Bent Sørensen

Emotion, information, and cognition, and some possible consequences for library and information science

We present our semeiotic‐inspired concept of information as 1 of 3 important elements in meaning creation, the 2 other concepts being emotion and cognition. We have the inner world (emotion); we have the outer world (information); and cognition mediates between the two. We analyze the 3 elements in relation to communication and discuss the semeiotics‐inspired communication model, the Dynacom; then, we discuss our semeiotic perspective on the meaning‐creation process and communication with regard to a few, but central, elements in library and information science, namely, the systems‐oriented perspective, the user‐oriented perspective, and a domain‐oriented perspective.

Charles Sanders Peirce in his own words : 100 years of semiotics, communication and cognition

In 2014, Peirce will have been dead for one hundred years. The book will celebrate this extraordinary, prolific thinker and the relevance of his idea for semiotics, communication, and cognitive studies. More importantly, however, it will provide a major statement of the current status of Peirces work within semiotics. The volume will be a contribution to both semiotics and Peirce studies.

The significance-effect is a communicational effect: Introducing the DynaCom

The paper presents the concept significance-effect outlined in a Peircean inspired communication model, named DynaCom. The significance effect is a communicational effect; the formal conditions for the release of the significanceeffect are the following: (1) Communication has to take place within a universe of discourse; (2) Utterer and interpreter must share collateral experience; and (3) The cominterpretant must occur. If these conditions are met the meaning of the communicated sign is likely to be correctly interpreted by the interpreter. Here, correctly means in accordance with the intentions of the utterer. The scope of the significance-effect has changed from knowledge effects caused by technical terms to emotional effects caused by lifestyle values in brands, for example.

Emotion and community in a semeiotic perspective

Abstract The article investigates emotions from a semeiotic perspective. The American philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914) defined the emotion as a legisign, which is a lawsign (cf. Savan 1981). Since the emotion is a general sign, it can be valorized; it can be identified, communicated, and reexperienced. Based on this semeiotic-inspired definition, we investigate community caused and created by emotions or rather the effects upon minds caused by emotions. We believe that any community carries an emotional center — a so-called Fundamental sign.

The Fallacy of the Cognitive Free Fall in Communication Metaphor: A Semiotic Analysis

This paper is a theoretical analysis of the cognitive free-fall metaphor, used within the cognitive view, as a model for explaining the communication process between a generator and a receiver of a message. Its aim is to demonstrate that the idea of a cognitive free fall taking place within this communication process leads to apparent theoretical paradoxes, partly fostered by unclear definitions of key information-science concepts—namely, tokens, signs, information, and knowledge and their interrelatedness—and a naïve theoretical framework. The paper promotes a semiotically inspired model of communication that demonstrates that what takes place in communication is not a cognitive free fall, but rather a fall from a pragmatic level of knowing or knowledge to a level of representation or information. The paper further argues that the communication process more ideally can be expressed as a complex interrelation of emotion, information, and cognition.

Comments regarding Charles Sanders Peirce's notion of consciousness, abduction, and the hypo-icon metaphor

Abstract The American polymath C. S. Peirce had no theory of metaphor and he provided only a few remarks concerning the trope. Yet, some of these remarks seem to suggest that Peirce saw the metaphor as fundamental to consciousness and thought. In this article we will try to sketch a possible connection between consciousness and metaphor; a relation where the last mentioned is endowed with a special function within the first mentioned as a cognitive mechanism. We will use Peirces concept of abduction as a bridge between metaphor and consciousness, since, according to Peirce, abduction is the only semeiotic mechanism that can convey new insights.

Formal conditions for the significance-effect

Abstract The significance-effect is the right effect of meaning caused upon an interpreting mind. The right effect is understood as the right interpretation of an intended meaning caused by a sign communicated by an utterer. In the article, which is inspired by Charles S. Peirces doctrine of signs, his semeiotics and his theory of communication, we account for the formal conditions that have to be present for the release of the significance-effect.

Negotiating the Meaning of Artefacts: branding in a semeiotic perspective

Abstract The article investigates the question of how we ascribe meaning to artefacts (understood in its broadest sense, also including brands). The short answer is that meaning is ascribed to brands and artefact through an ongoing negotiating process between an utterer and an interpreter. This means that semeiosis is communication in its broadest sense. The negotiation process between utterer and interpreter aims at creating an interpreting habit — a common consent on which upon the meaning of the artefact rests.

Information as signs: A semiotic analysis of the information concept, determining its ontological and epistemological foundations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to formulate an analytical framework for the information concept based on the semiotic theory. Design/methodology/approach The paper is motivated by the apparent controversy that still surrounds the information concept. Information, being a key concept within LIS, suffers from being anchored in various incompatible theories. The paper suggests that information is signs, and it demonstrates how the concept of information can be understood within C.S. Peirce’s phenomenologically rooted semiotic. Hence, from there, certain ontological conditions as well epistemological consequences of the information concept can be deduced. Findings The paper argues that an understanding of information, as either objective or subjective/discursive, leads to either objective reductionism and signal processing, that fails to explain how information becomes meaningful at all, or conversely, information is understood only relative to subjective/discursive intentions, agendas, etc. To overcome the limitations of defining information as either objective or subjective/discursive, a semiotic analysis shows that information understood as signs is consistently sensitive to both objective and subjective/discursive features of information. It is consequently argued that information as concept should be defined in relation to ontological conditions having certain epistemological consequences. Originality/value The paper presents an analytical framework, derived from semiotics, that adds to the developments of the philosophical dimensions of information within LIS.

What brand associations are

The American polyhistor Charles Sanders Peirce stated that association is the only active force in the mind; and since any meaning of a brand is created through countless associations among the brand users, branding seems to be a cognitive vis-a-vis semeiotic process. In literature on brands the concept of association is by no means new; however, if we take a look at some of the leading and dominant brand researchers, their definitions of associations seem to lack academic depth. We hope to contribute to this hitherto missing depth by applying Peirce’s understanding of associations.