Beyond I-You-Me: An Empirically Supported Formulation of the Triadic Self

This applied semiotics intends to show that the richness and complexity of Charles S. Peirce need not be lost through an empirical application to psycholinguistics, but instead enables the latter to make better informed hypothesis testing. It is proposed that Peircean semiotics can be used to ground a taxonomy of linguistic representations of the self in English, which is parsed not on the basis of semantics, but rather according to the triadic structure of the self as formulated by Peirce. This taxonomy was implemented by a language analysis computer program, SSWC (Sundararajan-Schubert Word Count), and applied to an analysis of language use in emotionally expressive writings. Results of two studies are reported to demonstrate the heuristic value of this applied approach to semiotics.     

Editor’s Introduction: Semiotics and Sociology

This article provides a brief summary of the individual papers in the issue, indicating their logical and thematic connections as well as their relationship to Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics and Norbert Wiley’s model of ‘the semiotic self.’ The significance of the articles for the future development of sociology is also considered.     

Understanding the philosophical positions of classical and neopragmatists for mixed methods research

Pragmatism is the most popular philosophy/paradigm in the international field of mixed methods research (MMR). This article therefore introduces, describes, and contrasts the philosophies of the most well known pragmatists, including the three most important classical pragmatists (Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey) and two neopragmatists (Richard Rorty and Susan Haack). It is shown that Rorty and James fit well with qualitatively driven MMR (i.?e., MMR where the qualitative component of the study is primary); Peirce fits well with quantitatively driven MMR (i.?e., MMR where the quantitative component is primary); and Dewey fits well with MMR that attempts to treat qualitative and quantitative research/philosophy equally (i.?e., equal-status mixed methods research). Importantly, it is shown here that pragmatism offers a way out of many philosophy of science quagmires facing social researchers and it offers a promising philosophy for mixed methods research practice.     

Charles Horton Cooley,Pragmatist or Belletrist? The Complexity of Influence and the Decentering of Intellectual Traditions

This essay treats recent attempts to identify symbolic interaction (SI) founding theorist Charles Horton Cooley as a pragmatist sociologist exemplifying, and even influenced by, the pragmatism of Charles Saunders Peirce, as an example of the American exceptionalist character of SI. Beginning with Cooley's creative approach to conceptualizing the social, these attempts are scrutinized and measured against the contention that Cooley's thought can be equally if not more understood as a product of influence of the literary essay tradition. A close reading is given of the concordance of his personal journal with a selection of his published writings concerning the influence of members of Cooley's essayistic “genre matrix” – Emerson, Montaigne, and Walter Pater – on the development of his intellectual self and thought. Further substantiation is supplied by an analysis of the essayistic influence on Cooley's rigorous treatment of qualitative methodology. It is concluded that a decentered positioning of Cooley's work is preferable to a single‐origin one.     

Constructing the Nature Experience: A Semiotic Examination of Signs on the Trail

This paper is an exploratory examination of the role of signs perceived along nature trails in parks and wooded settings and the ways in which they shape the nature experience for individuals. Literature was examined to define what it means to experience nature, the values and meanings people place on nature, hikers’ expectations, and tourism and park management practices. Sign objects, their underlying meanings, and the interpretation of signs along the trail were examined in the context of the existing theory based on semiotics, particularly the work of Peirce. Through a series of hikes, we found that signs contribute to the satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and meaning making in outdoor environments. Areas for further investigation are discussed.     

Pragmatism and the Scientific Validation of Professional Practices in American Special Education

A number of American special educators have recently stated that new professional practices should undergo a process of 'scientific validation' whereby researchers decide the effectiveness or value of the practice. This essay critiques this position by way of the philosophical framework of pragmatism, an American philosophy spanning from the works of Peirce, James and Dewey to the current writings of neo-pragmatists Richard Rorty and Cornel West. Rorty's critique of the representational use of language is explained. Emphasis is placed on the importance of an equal, democratic dialogue in decision-making processes involving professionals, served individuals and families. The essay concludes with a brief illustration of a pragmatist's approach to inclusive education.     

