lenard Troncale

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Nov 24, 2018, 3:17:27 PM11/24/18
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Ken,

I take your examples and raise you one. I think all of us have seen the recent mappings on TV of the possible pathways of a hurricane advancing on the U.S. coast. It is extremely useful to see what they call the “spaghetti” pathways predicted by various models. They show both the different outcomes given different models and assumptions as well as the overall dominant possible pathway at-a-glance. I think it would be good to do this in the other cases you cite where possible. Of course, it is one thing to show a “spaghetti” set of possibles on a landscape relative to the more abstract and human behavior cases you cite for SE. Still, one can devise “landscapes” that are not geography (e.g. in genetics) and this would be a great thing to do IMHO. Perhaps we should change the title of this series of comments since we seem to have wandered (per usual) from the original semiotic focus. Or perhaps you and some of the others still see the relations?

Len

Aleksandar Malečić

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Nov 25, 2018, 5:31:28 AM11/25/18
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Determinism is a good example where to look for the progress in some future systems science, theory, or whatever. The combination of free will and determinism (it was my opinion) feels good to people regardless of what they think about them. There is something appalling about both indeterminism (nondeterminism) and the lack of free will.

Does determinism have any explanatory power beyond the fact that it feels good? Does it explain creativity? Just think about it: "I am creative because I am deterministic." The (Heisenberg's) uncertainty principle claims that the infinite precision is impossible. But, what if it were possible? It isn't. I know, but what if it were possible?...

There is nothing more appalling in mathematics than Cantor's approach to infinity. It should be avoided like the plague. And nature has apparently found its way to avoid it (just like proponents of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics have found their way to bring it back). Classical physics all the way down would require the infinite number of countable elements (infinite precision) as opposed to free particles that are "out there somewhere" (before the measurement that can't even in principle measure both its position and velocity), i.e. locality is sacrificed (a very, very awkward and "counter-intuitive" situation from the human point of view) in order to get rid of actual infinity.

It's a big topic (Where is semiotics in all that? How about Robert Rosen?), but one needs to stop writing a comment somewhere.

Aleksandar

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 25, 2018, 7:11:09 AM11/25/18
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Len,

 

I hope everyone realizes that there are important relationships between the (simple?) examples I have provided and the general topic of representation of complex concepts in systems. It extends far beyond the spaghetti images of storm tracks on an electronic weather map. For example, why do we have to use supercomputers and large-scale data acquisition to make and visualize these models? What are the tendrils that relate computation with the necessary and sufficient levels of knowledge – and the epistemology or nature of that knowledge – to the phenomena of interest?

 

The “whole” of the systems domain stretches human intelligence in “wrapping one’s head around the problems” to almost unimaginable depth and breadth – often beyond what we can perceive, directly. While humans can deal with “a magic number 7 +/- 2 factors”, what happens when the reality presents us with hundreds of thousands of factors, and we find we are uncertain regarding the relative weight and importance of those factors to understanding the problem?

 

Indeed, a study of Wilson and Crick’s path to discovery of DNA illustrates the messy business of factual discovery we face every day – and we still have very far to go. I recall a panel from Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” (long ago) – “We have met the enemy and he is us.” How can we transcend this? My concern is that the path is not written in the hermeneutics of the past, but presents its own challenges of discovery, today.

 

Ken

kall...@gmail.com

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Nov 25, 2018, 7:20:10 AM11/25/18
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Error: Watson and Crick … not enough coffee this early in the AM.

Janet Singer

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Nov 25, 2018, 10:35:37 AM11/25/18
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Aleksandar – Physicist C. K. Raju draws a direct connection between the philosophical notion of determinism and treatment of infinity:

[A] natural consequence of the belief in “laws of nature” is that there can be no novelty in the future, for future can be calculated from the past. With differential equations, past decides the present (or vice versa) and present decides the future. … This understanding of “causality” should not be confounded with “mundane causality”, where, say, we punish a criminal on the grounds that he is the cause of a crime. “Mechanical causality”, or causality as understood in physics, is incompatible with and excludes mundane causality or human agency. …

Newton's laws failed just because of the conceptual confusion arising from the Christian dogmatic belief in eternal laws of nature. … Newton needed the calculus for the formulation of his “laws” (the second “law” needs the derivative with respect to time) and was concerned that the calculus was not “perfect”. (How could the “eternal” laws of God be stated in an imperfect language?) He thought (on his theory of “fluxions”) that calculus (i.e., the time derivative) could be made “perfect” by making time “flow”. (His confusion is obvious, for while things may flow in time, it is meaningless to assert, as he did, that time itself flows.) Anyway, he rejected physical time (as measured by ordinary clocks) as imperfect and chose “mathematical” time (which, he asserted, “flows on without regard to anything external”). That is, to make the calculus “perfect” he made time metaphysical, or known only to God. Alas, physicists too need to know how to measure time in order to do physics! That is, Newton's concern for perfection (of the laws of God) led to his failure to define a physical clock, and that was the cause of the failure of his physics.

The Christian theology in mathematics is what has complexified mathematics and made it difficult, as I have explained elsewhere, so eliminating it makes math easy. … As for science, given the massive empirical evidence against the belief in “laws of nature”, it is clear that this Christian dogma ought to be abandoned by science. Physics must be reformulated to allow room for living beings to create a bit of the future. Clearly, also, this requires that we abandon (mechanical) causality.

Janet

Janet Singer

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Nov 25, 2018, 5:52:46 PM11/25/18
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Sorry – that link was to an earlier version of Raju’s paper. This one is more complete, and the excerpt below clarifies his position on ‘Metaphysical creep through the mathematics of infinity’ http://ckraju.net/papers/Islam-and-Science-kl-paper.pdf

“The cases of Newton and Stephen Hawking are only examples of how Christian metaphysics has crept into science. In general, this happens because metaphysical assumptions are always present in science, for it is impossible to formulate science entirely in operational terms.

Briefly, the common route by which church metaphysics has crept into science is through mathematics, and particularly the mathematics of infinity, related to the church metaphysics of eternity.

Newton's problem was with the infinite series of the Indian calculus, as I have explained in detail elsewhere. With regard to the infinite series for π, the naïve European objection was that such infinite series could not be physically summed (since that would take an infinity of time) and summing only some of the terms would result in something imperfect, not eternal truth, hence not mathematics. Note the emphasis on perfection and eternal truth, for Clavius had long ago recognized the practical value of the Indian infinite series (for navigation) and published (in his name) the high-precision trigonometric tables derived in India using infinite series expansions.

Newton needed the calculus for the formulation of his “laws” (the second “law” needs the derivative with respect to time) and was concerned that the calculus was not “perfect”. (How could the “eternal” laws of God be stated in an imperfect language?) He thought (on his theory of “fluxions”) that calculus (i.e., the time derivative) could be made “perfect” by making time “flow”. (His confusion is obvious, for while things may flow in time, it is meaningless to assert, as he did, that time itself flows.) Anyway, he rejected physical time (as measured by ordinary clocks) as imperfect and chose “mathematical” time (which, he asserted, “flows on without regard to anything external”). That is, to make the calculus “perfect” he made time metaphysical, or known only to God. Alas, physicists too need to know how to measure time in order to do physics! That is, Newton's concern for perfection (of the laws of God) led to his failure to define a physical clock, and that was the cause of the failure of his physics.

