Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [semiotics]

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What is the difference between properties and sets?

Is there a difference between properties and sets? To me, it would seem that the property of being non-self-identical is the same thing as the empty set, and the property of being (identical to x OR identical to y) is the same thing as the set…
user107952
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Did Confucius say "Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws"?

It is claimed here that Confucius said: Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws. Is this true? If so, in what work did he say this?
Geremia
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Enantiodromia--How Do Symbols Undergo an Inversion of Meaning?

I am looking for writings in philosophy, semiotics, or psychology that deal with the shifts and ultimately the inversion of practical meaning in symbols. This would be something like Orwell's concept of doublespeak or Jung's references to Heraclitus…
Nelson Alexander
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How do we understand and fix reference for scientific units of measure?

Saul Kripke provides us with a clear way of how we understand and use names in Naming and Necessity. While this solves the problem of how we attribute and understand proper names an interesting question arises when we look to examine scientific…
Mr. Mcnut
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What does Barthes mean when he calls boxing a "Jansenist sport"?

In the essay The World of Wrestling, Roland Barthes has this to say about the distinction between boxing and wrestling. This public knows very well the distinction between wrestling and boxing; it knows that boxing is a Jansenist sport, based on a…
pseudosudo
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The index finger of Socrates and Plato

Why do we see Socrates in Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates, and Plato in Raphael's School of Athens pointing up with their index finger? What does this gesture symbolize? My initial conjecture was that it may be a sign of achieved wisdom…
Mohammed Ali Melhem
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Origin of Charles Sander Peirce's model of triadic signs diagram?

Does anyone know the origin of this diagram based on Charles Sander Peirce's model of triadic signs? http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/peirce-semiosis.gif Is it by Peirce and if so from what or is it from a reader on Peirce?
garrettlynchirl
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What does 'denote' mean in language and mathematics?

My initial idea of 'denote' is that is a verb that describes how an element of well-defined language such as 'cat' or '2' relates to the object/concept they refer to, however in mathematics text books, they use 'denote' to discuss the idea of a…
Confused
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What in mathematics has the property of beauty?

I might or might not be at an impasse in my writing... I have around 200 pages of notes, and I finally sat down and tried to compile some of the material, but I feel like the presentation is off somehow. There are so many details to go over, half…
Kristian Berry
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Did Peirce apply his triadic theory to music?

Did Peirce apply his triadic theory (that things are comprised of Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness) to music?
Geremia
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The possibility of linking two perceptual modalities in a coherent way

I am reading the book of Roy Harris "Rethinking writing" and see his arguments in favor of autonomity of writing from speech. There could be no complete isomorphism between any system of visible marks and any system of sounds for a quite…
Aharon M. Vertmont
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References for the study of language

I'm looking for (not too difficult too read) references related to Semiotics Philosophy of Language Philosophy of Linguistics I mainly seek the understanding of ideas about the relation between signs and meaning / syntax and semantic and general…
Boris
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Do linguists call human language "natural"?

From a recent question (Could a programming language be considered as a language?), it came to me the impression that there may be some confusion about the terminology professional linguists use, when referring to the phenomenon of human…
André Souza Lemos
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Looking for Marxist or Frankfurt-style critiques of advertising

There is undoubtedly a great deal of cultural criticism of advertising, but I'm looking for a certain angle on the topic. For Marx, the commodity is the primary "atom" of capitalist society and the economic bearer of value. The individual enters…
Nelson Alexander
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Are implementations to semiotics what proofs are to syntax, and models to semantics?

I see this term implementation and its family used here and there in writings on set theory. There are implementations of natural numbers, of ordered pairs, of functions, of "mathematics in general." I feel like this is not the same as having a…
Kristian Berry
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