[Inquiry] Re: Examples Of Inquiry

[Jon Awbrey]

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EOI.  Note 7

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The question that drives me to examine these examples of inquiry
is the relationship among signs, information, inference, and the
typical trajectories of inquiry.  At this point in the discussion,
we need a bit of background information about the pragmatic theory
of inquiry.  I am presenting the long version of that on a another
thread, stemming from either one of these alternative urlocations:

INTRO.  http://forum.wolframscience.com/showthread.php?threadid=598
INTRO.  http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2004-November/thread.html#1720

To keep from holding up this more concrete discussion of examples,
here is a short introduction to the principal ideas, as I see them:

It is frequently useful to approach the concept of an inquiry process
as a specialization of a sign relation, in the following three phases:

1.  Sign Relation

A "sign relation" simpliciter, L c O x S x I, could be just about any
3-adic relation on the arbitrary domains O, S, I, so long as it
satisfies one of the adequate definitions of a sign relation.

2.  Sign Process

A "sign process" is a sign relation plus a significant sense of transition.
This means that there is a definite, non-trivial sense in which a sign
determines its interpretant signs with respect to its objects.
We often find ourselves writing "<o, s, i>" as "<o, s, s'>"
in such cases, where the semiotic transition s ~> s'
takes place in respect of the object o.

3.  Inquiry Process

An "inquiry process" is a sign process that has value-directed transitions.
This means that there is a property, a quality, or a scalar value that can
be associated with a sign in relation to its objects, and that the transit
from a sign to an interpretant in regard to an object occurs in such a way
that the value is increased in the process.  For example, semiotic actions
like inquiry and computation are directed in such a way as to increase the
"aptness", "brevity", or "clarity" of the signs on which they operate.

Jon Awbrey

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inquiry e-lab: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
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