Similar remarks apply to Stephen Hawking. Singularities are nothing but infinities of some sort arising from a bad understanding of the calculus (and specifically the wrong assumption that the metric tensor must remain twice continuously differentiable, to keep the equations of general relativity meaningful).

More generally, the attempts to handle the infinities of the calculus in a “rigorous” way culminated in set theory and the formalist doctrine of Russell and Hilbert (used to axiomatise set theory). Formalism has made mathematics 100% metaphysics. Empirical proofs are deprecated in the manner of Plato, or regarded as contingent truths, compared with logical truths regarded as necessary truths.

It is amazing how so many people, who are otherwise intelligent, have swallowed the church line that (its conception of) rationality is universal and so is this metaphysics of eternity (and the resulting mathematics of infinity). If metaphysics were universal, why would we need science?

Indeed, the slightest commonsense, or the most superficial acquaintance with other cultures, shows that this Western metaphysics is not universal. For example, all Indian systems of philosophy, without exception, accept the empirical as the first means of proof, while the Lokayata (similar to Epicureans) reject the validity of inference as a means of proof. (This is the exact antithesis of the Western philosophical position that deductive truths are certain, compared to empirical truths.) …”

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 25, 2018, 7:55:14 PM11/25/18
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A comment I made in another discussion blending cybernetics and semiotics may help to clarify the overarching objective here  

I think the broader question here is the nature of scientific inquiry.  As I read them, classical cyberneticians appreciated the analogy between simple regulators adapting to their environments and the often halting but still advancing progress of scientific knowledge about the universe. Today a lot of that knowledge is stored in computational knowledge bases and the question is how best to apply our scientific methods to improve the objective grasp of these symbol systems.

Regards,

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 26, 2018, 9:36:19 AM11/26/18
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Continuing ...

We have our object systems of interest and we have our software systems —
our brains, our computers, our various community and cultural resources —
that we use to study them. The pragmatic semiotic “laboratory frame”,
if you will, has three dimensions, the object system is called O, and
the “semiotic plane” takes up two dimensions, S for one space of signs
and I for another space of signs called interpretant signs, more often
just interpretants for short. The semiotic plane S × I serves to keep
track of the various interactions, translations, or transitions between
signs in the relevant sign process, or semiosis, of the moment. There
are many different kinds of sign process involved in scientific inquiry,
processes of analysis, argumentation, communication, data collection,
inferences of many types (abductive, deductive, inductive, analogical),
to mention just a few.

Battery running low ... more later ...

Jon

https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/

Steven Krane

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Nov 26, 2018, 8:07:26 PM11/26/18
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Jon,

What is the (sharp) distinction between O and S x I? Does O imply an objectively knowable universe, or is O a cognitive state.

