09/14/23

Looking at Appendix 1.2 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 11 of 18)

0107 Here is what I have covered so far in the semiotic ladder.

0108 Peirce’s semiotic ladder expands a single immediate sign-vehicle with each rung.

In contrast, the category-based nested approach puts more and more of its three-level interscope into play. Indeed, with steps three and four, Peirce’s final interpretant starts with a single situation-level actuality_2b as sign-vehicle, produces a single perspective-level actuality_2c as sign object, and allows two normal-contexts_3c and potentials_1c, corresponding to extrinsic and intrinsic final sign-interpretants.

Here is a picture of corresponding features in a three-level interscope.

0109 Say what?

Steps three and four are entangled.

Where does the third… er… fourth rung of the semiotic ladder lead?

Oh, they must lead to the fifth rung.

0110 I imagine that the fifth rung leads back to the content-level normal context_3a and potential_1a.

Why do I say this?

Here, I turn to ancient Greek mythology and suggest a cultural normal context_3a and potential_1a for the actuality of a landslide_2a.

0111 Yes, this suggests a third sign, where the sign-vehicle is where the (blocked) road goes_2c and the sign-object is the landslide_2a and the sign-interpretant is the divine anger_1a of the premier god of weather_3a. This third sign is crucial to the field of anthropology.

0112 In short, the category-based nested form associates to Peirce’s semiotic ladder, but not in a facile manner.

The associations yield three types of signs.

The first two types are introduced in Comments on John Deely’s Book (1994) New Beginnings.

The third type is introduced in Comments on Sasha Newell’s Article (2018) “The Affectiveness of Symbols”.

09/13/23

Looking at Appendix 1.3 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 12 of 18)

0113 How can a sign-vehicle serve as a symbol and as an icon?

Author Brian Kemple raises the question in Appendix 1.3 of his 2019 book, The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology: Peirce and Heidegger in Dialogue (Walter de Gruyter, Boston/Berlin).

0114 Well, Kemple is not talking about the sign-vehicle for any sign-relation.

He is referring to the sign-vehicle of the intellectual concept.

Or, should I say, “He is referring to the intellectual concept as a sign-vehicle.”?

0115 How would the category-based nested form approach wrestle with these statements?

I proceed by way of example.

I left off with the a sign-relation where the sign-vehicle corresponds to a perspective-level actuality_2c, the sign-objectgoes with a content-level actuality_2a and the sign-interpretant corresponds to the content-level normal context_3a and potential_1a.

0116 Does the sign-vehicle fit the label, “intellectual concept”?

I suspect that it does. After all, the perspective-level actuality_2c offers itself as a sign-object to two sign-relations that span the situation and perspective levels.

0117 Say what?

Recall the examination of appendix 1.2, where the perspective-level actuality_2c engages an extrinsic and an intrinsic final interpretant.

0118 I can isolate the sign-object as an intellectual concept. Surely, a network of roads and the challenges to my travelsare one level beyond situational dynamics. A roadmap and a plan are intellectual concepts.

0119 What happens when these two sign-objects contribute to a single sign-vehicle?

Oh, let me read the first line of this examination (point 0113).

0120 The roadmap is like an icon. An icon is a sign-relation whose sign-object is based on the character of firstness… as in… similarity. The roadmap (SV) stands for a network of roads (SO) in regards to the principle of proportion (SI).

Perhaps, it is odd to consider a SO repurposing itself into a SV keying into the same principle of proportion as a roadmap (SI, extrinsic final) as well as into the challenges to travel brought on by the landslide (SI, intrinsic final). So, an act of Zeus contextualizes a principle of proportion (characteristic of maps) as well as a principle of divine retribution(characteristic of how devastating storms challenge travel).

0121 The challenge for my travels reflects the character of symbols. A symbol is a sign-relation whose sign-object is based on the character of thirdness… as in… convention. Surely, the conventional path from my town to other towns relies on the road that is now blocked by a landslide. So, the blocked road becomes a symbol for Zeus’s anger at our particular city. I bet that it has something to do with our new king, Oedipus.

Yes, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx that once made that road so treacherous. But, people are also getting sick and now a landslide blocks the road to medical expertise.

0122 Kemple offers a figure. It is the second figure in the entire book. Here is how I imagine it.

0123 The intellectual concept of where a (blocked) road goes serves as a sign-vehicle that hybridizes map (icon) and divine Zeus’s thunderbolts (symbol). The corresponding sign-object serves as an image even though the sign-interpretant operates as if the sign-object is a symbol.

