List,
I think that the language we have is not exact enough for discussing semiotics. Misunderstandings are produced, one after another. We should construct a more exact language, and use inexact terms no longer. Examples:
-The term "is": In taxonomy, classification, it is used for something being a subset or element of something else, like: "Humans are mammals". But in meronomy, composition, it is not used that way, nobody would say: "A piston is a motor". And: If anybody uses the term "is" in another way than identity, somebody else for sure will answer: "But it isn´t, because it cannot be reversed".
-The terms "external, internal, inside, outside": This is meronomy, but there are three kinds of meronomy: Spatiotemporal, spatial and temporal. See my last post about "semantic problems...".
-The term "To consist of", or "to have": The same. "A sign consists of blablabla, final interpretant, blablabla." But: There are signs, that do not have a final interpretant. How can that be? It can, because if there by "a sign" is meant "the concept of a sign", or "a sign from its beginning till its end", or "looking at the history of a completed sign", then it has a final interpretant, and all other parts too. But if by "a sign" is meant: "A snapshot of a sign as it is in the moment", then the final interpretant may not yet have occured, and one can say: "This sign does not consist of a final interpretant", or, "it does not have" one.
- The term "Relation": "Relation" means nothing, because there are thousands of kinds of relation, and to discuss whether something is an entity or a relation leads to nothing, as any entity is a relation too, because there is no such thing as a thing in itself. So everything is a relation, which makes this term useless.
I am going to stop nagging now. Sorry, but I felt like it.
Best,
Helmut
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