Re: Forks and Computers
Luiz Ernesto Merkle (merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca)
Tue, 19 May 1998 00:28:49 -0400 (EDT)
On Sun, 17 May 1998, Mike Cole wrote:
> The "nodes" in diagrams of triangles
> or pentads or whatever are not "things in and of themselves." They
> exist only in relationship to each other.
I'm aware of that, but at the same time, when I see people working with
these triads in semiotics (I can't say anything about CHAT), I can say
that once a sign is classified, many times it becomes a thing, and the
discussion stops there. But this has to do with your next point.
> Triangles also suffer from their non-temporality, a discussion which
> Yrjo and I have discussed for many years. I believe that no single
> metaphor will do for a CHAT approach. But there are families
> of metaphors that provide a rich toolkit for inquiry.
The visualization of Peirce's triads also suffer from the same
non-temporality. His 10 classes though, enable a comparison of different
classes in a lattice. Robert Marty has formalized these triads and C.W.
Spinks has discussed these classes extensively (Peirce and Triadomania: A
walk in the semiotic wilderness, Mouton de Gruyter, 1991). I'm not
satisfied with their solution.
As soon as know enough about CHAT to compare with the solutions I've been
working in semiotics, I would like to return to this subject. I don't know
if it can be tranfered to CHAT. Do you recommend any literature in which
your discussion with Yrjo is present? I'll be receiving soon Yrjo's
"Learning by Expanding ..." but I would like to know more about
non-temporality.
Thanks,
Luiz
_____________________________________________________________
Luiz Ernesto Merkle merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario voice: +1 519 858 3375 (home)
Department of Computer Science fax: +1 519 661 3515 (work)
N6A 5B7 London Ontario Canada www.csd.uwo.ca/~merkle