Here is a picture.

The interventional sign produces a content level that recapitulates the original immediate vehicle, object and interpretant of virtual semiosis.

0124 Here is a comparison.

00125 The implications?

Here is one option.

Can a sign-vehicle (a perspective-level actuality_2c) generate an imagistic sign-object (a content-level actuality_2a) and a symbol-istic sign-interpretant (content-level normal context_3a and potential_1a)?

Do human conventions generate artifacts for virtual semiosis?

Do cultural artifacts serve as immediate objects?

Consider Comments on Sasha Newell’s Article (2018) “The Affectiveness of Symbols”.

09/12/23

Looking at Appendix 2 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 13 of 18)

0126 Appendix 2 is titled, “Language”.

Surely, one’s education should include histories of spoken words.

After all, spoken words are all we have.

0127 Take the word, “education”.

It derives from the Latin word, educare, which translates as “to train or to mold”.

That is not all.

It also derives from the Latin word, educere, which translates as “to lead out”.

0128 Such a dual inheritance reminds me of the distinction between the words, “deduce” and “educe”. Deduction follows the rules of logic, particularly the principle of non-contradiction. Eduction brings out, figures out and sheds light on the topic at hand.

After considering the previous blogs on appendices 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3, it is easy to imagine that deduction applies to secondness (the realm of actuality) and that eduction applies to thirdness and firstness (the realms of normal contexts and potentials). Or, maybe I cans say that deduction applies to sign-objects and eduction applies to sign-vehicles and sign-interpretants.

“Education” combines “deduction” (educare) and “eduction” (educere).

“Education” is a spoken word.

So, what is the nature of spoken words?

0129 At the turn of the 20^th century, Ferdinand de Saussure revolutionizes linguistics by proposing that speech-alone words are placeholders in two arbitrarily related systems of differences, parole (speech) and langue (whatever is going on in one’s head when hearing or generating spoken words).

Of course, cognitive psychologists can observe and measure parole. They can build models. They can discuss these models using a specialized disciplinary language. As such, parole (speech acts) are similar to phenomena. If phenomenaare observable and measurable facets of their noumenon, then parole are observable and measurable facets of langue.

0130 Well, that is my suggestion, for the moment.

0131 If I think in terms of secondness, then I think in terms of two contiguous real elements. For spoken language, the two real elements are parole and langue. The contiguity is an arbitrary relation. For science, the two real elements are phenomena and their noumenon. The contiguity is not arbitrary, nor is it obvious. Rather, it is a slogan that goes back to Immanuel Kant. A noumenon cannot be objectified as its phenomena.

The hylomorphic structure of a noumenon and its phenomena, attributed to Kant in the same manner that the Pentateuch is attributed to Moses, corresponds to ‘what is’ of the Positivist’s judgment. This is discussed in Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural Philosophy (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).

0132 The above discussion suggests that I juxtapose two hylomorphic structures.

0133 If the juxtaposition sparks a feeling, then the feeling says, “No matter how well we observe, measure, model and technically discuss parole, we can never objectify langue, unless the relation between parole (as an external system of differences) and langue (as an internal system of differences) becomes motivated, and a comparison with Kant’s slogan is no longer secure. If the relation between parole and langue is motivated, then the phenomena of talk can objectify the noumenon of the way that we cognitively process that talk.”

09/11/23

Looking at Appendix 2 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 14 of 18)

0134 The English word, “education”, arises from two Latin terms, meaning “to train” and “to lead out”.

Perhaps, German is superior to English in simultaneously evoking more than one kernel in a single word. In German, word-elements concatenate effortlessly. There could be a German word for “the relation of arbitrariness between langueand parole” or for “the impossibility of phenomena fully objectifying their noumenon“.

0135 Does German-speaking Martin Heidegger hold an advantage?

Maybe, maybe not. After all, he could not concatenate das Sein (Being) and des Seienden (beings). Oh, what am I saying? That is what he did, more or less. So, when I place Heidegger’s not-fully melded concatenation against what isfor science, I get the following juxtaposition.

0136 How curious.

Am I suggesting that Heidegger’s phrase, das Sein des Seienden (the Being of beings), conceals a contiguity, and that contiguity is the same as the one that applies to all scientific things?

