Chapter 7: Emergence of semiosis: A general model
Chapter 7: Emergence of semiosis: A general model

Summary/Abstract: In order to refine and extend the semiotic analysis developed in the previous chapter, we will elaborate a case study of some processes involved in the genetic information system. As a first step in this case study, we will propose a model for treating semiosis in cellular (and other kinds of) systems as involving relationships at several levels. In this model, we address semiotic processes at three levels at a time, on the grounds of Salthe’s (1985) ‘basic triadic system’, clearly influenced by Peirce (see also Queiroz, El-Hani 2006a, 2006b). The basic triadic system plays a fundamental role in Salthe’s ‘hierarchical structuralism’, conceived by him as a coherent and heuristically powerful way of representing natural entities. This role follows from the prospect of discovering by means of this system general rules and principles of constraint within which the laws of nature must operate.

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