Steve

> On Sep 17, 2018, at 12:54 PM, Jon Awbrey <jaw...@att.net> wrote:
>
> Joe, All,
>
> The concept of a triadic sign relation, say L ⊆ O × S × I where O
> is the object domain (think “universe of discourse”) and S and I
> are domains of signs (think “channels” or “languages”) that we
> are using to talk and think about O, is most often applied in
> one of two ways.
>
> 1. S and I are really the same channel, language, medium, set of signs,
> or state space of a system we are using to convey information about O.
> In cases where S = I we are often concerned with transformations taking
> place within a single set of signals and we may write I = S′ to signify
> our focus on sign relational triples of the form (o, s, s′) where s′ is
> a sign that follows s in a logical or temporal sequence, in short, where
> s′ is the “next state” of s.
>
> 2. S and I are two different channels, languages, media, sets of signs,
> or state spaces of systems being used to convey information about O.
> In this case the issue is one of translation or “interoperability”.
>
> So I think I'd start out viewing your “drum” example under the second case,
> but when you really think about it you realize the first case is there, too.
>
> Your “highway sign” example sounds like a traffic control version
> of the issues they study in the subject of error correcting codes.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon
>
> On 9/12/2018 11:01 PM, joseph simpson wrote:
>> Jon:
>> My phrase:
>> "pragmatic semiotic information when the natural language of the individual
>> conducting the inquiry is the main object of study."
>> Is cryptic and may not convey my original meaning (semantics), but I think
>> it is close.
>> The drum example is designed to highlight a small number of ideas and
>> aspects of communication. Two of these aspects are:
>> 1) Multiple language encoding processes combined with two or more
>> communication channels.
>> 2) One communication channel having a higher rate of uncertainty that the
>> other communication channels. How does the rate of sign (or symbol)
>> uncertainty impact the form and semantics of a specific message. With an
>> uncertain channel, the message form can be changed to support the intended
>> semantics.
>> Next, I will outline another example based on highway signs.
>> During a construction and repair event involving a draw bridge and a number
>> of interconnecting surface roads, temporary road signs were placed along
>> the roadway. The existing permanent signs were covered with black plastic
>> to block out the sign messages. This specific work area was congested and
>> contained many permanent traffic signs among which the temporary traffic
>> signs were dispersed.
>> The combined collection of temporary and permanent signs created a
>> situation where the existing "blanked out" permanent signs blocked some
>> areas of the temporary signs. When I was driving down the road a temporary
>> sign displayed the following:
>> "Reduce speed to 'blocked out' 5."
>> So what is the new speed limit? The speed limit can not be read from the sign.
>> However, the new speed limit can be estimated using the following
>> contextual information:
>> Speed limits are given in steps of 5 miles an hour.
>> The current speed limit is 40 miles an hour.
>> Traffic ahead appears to b going over 20 miles and hour.
>> So, the new speed limit is either, 25 or 35 miles an hour.
>> The information from the road signs is combined with:
>> Known rules,
>> Current observations,
>> Analytical process,
>> to produce the highest valued estimate of the new speed limit.
>> So the new speed limit is either 25 or 35 miles an hour.
>> In this case, the interpreter selects the relevant decision elements from
>> existing the existing knowledge base and contextual facts and makes a
>> decision to reduce speed. The only question is how much to reduce speed.
>> In this case symbols exist but the message is incomplete.
>> Information theory allows some insight in to the value of the message.
>> These ideas are not well formed yet, but I wanted to send out an initial
>> message to capture these first ragged thoughts.
>> Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,
>> Joe
>> On Wed, Sep 12, 2018 at 12:10 PM Jon Awbrey <jaw...@att.net> wrote:
>>> Joe, All,
>>>
>>> The subject of natural languages and their relation to formal languages,
>>> for example, logical calculi, logical graphs, and programming languages,
>>> has come up periodically in our discussions and I've been struggling to
>>> arrive at something both cogent and coherent to say about it. But what
>>> the heck, here's a few thoughts off the cuff.
>>>
>>> We naturally use our mother tongues as metalanguages to talk among ourselves
>>> in fora like these, not only about well-formalized object languages but also
>>> about the object domains that supply them with semantic substance, in a word,
>>> “meaning”. Nothing about that makes “the natural language of the individual
>>> conducting the inquiry ... the main object of study”. At least, that is not
>>> how I'd personally understand the main task at hand.
>>>
>>> I started using the run-on formula “pragmatic-semiotic point of view” during
>>> a few exchanges with Bruce Schuman and John Sowa as a way of alluding to the
>>> line of thinking about signs stretching from Aristotle to Peirce, Dewey, and
>>> pragmatists of that stripe. Here's a link to my blog rehash of that episode:
>>>
>>> • Inquiry Driven Systems • Comment 5
>>> https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/08/19/inquiry-driven-systems-%e2%80%a2-comment-5/
>>>
>>> Have to break here ... to be continued ...
>>>
>>> Jon
>>>
>>> On 9/11/2018 10:39 PM, joseph simpson wrote:
>>>> Jon:
>>>>
>>>> Interesting collection of concepts and insights.
>>>>
>>>> It appears to me that it is very difficult to fully grasp the fundamental
>>>> issues associated with pragmatic semiotic information when the natural
>>>> language of the individual conducting the inquiry is the main object of
>>>> study.
>>>>
>>>> I find that the analysis of the languages supported by the "Talking Drums"
>>>> of Africa help me understand the signaling process at a deeper level.
>>>>
>>>> John Carrington produced some work in this area in the 1940's.
>>>> See:
>>>> https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bq/36-8_396.pdf
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Carrington
>>>>
>>>> A key feature of these "sign exchanges" or "communication events" is the
>>>> use of redundant signs or "signal phrases" to eliminate the uncertainty
>>>> associated with the information exchange.
>>>>
>>>> The physical medium of communication (drum, impact vibration, air pressure)
>>>> is different between human speech and drum speech.
>>>>
>>>> Human speech has much greater pitch control and tonal variability than
>>>> "drum speech." The information loss associated with the restricted drum
>>>> mechanics is compensated for by repeating many phrases that only make
>>>> logical sense if they are interrupted in a specific manner.
>>>>
>>>> For example, assume drum speech can not make a clear distinction between
>>>> the words baby and tree.
>>>>
>>>> If the drummer wanted to communicate about a tree then there would be
>>>> statements like, 'Go climb high in the XXX' or 'The fruit is on the XXX."
>>>>
>>>> If the drummer wanted to communicate about a baby the there would be
>>>> statements like, 'Feed the XXX' or 'The XXX is little and smart."
>>>>
>>>> This type of redundant sign transmission may be used to achieve the
>>>> semantic goals of the communication.
>>>>
>>>> However, the redundant sign transmission is just preparing the state of the
>>>> interpreter.
>>>>
>>>> There are interesting connections between Shannon's information theory and
>>>> Carrington's analysis of the talking drums.
>>>>
>>>> It would be interesting to map these different views of information
>>>> exchange to the components of your Figure 1 - The Sign Relation in
>>>> Aristotle. Another task to add to the very long "to do" list.
>>>>
>>>> Given the structure of your Theme One Program, you may have already given
>>>> this type of approach some consideration.
>>>>
>>>> Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,
>>>>
>>>> Joe
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 7:54 AM Jon Awbrey <jaw...@att.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Azamat, All,
>>>>>
>>>>> Of course it's not that simple. I called it a cornerstone
>>>>> not a whole building but it gives us a starting point and
>>>>> a first approach to a pragmatic semiotic architecture
>>>>> still being built as we speak.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is more detail and a trace of semiotic's later development in this paper:
>>>>>
>>>>> • Awbrey and Awbrey (1995), “Interpretation as Action : The Risk of Inquiry”
>>>>> https://www.academia.edu/1266493/Interpretation_as_Action_The_Risk_of_Inquiry
>>>>>
>>>>> We began by quoting the founding paragraph from Aristotle:
>>>>>
>>>>> <QUOTE>
>>>>>
>>>>> Words spoken are symbols or signs (symbola) of affections or impressions (pathemata) of
>>>>> the soul (psyche); written words are the signs of words spoken. As writing, so also is
>>>>> speech not the same for all races of men. But the mental affections themselves, of which
>>>>> these words are primarily signs (semeia), are the same for the whole of mankind, as are also
>>>>> the objects (pragmata) of which those affections are representations or likenesses, images,
>>>>> copies (homoiomata). (Aristotle, De Interp. i. 16a4).
>>>>>
>>>>> </QUOTE>
>>>>>
>>>>> We used the following Figure to highlight the structure of the triadic
>>>>> relation among objects (pragmata), affections or impressions (pathemata),
>>>>> and symbols or signs (symbola, semeia) as given in Aristotle's account:
>>>>>
>>>>> • Figure 1. The Sign Relation in Aristotle
>>>>> https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/awbrey-awbrey-1995-figure-1.png
>>>>>
>>>>> The triadic nexus marked “R” in the Figure is what graph theorists
>>>>> would call a node or point of degree 3 and it provides a graphical
>>>>> picture of a relational triple that can be taken in any convenient
>>>>> order so long as we keep it constant throughout a given discussion.
>>>>> For example, we could take Aristotle's object, sign or symbol, and
>>>>> impression in the order (o, s, i), mostly just because I find that
>>>>> convenient in later developments.
>>>>>
>>>>> Diagrams of that sort, whether triangular or tri-radial in form, have long been
>>>>> in common use for conveying the properties of triadic sign relations. But the
>>>>> intervening years have taught me to my dismay that people tend to be led astray
>>>>> by pictures like that, often getting stuck on square one, or rather triangle one.
>>>>> That is, they get stuck on single triples of sign relations rather than grasping
>>>>> them as they should, as prototypical examples of a whole class of ordered triples.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> Jon
>>>>>
>>>>> On 9/10/2018 3:23 AM, Azamat Abdoullaev wrote:
>>>>>> It is not so simple.
>>>>>> There are generally two kinds of signs: conventional and natural.
>>>>>> Mental ideas and images are also signs, natural signs, being themselves
>>>>>> meanings and intentions, or "mental words".
>>>>>> Natural signs are causally related.
>>>>>> Natural signs are the source of meaning for conventional signs.
>>>>>> Thus the mind is the medium through which words signify things.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 4:55 AM Jon Awbrey <jaw...@att.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Ontologists,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> A question arising on another blog, perhaps incidentally, perhaps of the essence,
>>>>>>> brought to mind recent discussions in these forums regarding the nature of systems,
>>>>>>> variables, and the measurements that give systematic state variables their values.
>>>>>>> My current focus being what it is, I couched my answer in pragmatic semiotic terms.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ⁂
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Measurement is an extension of perception.
>>>>>>> Measurement gives us data about an object
>>>>>>> system the way perception gives us percepts,
>>>>>>> which we may consider just a species of data.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If we ask when we first became self-conscious about this
>>>>>>> whole process of perception and measurement, I don't know,
>>>>>>> but Aristotle broke ground in a very articulate way with his
>>>>>>> treatise “On Interpretation”. Sense data are “impressions”
>>>>>>> on the mind and they have their consensual, communicable
>>>>>>> derivatives in spoken and written “signs”. This triple
>>>>>>> interaction among objects, ideas, and signs is the
>>>>>>> cornerstone of our contemporary theories of signs,
>>>>>>> collectively known as “semiotics”.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ⁂
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jon
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
> --

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 26, 2018, 9:12:29 PM11/26/18
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Steve,

The object domain O is the set of things under discussion at a given time, in other words, what is ordinarily called a universe of discourse. The elements of O, S, and I are distinguished by the roles they play in a given context, not necessarily by any distinctions of essence.

Regards,

Jon

http://inquiryintoinquiry.com

Steven Krane

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Nov 27, 2018, 11:35:46 AM11/27/18
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Thanks Jon. Are the “the set of things under discussion” also Signs; Always/Sometimes/Never ?