0137 Recall, the noumenon is the thing itself. Its phenomena are its observable and measurable facets. Plus, according to Kant’s slogan, a noumenon cannot be fully objectified as its phenomena. This applies to all things in the natural sciences. Empirio-schematic inquiry observes and measures phenomena. Their noumenon is ignored.

By juxtaposition, das Sein is Being itself. Des Seienden are beings that we encounter in our daily lives. Plus, according to the implicit contiguity between these two real elements, Being cannot be fully objectified as beings that we encounter in our daily lives. This applies to all modern things.

0138 Plus, as discussed in the prior blog, during the early 20^th century, hylomorphic structures that juxtapose with ‘what is’ in the Positivist’s judgment seem to be in style. The ground-breaking linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, comes up with a similar structure, allowing me to say the following.

By juxtaposition, langue is language itself. Parole are spoken words that we encounter in our daily lives. Plus, according to the arbitrary relation between langue and parole, language cannot be fully objectified by speech acts. This applies to everything we say.

0139 What does this imply?

That is a good question.

09/8/23

Looking at Appendix 2 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 15 of 18)

0140 What is the meaning, presence and message underlying a spoken word?

That is the question addressed in Razie Mah’s masterwork, How To Define The Word “Religion”, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

0106 The category-based nested form allows an answer. The normal context of definition₃ brings the actuality of a spoken word₂ into relation with the potentials of meaning, presence and message₁.

0141 How does this answer apply to the topic at hand?

To me, Martin Heidegger (and Charles Peirce, for that matter) wrestle with meaning. Social construction corresponds to the meaning underlying the word, “religion”. Social construction is what happens when one encounters a thing or event that does not make sense. A social construction_2c is a perspective-level reference_2c constructed on a content-level reference_2a.

0142 In addition to How to Define, the following three-level interscope is developed in Comments on Religious Experience (1985) by Wayne Proudfoot.

I start with a content-level category-based nested form. The normal context of what is happening_3a brings the actuality of a real encounter_2a into relation with the possibilities inherent in ‘something’ happening_1a.

Such an encounter would be processed on the situation level within the normal context of sensible construction_3b. But, what if sensible construction_3b fails? Then the failure of sensible construction_3b brings the actuality that the experience cannot be situated_2b into relation with the potential of situating the content-level encounter_1b.

0143 When sensible construction fails, most people freak out, but not Kant or Peirce or Heidegger or Saussure or other brave souls who wrestle with meaning. They ask themselves, “What makes sense?”, where “sense” means “a recovery from a lack of composure in the face of something that is not experienced as sensible”.

On the perspective level, the normal context of what makes sense_3c brings the actuality of a social construction_2c into relation with the potential of contextualizing the unsettling situation_1c.

0144 Thus, I arrive at a three-level interscope that touches base with the hylomorphic structures introduced earlier in this examination of appendix 2 of Kemple’s book.

The virtual nested form in the realm of actuality contracts into the following hylomorphe.

A key feature of this hylomorphic structure is that the contiguity contains a negation.

0145 So far, so good.

The three-level interscope depicted above describes what Schleiermacher realizes (around 1800 AD) and what Proudfoot tries to dismantle (186 years later) in his rebuttal, entitled Religious Experience.

But, I wonder.

Is Proudfoot arguing against the interscope or the contracted hylomorphic slogan?

Plus… is there a label for a transition from a three-level interscope to a corresponding hylomorphe?

Consolidation? Reduction? Reification?

0146 Does the same whatever this transition is called apply to the slogan attributed to Immanuel Kant (who also wrote around 1800 AD)?

Kant reflects upon the mechanical revolution and the expansion of science. The revolution starts rolling with the mechanical philosophers of the 1600s. The roll is undeniable with mechanization, starting in the 1700s.

Plus, how about those crazy political revolutions in the late 1700s?

Western civilization embraces the empirio-schematic judgment. This judgment contains three elements: well-defined specialized terms, mathematical and mechanical models, and observations and measurements of phenomena. So, everyone (that is, those enjoying the pretensions of science) focuses on phenomena.

0147 But, phenomena alone cannot account for the thing that is being studied!

Kant (more or less) points out that a noumenon (the thing itself) cannot be fully accounted for by its phenomena (that is, the thing’s observable and measurable facets).

