Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

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“6x9” b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

Chapter 4

Cell Language

4.1 Communication and Languages

According to the American chemist-logician-philosopher, Charles Sander

Peirce (1839–1914) [235],

We think in signs. (4.1)

I did not understand the true meaning of this sentence until one day I

chanced upon the following question on the back page of a book:

Think of an elephant. Do you have an elephant in your head? (4.2)

Of course, I did not have an elephant in my head, I thought.

A sign is defined as anything that can stand for things other than itself

(see Section 6.3.1). Hence when I think about an elephant, what I have in

my head is not an elephant itself but a sign referring to it, most likely a

unique pattern of neural firings somewhere in my brain.

From Statement (4.1), it is possible to infer Statements (4.3) and (4.4):

We communicate in signs. (4.3)

We live in signs. (4.4)

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