Edwina, lists, Peirce most likely would have liked your chicken soup (not for any semiotic reasons but for a gastronomic one) and Prigogine's Brusselator (for a molecular semiotic reason).
All the best. Sung On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 2:03 PM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]> wrote: > So, Sung, you are now into declaring that SINCE Peirce was a chemist and > even had a chemical lab as a boy (doesn't every boy?), THEN, anything > posted relating to chemistry, is relevant to the Peirce-L list. Before, > your claim was SINCE we 'think, write and speak in signs' and Peircean > research was 'devoted to signs'...THEN, your conclusion was that 'any > topics that we 'think, write and speak' about are therefore valid on a > Peircean list. > > Such trivialization and reductionism of analysis leads me to really, > really feel that my recipe for chicken soup is highly relevant to the > Peirce-L list. After all, it's in signs, isn't it? And, gosh, it's a > chemical mess, isn't it? So...And, you note, as a post hoc validation of > your use of chemistry, that, IF Peirce were alive, he'd be 'fascinated' by > your chemical outline. Well, I can say the same thing. IF Peirce were alive > - he'd love my chicken soup. > > Edwina > > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Sungchul Ji <[email protected]> > *To:* PEIRCE-L <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Tuesday, July 14, 2015 1:32 PM > *Subject:* [biosemiotics:8761] The Universality of ITR (Irreducible > Triadic Relation) -- IV > > Hi, > > This is a continuation of "The Universality of ITR (Irreducible Triadic > Relation) -- III" posted on 7/11/2015. > > The purpose of this post is to add another item to the ITR table that was > attached to the above post. The new item to be added is the phenomenon of > "self-organization" [1] that can be defined as the formation of the orderly > patterns (e.g., chemical concentration waves formed in a Petri dish) among > the components of a material system driven by the free energy generated > WITHIN the system itself, e.g., the flame of a candle, action potentials, > etc. > > One of the best studied examples of self-organization is the > Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction that was discovered in Russia in 1964 > [2] and investigated theoretically by I. Prigogine (1917-2003) and his > group in Brussels in the 1960's and 70's, culminating in the formulation of > the theoretical model of BZ reaction called the Brussellator and the > awarding of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Prigogine in 1977. As I > explained in [biosemiotics:8320] dated 4/14/2015 [3], the Brusselator > consists of the following 4 main steps: > > > A -------> X > (1) > 2 X + Y -------> 3 X > (2) > B + X -------> Y + D > (3) > X -------> E > (4) > ________________________ > > A + B -------> D + E > (5) > > > where A and B are the reactants, X and Y are transient intermediates, and > D and E are the final products of the reaction. As you can see, these > chemical species constitute 3 distinct groups, and in [biosemiotics:8320] I > proposed that the interactions among these three groups of chemical embody > an ITR (irreducible triadic relation): > > f g > (A + B ) -------> (X + Y) -------> (D + E) > | > ^ > | > | > |_________________________| > h > > Figure 1. Reproduced from Figure 3 in [biosemiotics:8720]. f = > production; g = degradation; h = information flow. For more details, see > Figure 3 in [biosemiotics:8720]. > > Based on Figure 1, therefore, I am suggesting that the Brusselator can be > viewed as a member of the ur-category and hence the ITR table as shown in > Row 14 in the attached table. (Please note that the order of the rows in > this table has been rearranged so that the fields are more or less > organized in the following order: Peircean semiotics and metaphysics, > religion, philosophy, psychology, physics, chemistry, biology, and > mathematics. Also some of the words in the field column have been > modified.) > > For those who may be wondering how the BZ reaction can be Peirce-related, > I just what to remind them that Peirce was basically a chemist, having > received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard and having had a > chemistry laboratory of his own in his basement that was set up by his > father. It is probably for this reason that Peirce's logical and > philosophical thoughts are heavily influenced by the principles of > chemistry known to his time, and I have no doubt that, had the BZ reaction > been discovered while he was alive and its mechanistic model, the > Brusselator, known to him, Peirce might have been fascinated by the > presence of the "termolecular" reaction, (2) above, in it. It is probably > not an accident that the key to the self-organizing chemical reaction is > this "termolecular step" (as once pointed out to me by Prigogine) and that > it is irreducible, i.e., cannot