0148 Here is a picture of Kant’s insight within the format of this three-level interscope.

0149 Now, over time, this insight, which consists of perspective-level, situation-level and content-level actualities, is taken for more and more for granted. A slogan appears. The slogan expresses a hylomorphic structure, so it is seems like a thing. But, it is not a thing. What is it? A contraction? An idea? Maybe I can call it an “idealism”.

0150 The slogan goes like this, “A noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena.”

The slogan has the character of a hylomorphic thing that should belong to secondness. But, the positivist intellect regards it as what is and imbues it with firstness. What does the positivist intellect regard as what ought to be and imbue with the category of secondness? What ought to be is the empirio-schematic judgment, where a disciplinary language (relation) brings mathematical and mechanical models (what ought to be) into relation with observations and measurements (what is).

09/7/23

Looking at Appendix 2 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 16 of 18)

0151 After a century, Kant’s insights are reified into a slogan.

0152 At this time, Peirce considers the nature of sign-relations. The story is told in A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues). Peirce knows that Kant’s categories are considered necessary for science, but he cannot situate Kant’s categories using his understanding of sign-relations.

So, Peirce’s social construction follows the same pattern.

0155 Heidegger walks on stage around three decades later. At the time, only a few academics are familiar with Peirce’s (re)discovery of the causality inherent in signs and his proposal of three categories of existence.

0156 Heidegger starts as a student of philosophy. During this time, he reads a book on speculative grammar by the medieval scholastic, Scotus. But, the treatise is only attributed to Scotus. The real author is Thomas of Erfurt.

Then, Heidegger becomes a student of Husserl. Husserl’s phenomenology wrestles with the nature of science. Husserl proposes phenomenology (which is named after phenomena) in order to return to the noumenon, the thing itself, because science was on the verge of fixating on phenomena to the exclusion of its noumenon.

0157 I suppose that Heidegger realizes that what Husserl is dealing with (the Positivist’s judgment) does not extend to what Scotus (er… Thomas of Erfurt) discusses with his speculative grammar.

Eventually, Heidegger produces a social construction that bears the imprint of the hylomorphic structure that Husserl wrestles with.

09/6/23

Looking at Appendix 2 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 17 of 18)

0158 So, how do these comments apply to what Kemple writes about language?

Okay, I plead “guilty”.

Perhaps, there is no application.

0159 Oh, I have an excuse.

I got distracted by the normal context of definition₃ bringing the actuality of a spoken word₂ into relation with the potential of meaning, presence and message₁.

Then, I realized that Saussure’s definition of spoken language, as an arbitrary relation between two systems of differences, parole and langue, can be expressed with the same hylomorphic structure as ‘what is’ for the positivist intellect. So does Heidegger’s das Sein des Seienden.

Then, I connected this hylomorphic structure to the actualities native to social construction.

0160 So why am I so easily distracted?

Surely, speech-alone talk is at the crux of the intersection between Peirce and Heidegger.

Why do I say, “speech-alone talk”, instead of “language”?

Perhaps, there is another story to be told.

See An Archaeology of the Fall, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

Our current Lebenswelt is not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

09/5/23

Looking at Appendix 3 in Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 18 of 18)

0161 What about Appendix 3, titled “Synechism and semiosis”?

0162 Well, I best look into Appendix 4, which presents a helpful list of definitions.

“Synechism” is a principle of continuity. There are no hard and fast distinctions between possibilities, because firstness is monadic. In the empirio-schematic judgment, the dyad, a noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena, exists in the realm of possibility and obeys this principle. There are no phenomena without their noumenon. There is no noumenon without its phenomena. The hazards of synechism are yet to be deeply appreciated. For scientific inquiry, what happens when certain actors claim to be observing the phenomena of a noumenon which is not… um… obvious to other people?

“Tychism” is a corollary of synechism. Peirce envisions chance (er… possibility) as universal. Without possibility, there is no actuality or normal context. If there is an actuality that appears out of nowhere, in such a fashion that it has no normal context, then we are back to phenomena of a noumenon which is not… um… subject to understanding.

“Semiosis” is the action of signs. Signs are triadic relations. Triadic relations constitute the human niche.

0163 For the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, our ancestors adapt to an ultimate niche as well as many proximate niches. This means that hominin evolution is both convergent, with respect to our ultimate niche, and divergent, with respect to many proximate niches. The ultimate niche is the potential of triadic relations. The proximate niches are regional ecologies and environments.

