The Word: An Essay on Seeing, Owning, and the Sacred

Abstract

In the classical period of ancient Greece, Logos had a variety ofmeanings, most or all of which connoted one aspect or another ofHeraclitus's conception of the term, ``the rational governing principleof the universe''. The triadic semiotics of Charles Sanders Peircesuggests that, through the linguistic sign, humans construct structuresof meaning, which form the cognitive Worlds in which humans exist, thesubstantive content of consciousness, and which, as such, provide theexplanation for the Cosmos. The three-term Peircean Sign becomestriadic, however, only in conjunction with Peirce's Ground, whichprovides particular substantive values that form the basis ofconstructing the meaningful World. Thus, it is possible, for example, totrace in the heterogeneity of judicial doctrine in United States law thealternative sets of values that are available; the function ofWorld creation proceeds when the Ground is suffused with a particularvalue set. If Logos is conceptualized in terms of these value sets, thenit can be understood in terms of ``the rational governing principle ofthe World.'' In this understanding, the substantive content of theGround becomes equated with the Sacred. This conceptualization alsoprovides an alternative way of understanding the opening of the Gospelof John in the Christian Bible and the concept of the Trinity inChristian doctrine in terms of the creative powers of humans through theSign. The fact of this same creative power also provides a way ofunderstanding the strong limitations in ancient Israel on pronouncingthe Tetragrammaton.