[Sigia-l] Pick a theory (was "IA and Semiotics")

[gunnar]

> Of course, Pragmatism is a fine choice of theory, but it might have been
> more helpful in this conversation to name it as such, unless perhaps 
> you were unaware that you were operating within a theoretical 
> construct, eh?

Well put!

We all work on a more or less clear and conscious theoretical basis. I like to
step back and take a look at it from time to time. 

What some people who don't have the fortune of having a higher theoretical
education miss, is often the ability to make their own background stand out.
It is - in my opinion - always better to realize that you are biased,
subjective and that you may be able to filter out some of the bias - but
probably not all.

Peirce' semiotics taught me about sign production as a contextualized process
- a chain - or web - og signification and interpretation - signs being
interpretations of other signs, habits forming in all human action,
conventions growing from this contextualization etc.

BTW: Peirce actually tried to found pragmatism. But his pupil William James
"hijacked" the label, so Peirce - who had problems with James version - chose
the less "brandable" label Pragmatisism. His bad luck. (This is from memory -
so forgive me any inaccuracies. The idea should be clear.)
:-)


Gunnar Langemark
gunnar at langemark.com