Language evolves in the milieu of hand talk. Hand talk relies on the semiotic qualities of icons and indexes to motivate a relation between parole (hand talk) and langue (mental processing). As this motivated relation becomes more and more conventional (that is, habitual within hominin social circles), hand-talk gestures become more and more like signs in an arbitrary system of differences (that is, symbols). Grammar consists of symbolic operations within a finite set of symbols. By the time anatomically modern humans appear, hand talk is fully linguistic.

0164 Speech is added to hand talk with the appearance of our own species, Homo sapiens.

Humans practice hand-speech talk for around 200,000 years, with great success.

0165 Around 7,800 years ago, the end of the previous ice age raises sea-levels, flooding shallow geological basins such as what is now the Persian Gulf. In the process, two hand-speech talking cultures, one settled on the basin and one settled along the coast and river gorge, are forced into proximity. A pidgin and then a creole ensues. The creole is the Sumerian language (unrelated to the nearby Semitic languages). But, more importantly, this creole is the first instance of speech-alone talk.

At its inception, the Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia is the only culture in the world practicing speech-alone talk.

It is no coincidence that the world’s earliest civilization arises in southern Mesopotamia.

Speech-alone talk potentiates civilization.

0166 Our current Lebenswelt is marked by speech-alone talk. Speech-alone talk spreads from the Ubaid to the four-corners of the world, potentiating unconstrained social complexity wherever it goes.

7800 years ago, the world population may have been as many as seven million.

Today, it is seven billion.

Such is the significance of the first singularity, the transition from hand-speech talk to speech-alone talk.

0167 Heidegger is a German philosopher who strives to restart Western philosophy after it fumbles its founding charisma.

Peirce is a precocious American post-modern who becomes fascinated with one of the crucial questions asked by scholastic philosophers, “What is the causality inherent to the sign-relation?”

0168 Both these philosophers propose ideas that address a single question, “What is the nature of our current Lebenswelt?”

Their answers apply to a single actuality.

0169 I do not know the name of this actuality, but I do appreciate the significance of Kemple’s attempt to delineate an intersection (without being aware that the term, “intersection”, might have a technical definition that supports his inquiry).

An intersection is an actuality composed of two actualities, each of which has its own nested form.

0170 For these reasons, Brian Kemple’s book, The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology: Peirce and Heidegger in Dialogue, deserves interest. While my examinations, so far, covering the term, “intersection”, and the appendices, are sparse, they are suggestive. There is a lot at play within the pages of this book.

08/31/23

Looking at Glenn Diesen’s Book (2019) “The Decay … And Resurgence…” (Part 1 of 21)

0001 The book before me is Dr. Glenn Diesen’s contribution to Routledge’s Series, Rethinking Asia and International Relations. The text carries the full title of The Decay of Western Civilization and the Resurgence of Russia: Between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. The series editor is Emilian Kavalski, the Li Dak Sum Chair in China-Eurasia Relations and International Studies at the University of Nottingham in Ningho, China. At the time of publication, Dr. Diesen is a Visiting Scholar at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and Adjunct Research Fellow at Western Sydney University. Diesen’s research interests are in international relations, political science, international political economy and Russian studies. Say nothing of history.

0002 So… um… how does this book overlap with my interests?

I am interested in civilization. The persistent question that arises in Razie Mah’s masterwork, An Archaeology of the Fall,is, “What potentiates civilisation?”

0003 Consider the hypothesis of the first singularity.

The evolution of talk is not the same as the evolution of language. Our capacities for language evolve in the milieu of hand talk. The ancestor to our own species practices fully linguistic hand talk. Very successfully, I might add. The voice is recruited to assist in synchronizing large groups (plus, a little sexual selection gets thrown in). Once the vocal tract is under voluntary neural control, speech is added to hand talk at the start of our own species, Homo sapiens.

Homo sapiens practices a dual-mode of talking, hand-speech talk, for over 200,000 years before the first singularity. The first singularity starts with the Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia.

As the ocean levels rise at the start of our current interglacial, two hand-speech talking cultures in the then dry Persian Gulf are forced into the same territory. One is a Mesolithic fishing culture occupying the river ravines and coast. The other is a Developed Neolithic culture (agriculture mixed in with stockbreeding). These two cultures meld, forming a pidgin then a creole language. That creole language turns out to be the first instance of speech-alone talk.

0004 The semiotic qualities of speech-alone talk are significantly different than hand-speech talk (and hand-talk). I won’t get into the details, but the consequences are enormous.