It seems to me that in many discussions O is just more S, if you look carefully. It takes some work and careful dialog to get past that. Is that the object of Ontology? Sorry if these are dumb questions. I’m more curious than educated.

Aleksandar Malečić

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Nov 27, 2018, 2:41:02 PM11/27/18
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Janet - I really appreciate that response and the obvious effort put into its writing.

In a way, yes. But, rather than seeing it as some kind of Christian conspiracy, the real situation is more complex. For instance, this novel https://www.delfi.rs/knjige/42161_carigradski_drum_knjiga_delfi_knjizare.html is written by an Orthodox deacon (and dramaturg) and it contains some artful descriptions of anticipation (such as one hand holding the future and the other one pulling the present time).

Aleksandar

Janet Singer

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Nov 27, 2018, 5:33:50 PM11/27/18
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I can see how the excerpts might suggest allegations of a vague conspiracy, but by ‘Christian metaphysics’ Raju means the specific ideas the Catholic Church adopted in response to challenges from Islam. 

The motives for those choices are no more sinister than any other political attempt to control narratives when jockeying for power.  It’s the damage to science and math from incoherent metaphysics taken as ‘natural law’ that makes Raju (understandably) angry.

I don’t know enough about the details, but Catholic vs Orthodox perspectives may play a role as well. The artful description you cite sounds like something that would appeal to Raju, in line with his book The Eleven Pictures of Time: The Physics, Philosophy, and Politics of Time Beliefs http://sk.sagepub.com/books/the-eleven-pictures-of-time 

Janet

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 27, 2018, 7:46:43 PM11/27/18
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Steve, All —

This is a question that arises in any field where we have to use language (codes, images, symbols) to analyze language in its most general sense and its relation to things outside language. How can we use our sign-using faculty to analyze itself without pulling the rug out from under ourselves and getting snared in a vicious loop? So the issue you raise is not peculiar to semiotics but arises in linguistics, logic, mathematics, programming, and similar pursuits.

As it happens, I’ve written at length about this bootstrapping or “meta” issue … I’ll go look some of my previous efforts up and see if I can make them clearer and less lengthy this time around.

Regards,

Jon

http://inquiryintoinquiry.com

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 28, 2018, 12:20:10 PM11/28/18
to Systems Science, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling
Steve, All —

In the experimental sciences, which are after all just more deliberate and
disciplined extensions of our everyday experience in the world, we interact
with some fraction of the world, assisted by apparatus and instruments that
extend our senses, and we record the data of observation and measurement in
the computational media that extend our memories of the phenomena the world
impresses on our minds. Toiling over that soil we cultivate narratives and
theories that guide us in future interactions with the world as we traverse
its many trials.

Observers focused on the intermediate grounds of that whole undertaking,
the mere archives of data records, or the literatures of narratives and
theories growing out of them, may be tempted to object, “We see nothing
but signs here! Where are the objects?” They may then raise the issue
“symbol grounding”, as if the action begins on a free-floating platform
of symbols and we have to find some sorts of hooks to anchor symbols in
the ground of objects below. But that is a false problem, arising from
an overly myopic or absent-minded point of view, forgetting how symbols
are always already born in the world of objects, objectives, and action.

Regards,

Jon

Aleksandar Malečić

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Nov 28, 2018, 4:43:44 PM11/28/18
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I don't think that novel I mentioned has much to do with orthodox Christianity. It is probably less tolerant about unconventional (mystical, pantheistic, etc.) ideas than western Christianity. I could discuss about it much more (for instance how far can indeterminism go), but it would be very personal and my current situation is confusing. The fact is that back in the day I needed a seal of approval (about right and wrong) from someone closer to official religion, but serious people don't talk about that in public.

Aleksandar

Steven Krane

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Nov 28, 2018, 7:43:00 PM11/28/18
to Sys Sci
Jon,

I’m not certain what you mean about “Observers focused on the intermediate grounds of that whole undertaking”. The two phases you describe are experimental and theories. I don’t know anything intermediate to those two things in science. I am keenly interested in the failure modes and effects of people attempting to do science, or proclaiming to do science, when, in fact, they are engaged in a self-referential discussion wherein your O is highly polluted with S, not the case that “we see nothing but S”, rather that confusion of S with O is hindering our progress.

Assigning and clarifying symbols is essential to the precision required by science. But we are a creative lot. Beware the woozles (S leading to O)

The frame of O, S x I is interesting. For me, part of leading an industrial systems engineering project, is attenuating confusion between O and S. Its hard to know how much confusion there is if S in relation to O is not precise. Even when it is precise, its hard to imagine the S’s that match with the O’s, most simply. That’s what science does.

I appreciate your writing here :)

Steve

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 28, 2018, 9:04:12 PM11/28/18
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Steve, All —

Too late for detailed reply, so just by way of quick clarification …

The process I described began and ended with pragmatic action in the world. The intermediate phases were “the mere archives of data records, or the literatures of narratives and theories growing out of them”, all of which take place on the plane of signs.

Regards,

Jon

http://inquiryintoinquiry.com

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 30, 2018, 4:24:38 PM11/30/18
to Ontolog Forum, Systems Science, Structural Modeling
Ferenc,

Thanks for the article and other links, very apropos.
I see that an English rendering of TRIZ might be TIPS,
also very apt.

One of the insights coming out of Peirce's work is the fact that negative operations
are more powerful than positive operations in the sense that negative operations can
generate all possible operations while positive operations by themselves do not suffice.
This is epitomized by his discovery of the amphecks as sole sufficient operators for
propositional logic.

Amphecks
http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Ampheck
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Ampheck

The propositional logic algorithm I wrote for my Theme One program
turns this principle to good effect in two ways:

1. The graph-theoretic syntax is based on a graph-theoretic operator,
interpreted as a type of controlled negation, that generalizes
Peirce's graph-theoretic operator for negation. See this page:

Minimal Negation Operator
http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Minimal_negation_operator
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Minimal_negation_operator

2. It turns out that recognizing contradictions quickly
makes for a high degree of efficiency in finding the
“models”, that is, the satisfying interpretations of
a propositional formula.

Relations of contradiction are also critical in statistical inference,
but I'll need to save that for another time.

I'll share a few thoughts about analogy next time.

Regards,

Jon

On 11/29/2018 11:53 AM, 'Ferenc Kovacs' via ontolog-forum wrote:

> You may find this source very useful and relevant
> https://triz-journal.com/contradiction-analogy-basis-inventive-thinking/
>
> Ferenc Kovacs

Jon Awbrey

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Jan 2, 2019, 4:00:32 PM1/2/19
to Ontolog Forum, SysSciWG, Structural Modeling
Cf: Pragmatic Semiotic Information • Discussion 12
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/02/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-discussion-12/

Ontolog Forum, Systems Science, Structural Modeling —

Peter Smith, on his Logic Matters blog, queried readers about the type/token distinction
and its possible origins before Peirce. I shared a few thoughts and afterwards thought
they more or less belonged under the heading of pragmatic semiotics. So FWIW ...

