A Practical Method of Applied Semiotics

"This species-specific primary modeling device, also called language, endows human beings (differently from other animals) with the special capacity to produce a great plurality of different worlds, real and imaginary. This means that human beings are not condemned to remain imprisoned in the world as it is, to forms of vulgar realism." (Susan Petrelli, Semioethics, subjectivity and communication. For the humanism of otherness, 20)

Ethics is the type of philosophy we are doing when we try to figure out what is right and wrong. Put succinctly, Ethics is figuring out how to act, and why. The semiotic endeavor wherein we seek to understand what we mean when we talk about doing the right thing is known as semioethics. To paraphrase the words of Petrelli, semioethics lies at the intersection of semiotics, ethics, and pragmatism. My work in developing a practical theory of semioethics has turned into something I call Applied Semiotics. The reason why I consider what I am proposing here to be a method of semioethics is because it is intended to be not just an aid in contemplation, but to be a process that sets us up for effective action, or at least allows us a space to evaluate our past actions. In other words, it is meant to be a practical and accessible application of semiotic thinking.

In doing a brief internet search, I have found others who do something or another they call "Applied Semiotics," but none of them seem to be exactly the same as what I am doing here, and I have not based this approach on any of these other things those people have been doing.

Some of these writers apply semiotics to "branding" and business applications, which could not be farther from what I am doing. Some journals are literally applying Semiotics across academic disciplines, and for that reason could be a bit inaccessible to those not disposed to academic discourse. These journals seem to present respectable bodies of work in themselves, but don't appear to be relevant to what I'm doing here in any explicit way. Distinct from these other writers, what I am doing in the system of Applied Semiotics I propose is attempting to apply semiotic thinking to experiences we undergo in our day-to-day lives, both on a personal basis and a basis of social interactions. I have experimented with this in my own day-to-day conversations and reflecting, and what I provide here is a general outline to help guide myself and others, particularly in a workshop setting. It is not a strict method to be followed verbatim, but rather a general guideline which welcomes deviations and ingenuity. I may revise this in the future, but I can say at this time that it is now in a state that I am comfortable publishing.

The only prerequisites that any person needs to be able to engage in this method are sincerity, patience, and a willingness to participate.

I am going to test this approach in my next few workshops and see how it works out. This outline is intended to be easily exercised by anyone in any conversation or personal contemplation, and the goal of this method is twofold:

A) So we can enrich our experience of meaning and thus understand ourselves and one another to our utmost capacity, allowing us to think and act more effectively.

B) So we can resolve conflict in a manner that does not just leave one winner and one loser, but rather in a way that leads us to a more complete understanding, where we come to a resolution that benefits everyone by stimulating us to become more conscious and thus more connected, by which means we evolve together.

The Method

I have outlined this method in four steps. I stopped at four because I found that to be the minimum amount of distinct steps to completely cover what I hope for us to be able to accomplish, while being a small enough number to stay simple and easy to remember:

1. Signs - What is the literal meaning? What is the meaning intended by the speaker? (Typically these will be words, as this takes place as a conversation. However we can consider other forms of signification as well.)

• Domain: Internal/Personal - Understanding
• Aided by: Etymology, denotation, current accepted usage, personal meanings to the speaker.

2. Empathy - What does it mean to the other? How is the meaning interpreted by the other? (In speaking of our capacity to do this, Robin Dunbar calls this Intentionality.)

• Domain: External/Mutual - Understanding 
• Aided by: Considering other's perspective, asking questions to learn of other's experience, imagining seeing through the other's eyes.

3. Impact - What does it mean in the bigger picture? What is the effect? Who does it affect?

• Domain: Internal/Personal - Assessing Implications
• Aided by: Listing consequences, considering implications, reviewing motives.

4. Collaboration - What meaning are we creating together? How do we build this world together?

• Domain: External/Mutual - Assessing Implications
• Aided by: Elaborating and sharing visions/ideals, creativity and building solutions, identifying where our ethics and motives intersect.

It would appear that a simple quadrant table can help in conceptualizing this method:

I didn't initially intend to categorize the steps in this kind of diagram, but as I was evaluating them, I noticed that they ended up fitting into this format quite naturally. 1 and 3 I consider internal because they are oriented towards individual reflection. They don't need to be exclusively personal, but they can be easily conducted without the aid of a conversation partner. On the other hand, 2 and 4 I call external because they are oriented towards a conversation with one or more people, even though it is not impossible to do them by oneself. While these do break down nicely into quadrants, I keep the numbering in this diagram because this method is intended to be followed step-by-step, with step 4 being the ideal situation we can arrive at, as it is the point at which we shift to a creative mindset where everyone is engaged. That collaborative fourth step serves as a springboard for us to begin taking action.

In individual self-reflection and mental health, 1 has the most bearing because the thinker is reflecting on their words and what they mean to themselves. Are meanings being used in the way they are most commonly used, or do words take on a new and unique meaning based on specific associations and experiences?