SIGN,SYMBOL, AND METALANGUAGE: AGAINST THE INTEGRATION OF SEMIOTICS AND SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

Dean MacCannell's proposal for a “rapprochement” between symbolic interaction-ism and semiotics, in which the “generality” of symbolic interactionism's conception the sign is “raised” to that of semiotics, is examined. By turning exclusively to Saussurian semiotics, MacCannell does not adequately reflect the distinction between “natural” and “arbitrary” representation in Peirce's semiosis that is the most fruitful link with Mead's symbolic interactionism. Consequently, MacCannell's argument at the level of terminology is flawed. Rather than merging, the perspectives might benefit from a radical rethinking of representation. This would involve preserving the distinction between the “natural” and “arbitrary,” while at the same time recognizing that in mass society “arbitrary” representation has become a kind of “second-order” (Barthes) indexical metalanguage of membership within which symbolic interaction may occur. As Baudrillard claims, “commutation of signs” has replaced “interaction of symbols,” yet strains against an unfulfilled symbolic demand. Efforts should be directed at generating a theory of representation capable of addressing the tension that produces this symbolic demand.     

Pragmatism and Ethnomethodology

Three features of pragmatist thought remain empirically underdeveloped or insufficiently explored: its call for a return to experience or recovery of concrete practices; its idea that obstacles in experience give rise to efforts at creative problem-solving; and its understanding of language in use, including conversational interaction, as an order of empirical practices in and through which problem-solving efforts are undertaken and social order ongoingly and collaboratively accomplished. Our aim in this article is to show that there exists a long-standing, theoretically informed, and empirically rich research tradition in which these pragmatist themes are further developed, albeit in ways the originators might have foreseen only in dimly programmatic form. This research tradition is ethnomethodology. We present in bold strokes the classical pragmatist ideas of Peirce, James, Mead, Dewey, plus Addams, focusing on the three themes mentioned above. We show how Garfinkel’s work surpasses even that of the pragmatists in developing the larger implications and promise of those themes. We demonstrate how ethnomethodological studies of work and science and conversation analysis, respectively, continue as well to develop the original pragmatist impulse in unsuspected ways. Finally, we step back from this account to ponder the broader significance of the connections we have explored between pragmatism and ethnomethodology.     

Qualitative immediacy and the communicative act

Qualitative immediacy (also termed quality in its philosophical sense and esthetic quality) is of fundamental importance within the pragmatic conception of meaning as interpretive act, and yet it has been virtually ignored by social scientists. The concept is traced through its foundations in Peirce's philosophy, its development in Dewey's theory of esthetic experience, and its relation to the general pragmatic conception of the self. The importance of the I in Mead's view of the self is seen as similar to Firstness in Peirce and esthetic experience in Dewey. Those turning to qualitative approaches ought to consider qualitative immediacy as a genuine addition to our understanding of human communication.I am grateful for helpful comments from Milton Singer, Kevin McMurtrey, Benjamin Lee, and Thomas Buckley, and for an opportunity to discuss this paper in the seminar on dialogue at the Center for Psychosocial Studies, Chicago. A postdoctoral fellowship (T32 MH 14668) at the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, and the University of Chicago, provided time for the writing of this paper.     

The ��Semiotic Self��: From Peirce and Mead to Wiley and Singer

Norbert Wiley (1994) provides a synthesis of Peirce??s and Mead??s views on the self. The Peirce-Mead ideal type model of the self involves the I and the me as well as the I and the you. Hence, at each moment we are a combined ??me-I-you?? in past, present and future. Milton Singer (1989) discovers the semiotic self through his anthropological research, but does not apply the concept as rigorously as one might hope. Peirce??s triadic epistemology and Pragmatism is explored to frame his contribution to the semiotic self. His categories of Firstness, Secondnes and Thirdness are briefly considered. Some anecdotal information about the self in Indic Civilization is discussed. It is argued that the INSOR model can be useful. The key is to move beyond Cartesian notions and to see the semotic self as a ??semiotic object,?? always subject to interpretation by the person engaged in symbolic interaction and exchange.     