It doesn't help with the question of semiogenesis, which is no doubt lost to
the mists of history, but Peirce being Peirce naturally discerned three shades
of signs in this respect: Tone, Token, Type. I collected a few excerpts here:

• Tone, Token, Type
http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/User:Jon_Awbrey/Tone,_Token,_Type

The distinction between Original and Copy figures frequently in Plato,
with echoes of still more ancient voices. Aristotle on Categories gives
an example where a word meaning both a live animal and its true-to-life
image must be shorn of ambiguity prior to appearing in a court of logic.
Aristotle on Interpretation distinguishes objects from their copies,
images, likenesses in the mind:

<QUOTE>

Words spoken are symbols or signs (symbola) of affections or
impressions (pathemata) of the soul (psyche); written words
are the signs of words spoken. As writing, so also is speech
not the same for all races of men. But the mental affections
themselves, of which these words are primarily signs (semeia),
are the same for the whole of mankind, as are also the objects
(pragmata) of which those affections are representations or
likenesses, images, copies (homoiomata). (De Interp. i. 16a4).

</QUOTE>

From a Peircean semiotic perspective we can distinguish an object domain
and a semiotic plane, so we can have three types of type/token relations:
(1) within the object domain, (2) between objects and signs, (3) within
the semiotic plane. We could subtilize further but this much is enough
for a start.

Type/token relations of type (1) are very common in mathematics and go back
to the origins of mathematical thought. These days computer science is rife
with them. I've seen a lot of confusion about this in Peircean circles as it's
not always grasped that type/token relations are not always all about signs.
It can help to speak of types versus instances or instantiations instead.

Aristotle covers type/token relations of types (2) and (3) in De Interp.,
the latter since he recognizes signs of signs in the clause, “written words
are the signs of words spoken”.

Regards,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

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Jan 10, 2019, 10:10:21 AM1/10/19
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Ontolog Forum, Systems Science, Structural Modeling —

After a year of all but all-consuming chaos on the re-homesteading front,
topped off by a bout of seasonal ills, it will take me a while to get my
trains of thought up to speed again — in the meantime, by way of getting
organized again, I put together a survey of previous blog and wiki posts
on the subject of Pragmatic Semiotic Information:

Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information • 4
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/08/survey-of-pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-4/

Regards & Happy 2019 —

joseph simpson

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Jan 11, 2019, 1:55:08 PM1/11/19
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Jon:

I look forward to your insights in this area.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe
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“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. 

Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. 

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Jon Awbrey

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Jan 13, 2019, 10:24:16 AM1/13/19
to Structural Modeling, Ontolog Forum, SysSciWG
Re: Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information • 4
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/08/survey-of-pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-4/

Thanks, Joe, I've been looking at the record of past discussions and
thinking about what I'd like to accomplish this year. Just off hand,
I see a lot of discussion points I didn't get a chance to give their
due at the time and it looks like many of those are worth revisiting.
Some of the more troublesome points may seem tangential at first but
they have a tendency to recur if not dealt with, so it's critical to
address them as best one can.

More to the main arc of this thread, I need to keep developing the
implications of Peirce ideas about information, in particular, the
way information integrates the extensional and intensional aspects
of logic and thus helps to solve many old puzzles about the nature
of scientific inference and inquiry in general.

Onward!

Jon

Kent Palmer

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Jan 13, 2019, 3:21:27 PM1/13/19
to James Martin, Structural Modeling, Ontolog Forum, SysSciWG
James--

Thank you very much for forwarding the thread.

I note the comment by Jon Awbrey:

"More to the main arc of this thread, I need to keep developing the
implications of Peirce ideas about information, in particular, the
way information integrates the extensional and intensional aspects
of logic and thus helps to solve many old puzzles about the nature
of scientific inference and inquiry in general."  




I think this is really important. I did not know that Peirce had this idea. It is a great insight. Not sure how it fits in with everything else. But I can make a wild guess. But I need to study this text to attempt to confirm I understand what Peirce is saying here.

In general analytic philosophy has been obsessed with extension and has had problems with intention because that leads to possible worlds theory. But beyond intension is hyperintension which is equivalent to doubt and other types of noetic transformations that we perform. Best on this Pavel Tichy is https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Transparent_Intensional_Logic. And also there are those that are studying impossible worlds based on counterfactuals which seems the ultimate end of this series which I call Wild Intension. I think this hierarchy of the scopes of comprehension is analogous to the meta-levels of Being in Fundamental Ontology.

Now in everything I have read on this subject no one has said Intension X Extension = Information. But that makes sense. Intension is the fact that morning star and evening star is both Venus. This is something that we have to comprehend that goes beyond the given to our senses. It is not learned through pure analytic substitution of terms for other terms. So if Comprehension X Extension = Information can be seen as Intension X Extension = Information then we have to ask where this series goes.

Signs X Appearances = Given
Extension X Signs = Data
Intension X Extension = Information
Hyper-Intension X Intension = Knowledge
Wild-Intension X Hyper-Intension = Wisdom
Ultra-Intension X Wild-Intension = Insight

Where Extension means externality to each other of terms. Both signs and what they represent are external to each other and have no connection in their exteriority to each other. Heidegger treats this problem in Being and Time and discusses the odd Being of signs. They are ready-to-hand but prominent rather than reticent like all other tools. In Peirce the sign has three parts. There is the Representamen which is the indicated object of the sign.There is the sign itself which is external to the thing indicated but has its own existence despite its reference to something else. And there is the interpretant which is the meaning that is attributed to the sign in its relation to the object. Object is a First (isolata). Sign is a Second (relata).  Interpretant is a Third (continua). Sign is thus a Second that contains First and Thirds within its constitution. Symbols are continua (Thirds) themselves that contain Firsts (objects referred to) and Seconds (signs that refer to objects) as structural elements. Peirce is trying in all his work to show how Logic is related in a practical way to the World we live in. But it turns out that this relation is complicated and this produces his complex semiotic theory of types of signs that goes way beyond that of Saussure. Extension is related to Pure Being.

Where Intension means Possible Worlds of David Lewis. Intension is related to Process Being.

Where Hyper Intension is what Pavel Tichy calls Transparent Hyperintension in his critique of Frege. Hyper Intension is related to Hyper Being. It is related to Noesis like doubt rather than Noema in Husserl's Terminology.

Where Wild Intension = Impossible worlds (extreme counterfactuals) related to Wild Being. An example of this is Alice in Wonderland that Deleuze treats seriously in Logic of Sense.

Where Ultra Intension = Nonsensical Non-world related to Ultra Being (pure illusion) as singularity in Existence between emptiness and void. In the film Inception this was called "Limbo".


image.png

From Schemas Theory Tutorial at http://schematheory.net  

Now this is a speculation without carefully studying what Peirce is saying but it is immediately what comes to mind that puts this formula into a broader context that is already known to be important. We might call these scopes of comprehension.

image.png
From Schemas Theory Tutorial at http://schematheory.net

These are the scopes of emergence. Notice that the most important of these scopes is knowledge because knowledge is the most persistent thing in experience.

If this speculative leap has any value then it might explain the generation of these scopes of comprehension on the right hand side that the emergent events on the left had side correspond. Scopes of Comprehension on the Right had side are in the individual while the scopes of emergent events are social and cultural complexes in the tradition that change in an emergent way i.e. discontinuously. These are the refinements of Spirit in Hegel by which consciousness advances in its understanding of the world where the ultimate refinement is Absolute Spirit.

It is amazing that Peirce had the idea of doing a cartesian cross product of intension and extension when we have not found that anywhere else in the literature. In his text there are some very clear explanations of what that means. So the question that we are speculating about is whether we can do cartesian crosses of the other levels of intension and whether that leads to the different levels of comprehension. If that works out then that would be a major advance in our understanding of how these things are related to each other through their emergent series that is interleaved between the sociocultural and the individual understandings.

