Exhibit 17 ~ Thinking

Anthropologist Michael Silverstein analyses the recursive properties of human thinking as applied to the use of language in representing cultural meaning, at multiple levels simultaneously. Another person exploring similar themes, explictly linked to the recursive thinking (thinking about thinking or thoughts within thoughts) that underlies human cognition in Stephen C, Livinson

Peirce anticipated both Livenson and Silverstein, however, in proposing that symbols are constructed of other symbols. In Peirce’s writings, the phrase ‘infinite semiosis’ means that there is no limit to the number of symbols available to humans for languages. This in turnis based on the view that signs are multifunctional. Each sign determines an interpretant is also a sign, so every sign embodies a second sign. This is a kind of conceptual recursion, concepts within concepts, and represents a huge step forward in human communication. It means that a string of signs always contains other signs. According to Peirce, this can be understood when we see infinity even in a simple sequence like:

Sign1/Interpretant1 -> Sign2/Interpretant2 . . .-> Sign (n)

This representation looks finite until we realise that Sign (n) cannot be the end because if it lacks an interpretant it is not a sign. Likewise, Sign1 cannot really be the beginning, because by definition it is connected to the interpretant of an earlier sign. So there is no beginning or end to symbols and signs. The process that creates them is infinite because it is recursive. Any random sign is always partially composed from another sign. ~ Page 105