>> I'm gratified that Jim Foley is now arguing with Percy (whom he first
>> cited) and Jaynes. That relieves a little of the onus on me! I'll
>> leave it to others
No, it was Clarence Sills who introduced Walter Percy, I had never heard
of him. Clarence said:
Jim, the reason it is "unreasonable" to assume that ANY cultural
development is "natural" is that the logic of culture is triadic, not
dyadic. I refer you to the discussion of Walker Percy in Lost in the
Cosmos, the section entitled "Semiotic Intermezzo." Apparently this
goes over a lot of people's heads, but the issue is not that
complicated. "Explanation" (the redescription of something we hope to
understand in terms we think we already understand) can be "dyadic"
(bi-valued) up to the level of human behavior. The most obvious version
of this is the "cause-effect" reasoning so useful in scientific
practice. When a human addresses a MESSAGE to another human, it is no
longer possible, EVEN IN THEORY, to reduce the transaction into dyadic
terms.
I confess I found this gobbledygook. Clarence _seems_ to be saying that
no cultural development is natural. Maybe he is using "natural" in a
different sense to the way I do. Whatever he is trying to prove, I have
no idea how semiotics is going to prove it (and no, I'm not planning to
read Percy to find out, I have higher priorities).
>> to decide who is right in that debate. (There were a few others he could
>> tackle as well--Langer, Cassirer, Peirce, Chomsky).
I take it these are support for your claim that "Modern man "exploded"
onto the scene."? I know nothing about any of them, except the linguist
Chomsky. As I pointed out in a previous post, I have no argument with
your statement that there are no "primitive" languages. However that is
merely a description of the world today; I have never seen it claimed,
as you do, that primitive languages could not have existed (and been
used by, say, Homo erectus).
-- Jim Foley Symbios Logic, Fort CollinsJim.Foley@symbios.com (303) 223-5100 x9765* 1st 1.11 #4955 * "I am Homer of Borg! Prepare to be...OOooooo! Donuts!!!"