We've dedicated considerable time to discussing the Four Phases of Semiosis. Now, we're ready to take a significant leap forward as we introduce the concept of the Four Periods of Semiosis. This introduction will expand our diagram, adding an entirely new dimension to it.
Before we begin this exploration, let's ensure we have some understanding of what these Periods encompass. What, precisely, do these Periods entail?
Vertical Thinking and Depth Thinking
Within the framework of the Four Phases, we've utilized terminology such as “higher/lower” and “upwards/downwards.” The use of this language is rooted in the concept of what I call vertical thinking.
The lower phases describe the foundational aspects of experience, such as perception, while the higher phases encompass the more abstract and symbolic “upper” structures that govern and shape our experience and existence.
For instance, when you are investigating a specific subject, the aim is to uncover the regularities that govern it and the connections it has. Through this learning process your understanding is elevated to a “higher” level, i.e. to the higher phases. In other words, growth of knowledge enables you to contemplate more general and universal patterns and laws.
For these reasons, I believe that using vertical metaphors is appropriate for describing the phases.
Periods, on the other hand, are all about depth. While phases place us within a specific phase at a particular vertical level, periods reveal how these phases are constructed by layers, lending them depth. Through the lens of periods, we delve deeper into the phases, gaining insight into the finer layers and structures that constitute them.
Development and Structure
Let's start to further elaborate on this metaphorical language of verticality and depth. The verticality linked to the phases describes the process of development, specifically the four developmental stages of semiosis. Essentially, these phases signify the progression of semiosis, signifying whether it is in its foundational stages, like perception, or if it has progressed to the realm of symbolic communication and sharing.
The depth of the periods, in turn, describes the structure, specifically, the four structural periods of semiosis. While with the phases, we transition from one phase to another, with the periods, all of the periods are always “present”.
For example, humans have both structure and development. The structure is consistent in every human; we all possess skeletal, muscle, organ, and nervous structures. There is no human being without these four structures. They are essential. Similarly, a sign always comprises the four periods. A sign cannot be without this structure.
In addition to structures, there are distinct phases in human life: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Regardless of the phase, the structural components — skeletal, muscular, organ, and nervous structures — must be present, even though they undergo change as the phases develop. Likewise, the sign always maintains its four structural periods, even when the phases change.
So, both humans and signs seek to go through these four phases. Both humans and signs retain our structure through this journey. Both humans and signs embody knowledge and information in this process. Both humans and signs start as fluctuating and chaotic and become — hopefully — reasonable in the end.
No wonder, we both are signs.
The Four Periods
What are the Four Periods then? From the most fundamental to the most complex the periods are:
Grounding
Presentation
Representation
Communication
As with the phases, the more complex periods include the more fundamental ones. For instance, Presentation includes Grounding, and Communication includes all the other periods.
However, the more complex periods, are always present, although as mere possibilities. But more on this in later posts.
From the diagram above we see how 10 squares are formed. These are the 10 Stages of Semiosis. Note that these are not identical with the 10 signs discovered by Peirce. Again, we will return to these subjects in future posts. Here is the list of these 10 Stages of Semiosis:
Perceiving Grounding
Perceiving Presentation
Perceiving Representation
Perceiving Communication
Experiencing Presentation
Experiencing Representation
Experiencing Communication
Understanding Representation
Understanding Communication
Sharing Communication
Here is the same expressed in the diagram:
As with many other Peircean concepts, these periods have a very general meaning, which makes it difficult to quickly summarize them. So I beg your patience as I try to flesh these things out.
Next, I will give a quick general description of the periods and a contextual practical example. I will mark the phase and the stage of semiosis in following way: (phase [stage]).
Grounding period
Grounding is the ultimate foundation of semiosis. It is the starting point, where novelty flows into the semiosis through perceptual esthetical judgements (perception [1]). It can be thought as the “zero point”, from which the flow begins. The sign requires a “place” from which it can grow.
Presentation period
In this period signs present themselves as irritations causing the experience of alterity (perception [2]). The continuity of these irritations forms experienced regularities (experience [5]), which will develop into habits and systems that are guided by information.
Representation period
In this period the sign develops the ability to represent its object by internalizing information about it. Representation concerns the dyadic relation between the sign and its object. Representation may be sign’s forceful direction to its object (perception [3]), sign pointing to the general form of its object mediating information (experience [6]), or a general sign pointing to the general form of its object in some context (understanding [8]).
Communication period
In this period the sign, the object and the interpretant fuse into a triadic relation producing communicative effects. The communication ranges from mechanical transmission of information (perception [4]), to recognizing the particular meaning of some concrete sign (experience [7]), to comprehending the context-dependent general meaning of some sign (understanding [9]), to the sharing of symbolic meaning in the community (sharing [10]).
Communication must be understood as a comprehensive phenomenon. It includes among others physical, chemical, biological, psychological, linguistic, and sociological communication. Actually, Semiosis is communication. Therefore, our Universe can be thought as communication.
At the Market Place
As you walk in the market place you see a picture of a fish on a stall. This is a sign.
Grounding: Various esthetical qualities are grounded in space-time allowing you to perceive them (perception [1])
Presentation: Something other is present. Forceful qualities (perception [2]) and a recognized pattern, i.e. a sign (experience [5]).
Representation: This sign represents some object. Something forceful causing a perception, i.e. something existent is behind the perception so that it isn’t just a hallucination (perception [3]), this existent is a fish stall (experience [6]), which is a instance of a habit of demarcating fish stalls with a picture of a fish (understanding [8]).
Communication: The sign mediates the form of its object causing an effect called an interpretant. The unconscious focus on the object (perception [4]), the comprehension that there is stall selling fish over there (experience [7]), the general understanding that picture of a fish on a stall means a fish stall (understanding [9]), the symbolic characters called numbers sharing information about the prices of fish (sharing [10])
Summary
There is a lot to chew in this post, so please ask further questions in the comments. I’ll try to answer them to the best of my abilities.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Markus
First of all, I want to congratulate you and all of your efforts. I've been working through these posts and your YouTube videos. I have had a longstanding interest in Peirce; even though his writing is often quite difficult to understand — "flashes of brilliant light relieved against Cimmerian darkness! " as his friend William James said — nonetheless I frequently find myself startled by the depth and power of his insights.
I wish I knew of a book that I could recommend to others as a cogent introduction to his ideas, but I am unaware of one. My own understanding, as limited as it is, has come from undisciplined wandering about in his primary writings, with a little help from scholars.
Your ability to communicate these ideas is remarkable, and I hope you are considering putting your writings together into a popularly accessible book. I think the world could very much profit.
If I had one suggestion, it might be to more frequently point out things about which you are unsure, or where Peirce has been ambiguous. The allure of a complete system like his architectonic is seductive, but fallibilism, to which you subscribe, should I think be invoked more often to enhance your credibility. But there is power in tracing a bright through-line amidst his welter of ideas and not get lost in critiques and comparisons with other thinkers along the way, and you have done an astonishingly good job of this.
I wrote about related ideas in my blog https://anordinarydoctor.substack.com in the posts "The Immaterial World" which perhaps you would be interested to see. I will go back to it and think about how I might recast it using some of your ideas here.
There are so many aspects to what you have written that I love. .... 'Place'. I often talk about placement. 'Continuity of irritations'. An excellent choice of words! ........ But "recognizing the particular meaning of some concrete sign"; This is where I struggle with humanity's skewed understanding due to nominalism. Particular to whom? Perhaps this is where we need to include an injection of horizon that compliments the verticalness. As I always say, 'There is no 'I' without the 'Not I'. ;-)