be replaced by any combination of > biomolecular steps such as (3) and/or monomolecular steps (1) and (4). > Thus I suggest that the termolecular step in the Brusselator represents the > Peircean irreducible triad at the molecular level. > > > I would like to emphasize the following points abut the ITR table: > > (1) To the extent that each row satisfies the ur-category (or the > commutative triangle) shown in the legend to the table, it represents a > mathematical category [4, 5, 6]. > > (2) The relation that connects one category to another is called > "functors" [4, 6]. One striking feature of the ITR table is that most, if > not all, rows have their "j" column labeled as "information flow" or > "cordality" defined as the information-mediated interactions. Therefore, it > seems logical to conclude that "information flow from A to C", i.e., > codality, is a functor of the categories listed in the ITR table. > > (3) Since Step j commutes with the combined Steps f and g, it may be > justified to view the combination of mappigs f and j (which was identified > with the traditional concept of "causality", or energy- or force-mediated > interactions) as another functor. > > (4) The relation that connects one functor to another is called the > "natural transformation" [4, 6]. I here suggest that the relation between > the two functors, namely, CAUSALITY (energy- and force-mediated > interactions) and CODALITY (information-mediated interactions) that appear > in the ITR table constitute a natural transformation and that this natural > transformation in turn can be identified with the Principle of Gnergy or > the Information-Energy Complementarity [8]. > > (5) It should be pointed out that the term Gnergy (a complementary union > of information, "gn-", and energy , "-ergy") belongs to the same category > of concepts as the Dao, God, Brahma, Substance, etc. [10]. > > If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for any irreducible > triads to be added to the ITR table, let me know. > > All the best. > > Sung > > -- > Sungchul Ji, Ph.D. > > Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology > Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology > Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy > Rutgers University > Piscataway, N.J. 08855 > 732-445-4701 > > www.conformon.net > > References: > [1] Ji, S. (2012). Principles of Self-Organizaition and Dissipative > Structures. Section 3.1 in *Molecular Theory of the Living Cell: > Concepts, Molecular Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications.* Springer, > New York. Pp. 69-78. PDF at http://www.conformon.net under Publications > > Book Chapters. > [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belousov%E2%80%93Zhabotinsky_reaction > [3] [biosemiotics:8320] attached. > [4] Spivak, D. I. (20xx). *Category Theory for the Sciences*. The > MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Open Access HTML Version at > *http://category-theory.mitpress.mit.edu/ > <http://category-theory.mitpress.mit.edu/>* > [5] Abrey, J. (20xx). Mathematical Notes. > http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wikiindex.php/User:Jon_Awbrey/Mathematicsl_Notes > . > [6] Brown, R. and Porter, T. (20xx). *Category Theory: an abstract > setting for analogy and comparison.* PDF at > http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.65.2083&rep=rep1&type=pdf.\ > > [7] Ji, S. (2012). ibid. p. 93. > [8] Ji, S. (2012). Information-Energy Complementarity > <http://www.conformon.net/?attachment_id=1110> as the Principle of > Organization. Section 4.13 in* Molecular Theory of the Living Cell: > concepts, Molecular Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications.* Springer, > New York. Pp. 110-113. PDF at http://www.conformon.net under > Publications > Book Chapters. > [9] Taiji or Tai Chi. See > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_(philosophy). > [10] Ji, S. (1995). Complementarism: A Biology-Based Philosophical > Framework to Integrate Western Science and Eastern Tao, > <http://www.conformon.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Complementarism_1995_Proceedings2.pdf> > *in* *Psychotherapy East and West: **Integration of Psychotherapies, *Korean > Academy of Psychotherapists, 178-23 Sungbuk-dong, Songbuk-ku, Seoul > 136-020, Korea, pp. 517-548. PDF at http://www.conformon.net under > Publications > Proceedings & Abstracts. > > > > > > ----------------------------- > PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON > PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to > [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L > but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the > BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm > . > > > > > > -- Sungchul Ji, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy Rutgers University Piscataway, N.J. 08855 732-445-4701 www.conformon.net
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