It is worth putting time into Peirce's text to try to understand it better to confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis of our speculation (abduction) concerning what Peirce means and its implications for current debates of these issues. 

I have said that we need a Peirce Appreciation Club in Incose.org not just because he was a genius as this new (unknown to me) text attests but because the things he explains are pertinent to the problems of systems engineers which are practical and need practical philosophy to attempt to deal with which Peirce gives us in abundance. Did I mention that Heidegger was influenced by Peirce via Emil Lask. In other words Being and Time is meant to be a pragmatic philosophy. This is why Heidegger emphasizes signs in his text. When you bring back Heidegger to reinterpret the pragmatism of Peirce you get some pretty interesting contrasts that are fascinating to contemplate. Maybe we can suggest a Peirce reading group as a way to get started.

Kent Palmer




On Sun, Jan 13, 2019 at 7:40 AM James Martin <mart...@gmail.com> wrote:
Kent,

There has been quite a bit of discussion lately on semiotics and how it relates to SS. The thread below already has 75 messages in the chain. 

I suspect you don't pay attention to the SSWG discussion list. But in this case you might want to take a look and start contributing since it has a direct correlation to all that you are doing. 

We need to start bringing more of Peirce's ideas into the SS and SE community as I believe this can lead to some major breakthrough. I know that John Sowa has been doing this for a while in the software community but very few SE's are up on Sowa's work.

James

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jon Awbrey <jaw...@att.net>
Date: Sun, Jan 13, 2019 at 10:24 AM
Subject: [SysSciWG] Re: Pragmatic Semiotic Information (Ψ)
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Kent Palmer

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Jan 14, 2019, 5:19:13 AM1/14/19
to SysSciWG
Hi all--

I would like to post a correction to my long message. I have incorporated parts of it into a working paper I was writing Schemas Theory Overview Part 06: Exploring Faceted Monads

On closer inspection of what Peirce said in the quote collected by Jon Awbrey,

I realized that I had performed a transformation in my mind of what I was skimming through the first time that is not completely accurate in relation to what Peirce was saying, but still I think the wider context is valuable. I tried to work out the kinks of this transformation in my paper.

I transformed Comprehension X Extension = Information
into Intension X Extension = Information (a kind of Comprehension, among others) and this is perhaps implicit in what Peirce is saying but not explicit. In the quotes he talks about the relation between intension and comprehension. But I immediately did a pattern recognition on that and thought it fit into a problem I  had been working on for a long time which is the meta-levels of intension in Analytical Philosophy in relation to the Meta-levels of Being in Continental Philosophy. 

Either way I still think this is a really good idea from Peirce that relates to the problem of the meta-levels of comprehension and the meta-levels of intension which are two prior theories I had that seemed to suddenly fit together in an unexpected way courtesy of Jon Awbrey's work on Peirce which I think is extraordinarily useful.

The paper is very obscure so I don't really recommend it for the faint hearted. Perhaps other papers in the same series on Schemas Theory Overview would be better received.

I discovered writing this obscure paper that the meta-levels of intension described in this way could be construed as a model of the Divided Line which was a surprise. 

Speculation always jumps too far ahead for its own good.

Kent Palmer

Jon Awbrey

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Jan 14, 2019, 8:26:33 AM1/14/19
to SysSciWG, Kent Palmer, James Martin, Structural Modeling, Ontolog Forum
Re: Pragmatic Semiotic Information • Discussion 13
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/13/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-discussion-13/

Thanks, Kent, let me just clear up a couple of technical points
about Peirce's terminology before getting to the main business.

Here I'm using extension and intension in the conventional sense that concerns
the extension and intension of a concept or term. We define a concept or term
in extension by giving all the things falling under it. We define a concept
or term in intension by giving all the properties it implies or falls under.
The parallel morphology of “extension” and “intension” is pleasing enough to
ear and eye that we usually just let it go at that, but punctilious pedants
long ago noticed the fly in the ointment that an extension is a many, a set
of things, while an intension is a one, a single property or quality, and so
they insist on the technical term “comprehension” to signify a collection of
intensions. In practice, of course, context of application will determine
how picky we need to be.

Regards,

Jon

On 1/13/2019 3:20 PM, Kent Palmer wrote:
> James--
>
> Thank you very much for forwarding the thread.
>
> I note the comment by Jon Awbrey:
>
> * “More to the main arc of this thread, I need to keep developing
> the implications of Peirce's ideas about information, in particular,
> the way information integrates the extensional and intensional aspects
> of logic and thus helps to solve many old puzzles about the nature of
> scientific inference and inquiry in general.” *
>
> I glanced over this
> https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2016/05/18/information-comprehension-x-extension/
>
> and
> http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension
>
> I think this is really important. I did not know that Peirce had this idea.
> It is a great insight. Not sure how it fits in with everything else. But I
> can make a wild guess. But I need to study this text to attempt to confirm
> I understand what Peirce is saying here.
>
> In general analytic philosophy has been obsessed with extension and has had
> problems with intention because that leads to possible worlds theory. But
> beyond intension is hyperintension which is equivalent to doubt and other
> types of noetic transformations that we perform. Best on this Pavel Tichy
> is https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Transparent_Intensional_Logic. And also
> there are those that are studying impossible worlds based on
> counterfactuals which seems the ultimate end of this series which I call
> Wild Intension. I think this hierarchy of the scopes of comprehension is
> analogous to the meta-levels of Being in Fundamental Ontology.
>
> Now in everything I have read on this subject no one has said Intension X
> Extension = Information. But that makes sense. Intension is the fact that
> morning star and evening star is both Venus. This is something that we have
> to comprehend that goes beyond the given to our senses. It is not learned
> through pure analytic substitution of terms for other terms. So if
> Comprehension X Extension = Information can be seen as Intension X
> Extension = Information then we have to ask where this series goes.
>
> *Signs X Appearances = Given*
> *Extension X Signs = Data*
> *Intension X Extension = Information*
> *Hyper-Intension X Intension = Knowledge*
> *Wild-Intension X Hyper-Intension = Wisdom*
> *Ultra-Intension X Wild-Intension = Insight*
> treats seriously in *Logic of Sense*.
>
> Where Ultra Intension = Nonsensical Non-world related to Ultra Being (pure
> illusion) as singularity in Existence between emptiness and void. In the
> film *Inception* this was called "Limbo".
> was influenced by Peirce via Emil Lask. In other words *Being and Time* is
>> * More to the main arc of this thread, I need to keep developing the
>> implications of Peirce's ideas about information, in particular, the
>> way information integrates the extensional and intensional aspects
>> of logic and thus helps to solve many old puzzles about the nature
>> of scientific inference and inquiry in general. *

Jon Awbrey

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Jan 15, 2019, 10:36:59 AM1/15/19
to SysSciWG, Structural Modeling, Ontolog Forum
Kent, All —

FWIW, here's a gloss on “comprehension”
I copied from Runes some years ago, plus
a bit of commentary I added at the time:

Information = Comprehension × Extension • Incidental Note 13
http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension#Incidental_Note_13

Comprehension. The sum of characteristics which connote a class notion symbolized
by a general term. Also, the features common to a number of instances or objects.
Thus, the connotation (qv) or intension (qv) of a concept. (Otto F. Kraushaar,
in D.D. Runes (ed.) Dictionary of Philosophy, 1962).

