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The Dialogic Nature of Semiotic Tools in Facilitating Conscious Thought: Peirce’s and Vygotskii’s Models

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Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology (MBR 2018)

Part of the book series: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics ((SAPERE,volume 49))

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Abstract

Peirce’s adherence to the endoporeutic principle reveals how abductive rationality can effectively be exploited; it elevates dialogue as the most efficacious intervention to advance the development of modal logic. Peirce’s endoporeutic principle prefigures Vygotskii’s private and inner speech as the primary factor affecting thought refinement. This inquiry explores the far-reaching effects of internal dialogue upon hypothesis-making, particularly critical at early ages. In short, Propositions expressed in talking to self may obviate which hunches surface in their infancy as faulty/plausible, in a way that no other kind of interventions can insinuate, creating what Peirce describes as “double consciousness.” Double consciousness privileges the element of surprise within dialogic exchanges (linguistic, and non-linguistic alike) by means of the imposition of the “strange intruding” idea. Double consciousness as self-talk can preclude adopting emergent propositions/assertions (often only implicit), it offers a powerful forum to discard hasty/weak hunches in a timely fashion, together with those whose content fails to give rise to serviceable courses of action and workable remedies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “… representation necessarily involves a genuine triad. For it involves a sign, or representamen, of some kind, outward or inward, mediating between an object and an interpreting thought. Now this is neither a matter of fact, since thought is general, nor is it a matter of law, since thought is living.”

  2. 2.

    “The second member of the triplet, the “Pheme,” embraces all capital propositions; but not only capital propositions, but also capital interrogations and commands…. Such a sign intends or has the air of intending to force some idea (in an interrogation), or some action (in a command), or some belief (in an assertion), upon the interpreter of it, just as if it were the direct and unmodified effect of that which it represents” (1906: MS 295: 26).

  3. 3.

    “By a Seme, I shall mean anything which serves for any purpose as a substitute for an object of which it is, in some sense, a representative or Sign. The logical Term, which is a class-name, is a Seme” (4.538).

  4. 4.

    “An externisensation is a two-sided state of determination of consciousness…in which a volitionally external and a volitionally internal power seem to be opposed, the one furthering the other resisting the change” (MS 339: 245r).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State University of New York at Cortland, Cortland, USA

    Donna E. West

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  1. Donna E. West
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Correspondence to Donna E. West .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Ángel Nepomuceno-Fernández

  2. Department of Humanities, Philosophy Section, and Computational Philosophy Laboratory, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Lorenzo Magnani

  3. Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Theory of Literature, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Francisco J. Salguero-Lamillar

  4. Department of Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Cristina Barés-Gómez

  5. Centre for Philosophy of Science of the University of Lisbon, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Matthieu Fontaine

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West, D.E. (2019). The Dialogic Nature of Semiotic Tools in Facilitating Conscious Thought: Peirce’s and Vygotskii’s Models. In: Nepomuceno-Fernández, Á., Magnani, L., Salguero-Lamillar, F., Barés-Gómez, C., Fontaine, M. (eds) Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. MBR 2018. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 49. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32722-4_12

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