System and observer in semiotic modeling

an essay on semiotic realism

pp. 27-36

in: Michael Herzfeld, Margot D. Lenhart, Semiotics 1980, Berlin, Springer, 1982

Abstract

While it is my goal to consider semiotics in relation to both humanistic and scientific thought, I wish initially to advance my concerns by means of a fairly simple example, the relationship between salt and sodium chloride. In a sense sodium chloride is the chemist's name for salt; that sense is, if you will, naive. On a more sophisticated reading salt and sodium chloride turn out to be two different things. And then we must consider the relationship between the naive and sophisticated readings which is, I argue, analogous to the relationship between semiotics as a study of man and semiotics as a study of Homo sapiens sapiens.