Linguistics, Semiotics, and Philosophy - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 174

Table 6.7 The evolution of Peirce's nomenclature of categories (Reproduced from Debrock 1998
except items 8 and 9)
Year ( Peirce's age ) Firstness Secondness Thirdness

1 1867 ( 28 ) Quality Relation Representation

2 1891 ( 52 ) First Second Third

3 Spontaneity Dependence Mediation

4 Mind Matter Evolution

5 Chance Law Tendency to take habits

6 Sporting Heredity Fixation of character

7 Feeling Reaction Mediation

8 1894 ( 55 ) - - Learning

9 - - Government

10 1896 ( 57 ) Quality Fact Law

11 1897 ( 58 ) Ideas of feelings Acts of reaction Habits

12 Quality Shock/vividness -

13 Feeling Reaction Thought

14 1898 ( 59 ) Quality Reaction Mediation

15 First qualities/ideas Existence/reaction Potential/continuity

the traditional semiotics as formulated by Peirce has emphasized primarily the
informational aspect of semiosis, apparently ignoring the equally fundamental
e nergetic/material aspect. It was only with the advances made in both experimental
and theoretical branches of molecular and cell biology during the past several
decades that the essentiality of the energy/material aspect of semiosis has come to
light (Ji 1974a, b, 1985a, b, 1988, 1991, 1997a, b, 1999b, 2000, 2002a, b, 2004a, b).
Thus it has been postulated that all self-organizing processes in the Universe,
including semiosis, are driven by a complementary union of information and
energy, that is, gnergy (Sects. 2.3.2 and 4.13 ) and (Ji 1991, 1995). Since informa-
tion can be alternatively called “gnon” (from the Greek root gnosis meaning
knowledge) and energy “ergon” (from Greek root ergon meaning work or energy),
the gnergon , the discrete unit of gnergy , can be viewed as the complementary union
of the gnon and the ergon :

Gnon ^ Ergon

Gnergon ¼ (6.21)

where the symbol “^” denotes a generalized complementarity relation as defined in
Sect. 2.3.3 (Ji 1991, 1995). That is, “C A^B” reads as “A and B are complemen-

tary aspects of C,” or “C is a complementary union of A and B.” Since it has been
postulated that Gnergy serves as the universal driving force for all self-organizing
processes in this Universe (see Fig. 4.8 ), including molecular processes in the living
cell (Ji 1991), we can interpret Fig. 6.4 as implying the following general statement:
Life results from semiosis driven by gnergy .

¼

(6.22)

Those not familiar with Peirce's (1839-1914) semiotics may think of signs as
synonymous with “symbols” like stop signs and written words on printed pages.