The Living Gesture and the Signifying Moment

Drawing from Peircean semiotics, from the Greek conception of phronesis, and from considerations of bodily awareness as a basis of reasonableness, I attempt to show how the living gesture touches our deepest signifying nature, the self, and public life. Gestural bodily awareness, more than knowledge, connects us with the very conditions out of which the human body evolved into its present condition and remains a vital resource in the face of a devitalizing, rationalistic consumption culture. It may be precisely these deep‐rooted abilities for what I term “self‐originated experience” that can ultimately offset automatism.     

Outspoken Objects and Unspoken Myths: The Semiotics of Object-Mediated Communication

This interactionist study draws on the semiotics of Peirce and Barthes to theorize object-mediated communication, a nonverbal interpersonal technique in which individuals signal new information by using and orienting themselves to symbolically endowed material objects. Examining the case of door-mediated communication, it proposes that objects lie symbolically dormant until their deeper collective significance is activated through their use in interaction. The article expands the scope of interactionist inquiry on human–nonhuman relations by moving beyond the dominant scholarly focus on identity. The semiotic approach foregrounds a distinct human–object phenomenon, a novel category of nonverbal communication, and important meaning-making dynamics.     

Situation,Structure, and the Context of Meaning*

Two of the approaches at the forefront of contemporary sociological interest in meaning, symbolic interactionism and structuralism, share an interest in the role of signs and symbols in social life, yet take radically different standpoints concerning the nature of signs and the locus of meaning. Symbolic interactionists stress the ongoing process of the “situation” as the determinant of meaning, whereas structuralists claim that meaning must be sought at the deeper level of “system” or “structure” rather than at the surface. By comparing some foundational concepts underlying these traditions, such as the nature of the sign in Peirce and Saussure and Durkheim and Mead, and then exploring recent developments in structuralism and symbolic interactionism, a critical appraisal of their theories of meaning is made in the context of an emerging semiotic sociology.     

The Authenticity in Ambiguity: Appreciating Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Abductive Logic as Communicative Practice

This article is a reading of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's "An Unpublished Text" (1964a), as an exemplar of communicative praxis. As a poetic, "stylistic" account of the body of his life's work, this text self-signifies his potential as an "authentic" scholar. Employing a motivated logic that is abductive (Peirce, 1955), he argued for an appreciation of our phenomenological and semiotic circumstances of existential ambiguity. Furthermore, from this phenomenal ground, he articulated the pragmatic conditions of authenticity that inhere within every communication engagement with an Other. My interpretation of the Etre Au Monde of his philosophy depicts authenticity as human potentiality in the context of an existential dialectic between personal consciousness and sociocultural experience. We find that ambiguity and authenticity implicate one another as philosophical issues and thus remain highly relevant for a postmodern philosophy that problematizes our constitution as communicative beings.     

Grassroots mobilization in revolutionary Nicaragua: The case of the squatter settlements

Examining two Nathan Farb Adirondack landscape photographs from a wall calendar, this paper asks whether or not one can read a Nature photograph as an ideological text First, the paper traces Farb's way of seeing Nature to the emergence of the 19th century bourgeoisie and the Transcendental philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau in which Nature is positioned as an alternative to modernity and urban existence. Second, it notes that the Nature photograph contains three levels of discourse: substantive, technical and aesthetic. As a photograph moves through these levels of discourse, both its exchange value and its sign value increase. Third, it investigates the ambivalent relationship between the photograph and its subject Fourth, it examines the ideological boundaries of alternative ways of photographing Nature. The paper concludes that the realistic landscape photograph is deeply rooted in the history of the American bourgeoisie, its way of seeing is an extension of bourgeois semiotics, and its value as a commodity‐sign is a function of bourgeois economics.     

The Classic American Pragmatists As Forerunners To Symbolic Interactionism*

Although it is generally known that symbolic interactionism is historically and philosophically linked to American pragmatism, relatively little attention has been given to assessing the separate influences of Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead upon its development. This paper contends that there were two opposing branches of American pragmatism: (1) the social realism of Peirce's pragmatism, and (2) the social nominalism of James's pragmatism. The writings of Dewey and Mead reflect the influences of both of these branches. Dewey, however, was more closely aligned with James while Mead's work is more consistent with Peirce's principles. Blumerian symbolic interactionism is essentially a continuation of the nominalistic James/Dewey branch of American pragmatism, notwithstanding the popular notion that, among the classic American pragmatists, Mead was the principal precursor of symbolic interactionism.     