Hand-speech talk facilitates constrained social complexity (which, to me, calls to mind Diesen’s term, “gemeinschaft”, literally translated into the “rod of generality”, coinciding with tradition, intuition and, what modern scientists deride as “irrational thought”).

Speech-alone talk permits unconstrained social complexity. Spoken words can be used to label things that cannot be pictured at pointed to, such as the term, “gesellschaft” (another one of Diesen’s key terms, literally translated into the “rod of the journeyman”, coinciding with specialization, analysis and, what scientists misleadingly call “rational thought”).

0005 The Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia starts, say, 7800 years ago, which I label 0 Ubaid Zero Prime (0 U0′ or “zero uh-oh prime”, with “uh-oh” expressed as if reacting to an accident or a mishap).

At 0 U0′, the Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia is the only culture in the world practicing speech-alone talk. All the other Neolithic, Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic cultures of the time practice hand-speech talk.

Today, all civilizations practice speech-alone talk. The only (now dying) cultures that remember their hand-speech traditions are the Australian Aborigines and the North American Plains Indians. Both are losing the hand-component of their hand-speech talk, due to exposure to speech-alone talking cultures and civilizations. The receding of original justice, when all social circles work in harmony towards human flourishing in a world of signification, is nearly complete.

0006 Weirdly, that recession lies beneath the surface of recently examined books in anthropology.

Consider the following reviews, appearing in the Razie Mah blog.

Looking at Ian Hodder’s Book (2018) “Where Are We Heading?” (June 2023)Looking at David Graeber and David Wengrow’s Chapter (2021) “Why The State Has No Origins” (March 2023)

08/30/23

Looking at Glenn Diesen’s Book (2019) “The Decay … And Resurgence…” (Part 2 of 21)

0007 Diesen builds his theory on two key terms, gemeinschaft and gesellschaft. These terms are distinct. These terms are separate. Both terms rely on the capacity of speech-alone talk to apply labels.

These terms cannot exist in the world of hand-speech talk. What is there to picture or point to in hand talk? Oh, the most elder woman in the band can carry the rod of tradition. The smartest young man in the band can carry the rod of complexity. Okay, but how does hand talk image and indicate the qualifiers, “tradition” and “complexity”? These terms cannot be articulated in hand talk, the semiotic foundation of hand-speech talk.

0008 So, what am I asking?

Does the distinction between these two terms precede the first singularity? Is the distinction present before our current Lebenswelt? How does the distinction express itself in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?

0009 May I suggest that the distinction is built into the unity of hand-speech talk? One language manifests in two modalities. Here is way to appreciate hand-speech talk as it was most likely practiced by Homo sapiens before the first singularity.

0010 Hand talk pictures and points to its referents. In this way, the relation between parole (gesture) and langue (mental processing of signification) is motivated by the semiotic qualities of icons and indexes. Hand talk has been evolving since before the start of the Homo genus. Hand talk becomes linguistic when the semiotic qualities of symbols start to operate beneath the surface of the iconicity and indexality of hand talk. Language involves automatic symbolic sign processing.

Speech, in hand-speech talk, relies on the innate semiotic properties of hand talk. When speech talk is added to hand talk, it pairs with manual-brachial gestures as an adornment. A sing-along, so to speak, which Neanderthals and Denisovans can appreciate but not perform well. Slowly, but surely, since the advent of our species, speech talk becomes more and more independent of its manual-brachial counterpart. Spoken words start to take on a lives of their own, while remaining grounded in hand talk. Consider the paleolithic art of the Lascaux caves and tell me that the artists were not singing as well as gesturing, as they spit paint upon the fat-lamp lit walls?

Speech does not replace hand talk. Rather, the speech component of hand-speech talk expresses hand talk in a different register, conveying the situation in addition to word-content. It adds a musical accompaniment. It adds… how shall I say it?.. a variety of tones.

0011 The hand-talk component of hand-speech talk associates with content, tradition, and the physical presence of people in community.

The speech-talk component of hand-speech talk associates with situation, adornment, and the relational presence of people in community.

0012 Consequently, certain ironies about our current Lebenswelt become obvious when I draw the following associations.

0012 At present, gesellschaft is called, “rational” and gemeinschaft is called, “irrational”.

Yet, as Diesen points out over and over again, whenever the rational orders the irrational without appreciation of the irrational, a civilization enters its autumn season.