The architectonics of the mind

pp. 143-158

in: Yair Neuman, Processes and boundaries of the mind, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

A sign is an indication, the name we give to a distinction. How is it possible to settle the tension between the dynamic and indeterminate nature of a distinction and the allegedly fixed nature of the sign? Between the sign as located in the systemic closure of the individual and the sign as a social process? The answer is that signs can be considered attractors, stable configurations that emerge out of distinctions and through communication between people. In this context, the reification of the world and the chaotic nature of the sign are an almost inevitable result of an internal dynamic that characterizes the sign system.