Regards,

Jon

Kent Palmer

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Jan 15, 2019, 7:29:57 PM1/15/19
to Jon Awbrey, SysSciWG
    Jon--

    De Tienne, André (2006), “Peirce's Logic of Information”, Seminario del Grupo de Estudios Peirceanos, Universidad de Navarra, 28 Sep 2006.Online.

    This is a great article. It delves into the issues in an interesting way. And your notes are very informative.
    http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension#Incidental_Note_13

  • "My affliction with OSSD (obsessive syntactic symmetry disorder) made it difficult for me to switch from the equal temperaments of extension/intension, but I have the sense that Peirce is making a technical distinction between “an intension”, as being any one property of an object of a concept, and “the comprehension”, as being the collection or the conjunction of “all” of the properties of the object that are relevant to some context of discussion."  

    I must admit that on my first reading I was thinking about these terms not in a technical way but in a more general way related to their connotations. And particularly my understanding of them from reading some of the various stages  of meta-intension that have occurred in the debate concerning intension/extension in Analytical Philosophy.

    I discern meta-levels in that argument that has proceeded over the decades as at each stage they try to stifle the problems of intension with respect to the attempt to reducing everything to extension.

    But in the process they produce something very much like the meta-levels of Being that are found in Continental Philosophy. And that is what I am interested in.

    Completely separately I came up with a formulation of the levels of possible emergence and saw that these had both an individual and a social side to them and that they were as two series interleaved.

    When I saw the formulation of Peirce that connected extension and intension with Information and Comprehension this caused me to realize that there might be a connection between the meta-levels of intension emanating from extension and the forms of individual comprehension that include data, information, knowledge and wisdom. And then it occurred to me that these different types of comprehension (taken in a wider sense) might be directly related to the meta-levels of intension. And that is what I put in my  original post to the email group.

    But then I noticed I had transformed Peirce's formulation in order to make that connection and I was struck by doubt. Notice doubt is at the level of hyper-intension defined by Tichy. In fact, it is interesting that doubt is Cartesian and Husserl attempts to clarify doubt and refine it with his Epoche and Bracketing strategy. But doubt is noetic not a noema. Doubt is in the Husserlian hierarchy. I turns out that doubt is fairly low in the Husserl's noetic Hierarchy because he starts with Meaning as Intentional Morphe forming hyle and comes down from there, exactly the opposite of Analytic Philosophy that starts with Extension and begrudgingly adds each level of intension. Intentional morphe with hyle splits into noesis and noema. Notice that the schema here is Form.

Anyway, this connection between the meta-levels of intension and the meta-levels of comprehension (data, information, knowledge) via the equation Intension X Extension = Information is something that is a hypothesis worth exploring further. We can see this in a hierarchy of similar equations related to data and knowledge and that leads to some interesting consequences like the relation I saw to the Divided Line. It makes me think that the Divided Line in its structure is not arbitrary as I had thought previously.

Anyway, it is interesting to go deeper into what Peirce means by his terms in a more technical sense than I was projecting on to them. Where ever you go in Peirce's work insights abound. And I am very happy to have found this work of yours trying to make Peirce's work more available for others to take into account in their own research.

Thanks for your good work in this area.

Kent Palmer

Jon Awbrey

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Jan 16, 2019, 9:01:08 AM1/16/19
to Kent Palmer, SysSciWG, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling
Thanks, Kent, as a general rule Peirce avoided in advance many of the
problems bedeviling later philosophies of science in the 20th Century.
Doing so came rather naturally to him as he rarely succumbed to the
cycloptic species of reductionism afflicting so many modern isms.

In particular, it's not so much that Peirce sought a way to jam together
the extensions and intensions of concepts and other symbols, the stuffs
empiricism and rationalism are made on, as he grasped the whole body of
information, the “synthetic unity of apperception” of which extensions
and intensions are but the facets or lower dimensional projections.

That integral core of information borne by signs is the prize we'll keep
in view, stereoscopically, as we make our way into the texts of the 1860s.

Regards,

Jon

On 1/15/2019 7:29 PM, Kent Palmer wrote:
> Jon--
>
>
>
> De Tienne, André (2006), “Peirce's Logic of Information”, Seminario del
> Grupo de Estudios Peirceanos, Universidad de Navarra, 28 Sep 2006.Online.
>
>
>
> This is a great article. It delves into the issues in an interesting
> way. And your notes are very informative.
>
> http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension#Incidental_Note_13
>
> - "My affliction with OSSD (obsessive syntactic symmetry disorder) made
> equation *Intension X Extension = Information* is something that is a

Jon Awbrey

unread,
Jan 17, 2019, 4:56:17 PM1/17/19
to Kent Palmer, SysSciWG, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling
Kent —

The best way to get at what Peirce meant by his formula,

• Information = Comprehension × Extension,

will be to study a suitable sample of critical passages
from his Lectures of 1865–1866 on the Logic of Science.
In my experience the most instructive texts are those
where he illustrates the abstract forms with concrete
materials and simple examples, just complex enough to
flesh out the most significant dimensions of the case.

I'll be getting to that directly ...

But I wanted to flag the following paragraph of yours for future discussion,
as doubt and uncertainty are fundamental themes in the intersection between
Peirce's theory of inquiry and the revolution in our concept of information
brought on by Shannon's groundbreaking work.

On 1/15/2019 7:29 PM, Kent Palmer wrote:
> But then I noticed I had transformed Peirce's formulation in order to make
> that connection and I was struck by doubt. Notice doubt is at the level of
> hyper-intension defined by Tichy. In fact, it is interesting that doubt is
> Cartesian and Husserl attempts to clarify doubt and refine it with his Epoche
> and Bracketing strategy. But doubt is noetic not a noema. Doubt is in the
> Husserlian hierarchy. It turns out that doubt is fairly low in Husserl's
> noetic Hierarchy because he starts with Meaning as Intentional Morphe forming
> hyle and comes down from there, exactly the opposite of Analytic Philosophy
> that starts with Extension and begrudgingly adds each level of intension.
> Intentional morphe with hyle splits into noesis and noema. Notice that
> the schema here is Form.

Regards,

Jon

joseph simpson

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Jan 17, 2019, 7:48:56 PM1/17/19
to structura...@googlegroups.com, Kent Palmer, SysSciWG, Ontolog Forum
Jon:

Interesting material.

I would like to highlight the fact that there are four basic types of definition:

1) Definition by naming (weakest form of definition)
2) Definition by extension
3) Definition by intension
4) Definition by relationship (strongest form of definition)

In the construct:

Information = Comprehension × Extension 

Information is defined using a relationship between comprehension and extension ( the x operator relationship).

Definition by relationship appears to be the most powerful  type of definition.

Structural modeling uses definition by relationship to define the structure of an unknown or poorly defined system.

Take care, be good to yourself and have fun,

Joe


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Aleksandar Malečić

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Jan 18, 2019, 5:17:05 AM1/18/19
to syss...@googlegroups.com
1) Definition by naming (weakest form of definition)
2) Definition by extension
3) Definition by intension
4) Definition by relationship (strongest form of definition)

The problem is who is judging whether it is naming or relationship. Kent Palmer dropped here some typical and almost inevitable names such as Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger. Their works make sense when you read them, but do they contribute to systems theory or some related theory? I think they are deeply in the category of definition by naming and that their works, by the mere fact they exist, have caused serious damage to any future attempt to unify different scientific disciplines and human endeavours - even more so because their publications look like and actually are written and approved by intelligent and educated people. The levels of Being (Heidegger) or types of Spirit (Hegel) just "kind of" describe reality, just like the Enneagram (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram_of_Personality) and the tree of life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life_(Kabbalah)).

