Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

(Elliott) #1
The Philosophical Implications of the Cell Language Theory 415

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

G: If you like you can share these modest thought with others.

S: Thanks. I will, in order to elicit some comments from experts in
semiotics and physics on the lists.

The contents of Table 10.4 and Figure 10.10 agree very well with
Statement (10.17) which I read in [403, p. 3657] about a year after con-
structing the table:

The reference of the theoretical entities should not be thought of as an
isomorphic map to the elements of the underlying reality. Theoretical
entities (and a theory in general) only need to have some connections
with reality, i.e. a form of controlled access to them. This is provided
by the operations (like measurement) that represent the bridge
between the theoretical entities (and the formalism) and its ontologi-
cal referents: Thus, operations provide the scaffold of suitable proce-
dures for dealing with the entities that are object of the theory and, in
turn, theoretical entities (together with the formalism) are ways to
understand a reality that is for the great part unobservable as such but
which, through those procedures and relative apparata, one can inter-
act with. (10.17)

Thus it seems that quantum mechanics, at least as interpreted by
Auletta and Torcal [403], is consistent with the triadic metaphysics of
Peirce (Section 6.3.2) in agreement with the Josephson thesis, accord-
ing to which semiotics will eventually “overtake quantum mechanics”,
Statement (4.8).

Table 10.4 The possible relation between quantum mechanics
and the Peircean metaphysics of Firstness, Secondness, and
Thirdness (for definitions, see Section 6.3.2).
Quantum
Mechanics

Peircean
Metaphysics
A Ontology Firstness
B Measurement Secondness
C Theory Thirdness

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