[peirce-l] Re: Sinsign, Legisign, Qualisign - help!

[Jim Piat]

Dear Jerry,  Folks--   For the fun of it, I'd like to try my hand at a biological application of Peirce's categories (and loosely speaking his notions qualisign, sinsign, and legisign).   Consider the cell -- thought of by some as the fundamental unit of all living biological organisms. In particular I'd like to focus on the cell membrane that serves as the boundary between that which is cell (the essence of the living unit) and that which is not cell.  Seems to me that the cell membrane is in effect a kind of mediater between what is cell and what is not cell.  The cell membrance thus conceived is an example of what Peirce would call a legisign.  The notion of life as a quality embodied in the cell would be a qualisign and the notion of material denotable cell itself would be that of a sinsign.    I offer the above not so much as a technically correct account of the situation but merely as something suggestive of how Peirce's categories my be usefully applied to thinking about biological issues.  The cell membrane defines not only biological cell in this way but also national boundaries (as semi-permeable boundaries) may be thought of in this light as well.  Indeed I would argue that all constructs (identiies) are the result of such signification and that the viability of all cells and organisms (biological or social) are dependent upon the semi-permeable  "continuous" mediation between so called self and other.   Well just for the fun of it --  and admittedly neither very crisp or concise.  But hopefully a little chewy.   Cheers, Jim Piat    Jerry Chandler wrote: "My conjecture is that extension is easy in number/arithmetic,  difficult in chemistry, and very difficult in natural language. In the example, sign is extended  to qualisign, sinsign and legisign. This extension appears to me to include a fair amount of arbitrariness.  Fine for a philosophy of belief, not adequate for chemical or biological purposes.  It would be helpful if someone could suggest a path that associates these terms with chemical, biological or medical practice".   --- Message from peirce-l forum to subscriber archive@mail-archive.com