Signs, dispositions, and semiotic scaffolding.
In theoretical work we distinguish living beings from inanimate objects on the basis of some paramount attributes, such as agency and autonomy. These abstract features are not directly accessible to our scrutiny, but we surmise their nature through observation of the purpose-oriented behavior of organisms. I intend to show that organismal purposefulness springs from the intrinsic, constitutive kind of finality that is the hallmark of all semiotic transactions. To this aim I develop a dispositionalist account of organismal causation based on a distinction between two kinds of causal dispositions: fixed (efficient) dispositions and traveling dispositions. Fixed dispositions are rigidly attached to physical structures and processes; these are the dispositions regularly invoked in current discussions of causal explanation. Traveling dispositions are able to move freely from one location to another by becoming embodied into suitable supporting media. I introduce these notions to articulate a view of semiosis I deem best suited to the life sciences, and contend that sign tokens are vehicles of traveling dispositions. This account places the origin of purposive behavior at the interaction of physical and semiotic causation. To properly motivate the discussion I briefly review some recent developments in the philosophy of science concerning various forms of causation invoked by scientists across disciplines to frame explanations and make predictions. The ensuing discussion gives particular prominence to mechanistic (as distinct from mechanicist) explanatory accounts of biological phenomena. This review is followed by a brief characterization of a "nomological machine," a comprehensive schema introduced and developed by Nancy Cartwright with the goal of explaining causal mechanisms in a general setting. By capitalizing on this model's heuristic virtues I seek to formulate a compelling view of the interactions between physical and semiotic causation at play in semiotic scaffolding. These interactions transpire between energetic causal chains and a wide range of converging semiotic transactions unfolding within each individual organism and between organisms and their environment. The perspective advanced here helps elucidate the manner in which physical and semiotic causation cooperate in an orchestrated fashion, giving rise to an ever-expanding profusion of scaffolding structures and processes. Using simple examples I outline some mechanisms that bring about this orchestration as well as the resultant channeling activities that eventually merge and find their culmination in the enactment of goal-oriented behavior.
Linda Hall Library of Science and Technology, USA. Electronic address: marcieli@swbell.net.
Eliseo
E
Fernández
D019369:Life; D010684:Philosophy; D012586:Science / Q000379:methods*