In one-on-one relationships,  2 has the most bearing because we strive to understand one another so that we may better relate. It is amazing what happens when we simply intend to understand each other before intending to do anything else.

When planning on an individual basis, 3 has the most bearing because we seek to consider the way we are affecting the world through what we are attempting. It is always worth taking a pause and asking ourselves if we have the complete picture, or only part of a bigger picture.

In social applications, 4 has the most bearing, because a social context is always about what we do together. 4 is the point at which, having come to our fullest understanding through the previous three steps, we can bring things back together. It is, in essence, synergy, conducted in a semiotic mindset.

Regardless of the situation where one may apply this method, it is possible to engage in all four steps. When I first came up with this outline, I was envisioning how I might conduct a workshop that is interactive for a sizeable group of people. I think this method is really intended for use in a conversation between at least two people. That being said, any one person might find some usefulness in conducting a cognitive exercise where they imagine a discourse with someone who has totally different views—though in doing so, one may be limited by one's own imagination.

Breaking it Down

Even if we cannot come to agree on the exact same values, (nor should we necessarily aim to do so, as our individual perspectives each offer something unique and valuable to this shared experience), we can, through some careful listening and directed effort, get a good sense of where our values can intersect. I think a good analogy for this method would be singing in a choir, or playing in a band. I'll stick with the choir analogy because a conversation involves people's voices: A choir is not comprised of everyone singing in unison, singing the exact same notes at the exact same tempo—if it were, it would be rather dull and uninteresting. What makes a good chorus so beautiful is the way that people sing various different parts, different notes, and different tempos, all harmoniously intersecting in a way that makes the whole even more beautiful than each individual part. Some people may indeed be singing the same part, so unison is not entirely out of the question for some period of time, but even for these parts, each singer sings it with their individual voice, style, and volume. In a choir, we tune ourselves and pay attention to if we are singing more or less quietly or loudly, each of us making concessions to not sing at our loudest and proudest, instead carefully listening to each other with an ear to the overarching beauty of the whole.

When we carefully listen to each other and come to be conscious of how we each interpret our experiences, the possibilities expand substantially. New solutions can come to mind that nobody would have been able to think of on their own. Rather than striving for a groupthink or herd mentality, this approach allows each person to hold to their individual values and needs, making it a fitting template for a discourse that acknowledges (and perhaps even thrives on) intersectionality.

Resolve (as a verb) is a word that means "settle or find a solution to." If we look at the etymology of the word, we see it comes from the Latin word "resolvere," which meant "to loosen, loose, unyoke,", "to set free," "to relax," and in some contexts "to dispel." (Looking at it in terms of semiotics, one might say we unyoke the yoking our concepts have imposed upon us. One might also say we dispel the spells our words have cast over us.) The sense of "to loosen" and "to cut apart" can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root "*leu-". Interestingly, our modern word "analysis" can also be traced back to this ancient linguistic root.

To use another analogy, consider a context to be a tapestry, i.e. an assembly of threads, with the threads being the meaningful aspects or signs that comprise the whole meaningfulness of a situation, which would be the tapestry. (I did not come up with this myself, as the etymology of the word "context" shows us that it originally came from roots "con-" and "*teks" which literally say "to weave together."). When we seek a resolution to a problematic situation, we are all coming into the conversation with our own contexts, and the situation as a whole has its context. Resolving that situation is like unwinding a beautiful and intricate textile so that we can see the individual threads that comprise it. When we can see the colors and textures of each of the threads, and get a sense of how they got into the shape they were in before we unwound them, we can do so much more than if we were just trying to sew these already-wound tapestries together. Instead of being tightly bound up, we relax and see each other for who we really are.

This may be an imperfect analogy, but the point is that we often come into situations of conflict, both internal and external, with a lot of wound up meanings and implications, and we don't always give ourselves a chance to communicate these meanings and implications to one another. Often, an individual may not fully understand the meanings that came together to make the experience one finds oneself in. If this method does anything, it sets us in a frame of mind where we take the time to sit down together and come to understand ourselves, each other and the full situation to the utmost of our abilities, and thus increase our capability to create a better situation—one that takes into account each person's perspective and circumstance.

How We Imagine a Better World

Is there something to the talk of "making your dreams come true?"

In the grand scheme of the twistings and turnings of eternity, our lives pass on their transient paths in what amounts to a blink. How uncanny, then, that in the span of such a relative instant, within a much, much smaller instant of however long we spend contemplating, we find ourselves at times dreaming up imaginary futures than can span much greater lengths. Goals and ideals, ambitions and aspirations, dreams of what could be a righter, juster way for things to be, and of a world the dreamer will never see. It seems paradoxical that our word "ideal" is thought to originate from the Proto-Indo-European root "*weid-", which means "to see." The ideal can be thought of as a future vision, and yet it is not the kind of vision that we see with our eyes.

What do these visions and imaginings all amount to? They are the conceptualizations of the minds of highly intellectually developed primates. As we turn this way and that, searching, seeking, and sometimes finding, how often it is that we turn inward. Consciousness turns towards itself, becoming conscious of itself, and envisions itself as something else—something, perhaps, better? The context in which consciousness imagines itself is as a body, or in a body, depending on the ontology to which the imaginer subscribes.