SELF, IDENTITY, AND DIFFERENCE:

Interesting parallels exist between the thought of George Herbert Mead and some of the writings of contemporary poststructuralists. Both stress the importance of language, the dynamic character of social and cultural life, and the unstable relations of difference. However, where poststructuralists tend to reduce subjectivity and meaning to discourse, Mead sees the subject in behavioral terms and as constituted in a social self. A comparison and contrast of the two approaches reveals limitations of the poststructuralist conception while demonstrating the strengths of Meadian pragmatism and social psychology. Of special importance, Meadian theory implicitly addresses questions of identity and difference, offering a social pragmatic foundation for a discussion of these contemporary themes. The weaknesses of poststructuralism are illustrated by a Meadian critique of the work of Judith Butler, a leading poststructuralist thinker. This critique faults Butler's poststructuralism for lacking an adequate conception of social relations and a notion of self.     

Self‐Soothing — A Recursive Intrapsychic and Relational Process: The Contribution of the Bowen Theory to the Process of Self‐Soothing

The concept of self‐soothing originating in the psychodynamic tradition has attracted interest from therapists as a key skill in the managing and regulating of strong affect and emotional discomfort. While a capacity for self‐soothing is implicit in, and a vital prerequisite to, the process of differentiation, Murray Bowen also predicted that the outcome of increased differentiation is improved emotional equilibrium and a capacity for self‐soothing, clearly a recursive process. The attention of Bowen family systems theory to both the relational and intrapsychic aspects of human functioning provides a useful framework through which to explore these aspects of the dynamics of self‐soothing. This article describes some of the key processes involved in developing a self‐soothing capacity within an effort to define a more autonomous self in significant relationships. The author contrasts Family Systems thinking with other theoretical perspectives that speak to the importance of self‐soothing. Finally, the role of the therapist as a facilitator of an environment in which the self‐soothing resources of clients can emerge is considered alongside suggestions and strategies for how a therapist may contribute to a client's own efforts.     

ON SEMIOTICS AND SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

The place of semiotics within symbolic interactionist thought is discussed. The works of Barthes and Baudrillard are examined in terms of their implications for (1) an interactionist theory of the cultural object and (2) an interpretation of consumer relations in the postmodern period. The narrative texts of advertisements for Jack Daniel's Whiskey ** 1 Grateful acknowledgment and appreciation is given to the Jack Daniel Distillery for permission to use their advertising text as it appears on their product.
and Dewar's White Label Scotch *** 2 Grateful acknowledgment and appreciation is given to Dewar's for permission to use their advertising profile of Gary Jobson.
are analyzed in terms of the political economy of the sign suggested by Baudrillard and Barthes. The implications of this analysis for the symbolic interactionist theory of the object and language are discussed. The subject matter that now confronts us supersedes symbolic interaction; rather it is the process surrounding the autonomization of signs; signs that stand for—and refer to—nothing but themselves.     

Agency and Organization: Toward a Cyborg-Consciousness

The presumption that agency is primarily thefunction or personification of a naturalized humanactant can be traced through a Western intellectualtradition which draws upon a dualistic conception of the self as a unified, productive, sovereignsubject, and an independent, external, physical other.In this paper, I problematize the prevalence of suchCartesian differentiation. I review an alternative, postfoundational actant ontology, then tracethe resemblances in the work on situated knowledges.These orientations challenge the hierarchical divisionbetween the internal self and the external other and instead emphasize the relational, material,and performative nature of human being . Drawing on thenotion of proximal thinking, I suggest that formalorganizations can productively be described as relational spaces, containing multiple andcomplex frontiers, frames and interfaces, with(in) whichostensibly differentiated and individualistic attitudestoward agency give way to the variety and possibility of the self-in-between; a cyborg-consciousnessable to withstand the tension of partial identities andcontradictory voices.