Eugene Rochberg-Halton

Object Relations, Role Models, and Cultivation of the Self

Psychoanalytic object relations theory and symbolic interactionism both emphasize the mediating role of representations in the socialization process, yet the relationship between the external environment and the constitution of these representations is quite different in the two approaches. The inherent subjectivism of the Freudian tradition is criticized through an examination of the role of personal possessions in the objectification of the self. Valued material possessions, it is argued, act as signs of the self that are essential in theirown right for its continued cultivation, and hence the world of meaning that we create for ourselves, and that creates our selves, extends literally into the objective surroundings.

Qualitative immediacy and the communicative act

Abstract“Qualitative immediacy” (also termed “quality” in its philosophical sense and “esthetic quality”) is of fundamental importance within the pragmatic conception of meaning as interpretive act, and yet it has been virtually ignored by social scientists. The concept is traced through its foundations in Peirces philosophy, its development in Deweys theory of esthetic experience, and its relation to the general pragmatic conception of the self. The importance of the “I” in Meads view of the self is seen as similar to Firstness in Peirce and esthetic experience in Dewey. Those turning to qualitative approaches ought to consider qualitative immediacy as a genuine addition to our understanding of human communication.

An Outline of the Foundations of Modern Semiotic: Charles Peirce and Charles Morris

Contemporary semiotic has been greatly influenced by the philosophy of Charles Morris. Morris undertook to synthesize some of the principal philosophical movements of his time in a new “science of science” based upon the study of scientific method as a sign system. The branches of this metascience were to be “syntactics,” “semantics,” and “pragmatics;” or the study of science as a language, as a knowledge of objects, and as a type of activity. The first two of these branches were drawn from the interests of the logical positivists and the third from the pragmatists.