Aleksandar

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joseph simpson

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Jan 18, 2019, 8:01:33 PM1/18/19
to structura...@googlegroups.com, Kent Palmer, SysSciWG, Ontolog Forum
This article supports the idea that humans use dimensional maps to define and remember concepts.


These ideas appear to have a direct relationship to the dimensions and spaces defined by Warfield.

Take care and have fun,

Joe

Jon Awbrey

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Oct 3, 2019, 9:18:19 AM10/3/19
to Ontolog Forum, SysSciWG, Structural Modeling
Cf : Pragmatic Semiotic Information : Discussion 18
At : http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/10/03/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-discussion-18/

Returning to a recurring issue ...

Re: Peirce Society Facebook Page
At: https://www.facebook.com/groups/peircesociety/
Re: John Corcoran
At: https://www.facebook.com/groups/peircesociety/permalink/1698956433573675/

To address "Was ist und was soll Information sein?" in a Peircean context
we need to grasp or at least try to grapple with Peirce's inklings about
information. As it happens, I've been engaged in that quest for a number
of years. Pilgrims moved by a similar spirit may find my travel logs
of use on their way --

Cf: Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information
At: https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/08/survey-of-pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-4/

Regards,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

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Jan 22, 2020, 10:24:14 AM1/22/20
to Ontolog Forum, SysSciWG, Structural Modeling, Cybernetic Communications
Cf: Pragmatic Semiotic Information : Discussion 19
At: http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2020/01/22/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-discussion-19/

Re: Differential Logic and Dynamic Systems
::: https://oeis.org/wiki/Differential_Logic_and_Dynamic_Systems_%E2%80%A2_Part_1#Tables_of_Propositional_Forms
Re: FB | Systems Sciences
::: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/permalink/10157664331129564/
::: Kenneth Lloyd
::: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/permalink/10157664331129564/?comment_id=10157666770404564

An exchange on Facebook took me back to recent discussions of pragmatic truth
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2020/01/06/pragmatic-theory-of-truth-%e2%80%a2-21/ )
and long-running discussions of pragmatic semiotic information
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2018/08/21/pragmatic-semiotic-information-%cf%88/ ) .
Just by way of a note to myself and anyone who's interested, I'll record my comment
and a few links here by way of keeping the relevant gray cells warm.

Concepts of belief, fact, knowledge, opinion, etc. look rather different
from a Peircean pragmatic perspective, in other words, when analyzed
in terms of the pragmatic maxim. In time the traditional conceptions
begin to strike us as increasingly clumsy tools, better supplanted by
Peirce's concept of information.

Resources
=========

* Pragmatic Maxim
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2008/08/07/pragmatic-maxim/ )

* Pragmatic Theory Of Truth
( https://oeis.org/wiki/Pragmatic_Theory_Of_Truth )

* Differential Logic and Dynamic Systems
( https://oeis.org/wiki/Differential_Logic_and_Dynamic_Systems_%E2%80%A2_Overview )

* Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/08/survey-of-pragmatic-semiotic-information-%e2%80%a2-4/ )

* Information = Comprehension × Extension
( https://oeis.org/wiki/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension )
facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JonnyCache

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 30, 2020, 3:12:18 PM9/30/20
to Cybernetic Communications, Ontolog Forum, Peirce List, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Pragmatic Semiotic Information • Discussion 20
http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2020/09/30/pragmatic-semiotic-information-discussion-20/

Re: R.J. Lipton and K.W. Regan
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/about-me/
::: IBM Conference on the Informational Lens
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2020/09/27/ibm-conference-on-the-informational-lens/

A little bit of history recoded ...

It may be worth noting the Information Revolution in our understanding of
science began in the mid 1860s when C.S. Peirce laid down what he called
the "Laws of Information" in his lectures on the "Logic of Science" at
Harvard University and the Lowell Institute. Peirce took up "the puzzle
of the validity of scientific inference" and claimed it was "entirely
removed by a consideration of the laws of information".

Here's a collection of excerpts and commentary I assembled on the subject.

* Information = Comprehension × Extension
https://oeis.org/wiki/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension

Resource
========

* Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/01/08/survey-of-pragmatic-semiotic-information-4/

Regards,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

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Nov 1, 2020, 1:28:32 PM11/1/20
to Cybernetic Communications, Ontolog Forum, Peirce List, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information • 5
http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2020/11/01/survey-of-pragmatic-semiotic-information-5/

Happy Día de Muertos, Everybody!

I've been doing a mass of light editing and link repair on my blog,
due largely to the sad demise of the InterSciWiki where I used to
keep most of my work. At any rate, here's a link to the updated
Survey of posts related to "Pragmatic Semiotic Information".

Blurb
=====

This is a Survey ( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/surveys/ ) of
previous blog and wiki posts on the Semiotic Theory Of Information.
All my projects are exploratory in essence but this line of inquiry
is more open-ended than most. The question is:

|| What is information and how does it
|| impact the spectrum of activities
|| answering to the name of inquiry?

The rest can be found at the above link.

Jon Awbrey

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Feb 8, 2021, 10:50:21 AM2/8/21
to Cybernetic Communications, Laws of Form, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Pragmatic Semiotic Information • Discussion 21
http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2021/02/08/pragmatic-semiotic-information-discussion-21/

Re: FB | Medieval Logic
https://www.facebook.com/groups/medievallogic/permalink/1673571576178674

On the question of what Peirce anticipated and when did he anticipate it,
my studies are more focused on the points where he overleapt the FOL-Bildungs
of Mid Century Modern (MCM) Analytic Philosophy, so much default of all our
false problematics today, and saw through to developments we'd not see again
until the theories of categories, computation, and information began to make
their impact on our conceptions of logic. I'll dig up some links along those lines …

Resources
=========

• Information = Comprehension × Extension
https://oeis.org/wiki/Information_%3D_Comprehension_%C3%97_Extension

• Peirce's 1870 Logic Of Relatives
https://oeis.org/wiki/Peirce%27s_1870_Logic_Of_Relatives_%E2%80%A2_Overview

•• Part 1
https://oeis.org/wiki/Peirce%27s_1870_Logic_Of_Relatives_%E2%80%A2_Part_1

•• Part 2
https://oeis.org/wiki/Peirce%27s_1870_Logic_Of_Relatives_%E2%80%A2_Part_2

•• Part 3
https://oeis.org/wiki/Peirce%27s_1870_Logic_Of_Relatives_%E2%80%A2_Part_3

• Functional Logic

•• Inquiry and Analogy
https://oeis.org/wiki/Functional_Logic_%E2%80%A2_Inquiry_and_Analogy

•• Higher Order Propositions
https://oeis.org/wiki/Functional_Logic_%E2%80%A2_Higher_Order_Propositions

•• Quantification Theory
https://oeis.org/wiki/Functional_Logic_%E2%80%A2_Quantification_Theory

• Precursors Of Category Theory
https://oeis.org/wiki/Precursors_Of_Category_Theory

Regards,

Jon
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