Would the consciousness be able to express this kind of vision without being so embodied? Perhaps we cannot truly know the answer to this question, but it certainly seems as though the human animal is the only thing we are currently aware of which has the ability to reflect on these matters through the use of linguistic symbols. It is with these linguistic symbols that we tell ourselves stories of our pasts, presents, and futures. Language is the embodied form by which we contemplate and express these visions. Human minds have developed to the point of being so highly self-aware, that we can come to reflect on our own self-awareness, as I am doing right now in writing this.

We may not always be the only ones who do this, and we can ask ourselves if other species will continue to evolve towards greater self-awareness. As long as we continue to destroy them, however, we may never get the chance to find out. In fact, those species that demonstrate self-awareness: dolphins, crows, pigs, and others that are here unmentioned, but which you may read about with a simple internet search, may end up being extinguished by the results of our more destructive endeavors. Or perhaps we will first push ourselves into extinction, and it is they that will outlive us humans, perhaps someday telling stories that we will never hear.

How ironic that the mind that evolved to the point of being able to dream and idealize a better way of living has also dreamt up the means for its own annihilation. This annihilation exists as a physical potential already, held in the form of undetonated but highly destructive nuclear warheads that have been stockpiled in vast amounts. The shift of the climate towards a seemingly ever more catastrophic state, the pollution and over-fishing of the oceans, and the destruction of the rain forests may be leading us down a much more insidious path to annihilation. And as we continue to further develop more advanced and powerful technology that can make yet greater changes on the environment, the decision as to how we will use this technology will form the determination between this dreaded fate being mere possibility—or grave inevitability.

But why would I start a piece that began with talking about the glorious things we dream of, and then twist the reader's arm and take us down this wayward venture of exploring the horrors man has committed and has the potential of committing? The reason I have chosen to write about that is because in this troublesome but undeniable  development, there is yet to be found a deep-seated gem: for the devastation humankind has wrought is a testament to the impact that can be made when people work together for a certain ideal. In the case of the above example, the ideal at work is that of gaining profit and utilizing all of the planets resources—an ideal which while on its own can lead to the reaping of substantial benefits and enjoyable luxuries, can certainly be (and has certainly been) quite costly when implemented with disregard for the land, the creatures living on it, and the ecosystem as a whole. If we take this incredible power of imagination that we refine and express through language, and turn it to the betterment of one another, and ideals of compassion, wisdom, and liberty, we can raise up together and create a world as beautiful and inspiring as the previous vision is ugly and disheartening.

The twistings and turnings with which I began this article essentially describe the grand scheme of things: motion and activity, or substantial non-idealized existence. The dreaming and idealizing we engage in takes place at merely one bend or turn, and the inward gaze is like pausing to momentarily look in a mirror. These dreams, both despicable and delightful, are but a flicker on the great cosmic mirror. But brightly may this flicker glimmer—and those who gaze at it too long may find themselves momentarily blinded. When we reflect, when consciousness looks at itself, it is looking at a reflection in the great mirror of the cosmos—an image of an existence, future or past, that is not the present moment in which consciousness exists. And the bright flicker is the dazzling manner in which fixating on the past or future can captivate us and pull us out of the present, where our real power exists, where the motion and twistings and turnings take place. Whether we imagine a utopian or dystopian future, this very imagining, in order to maintain its bearings, requires that we return to looking at the realities of the world we live in. Our aspirations must be grounded in the reality we find ourselves in, if they are to have any impact on changing it. Our ideals, (our visions of that which is not), must be balanced by our sight, (looking at that which is).

If people were to come together and unify our vast capacity to change the world in order to realize the dream of a world where we prioritize the health of the planet, the advancement of scientific discovery, and the betterment of every human being with maximization of freedom, the world would be transformed in short order. If we have been able to wipe out much of the life of the ocean that evolved over billions of years within the span of only less than a hundred years, imagine what type of positive impact we could make by dedicating the next hundred years to the thriving of civilization, idealizing an attitude of environmental stewardship and a harmonious coexistence with the other species of this planet. It may seem like a tall order to wish for everyone to come together for these ideals, but the imagination and articulation begins with individuals—it begins with you and me. Each one of us has the capacity to implement the glorious dreams we dream of in our own lives, and these dreams can extend to include the lives of others. After all, aren't we all living one life together, here and now?

It seems to me that being able to articulate an idea of the way things could be as being a certain way is one of the most powerful, wonderful, and dangerous things to ever happen in the entirety of the universe's existence. What other animals do we know of who think of being in different places than they are? Do our dogs imagine us while we are gone? There is probably evidence to suggest a plausible answer to that question, but I ask it more in a rhetorical sense, to lead into pointing out what makes us different from them and other imaginative animals—and that is our being able to articulate, and in particular to express through language, a particular expression of a particular state envisioned in the future.

Furthermore, once spoken or written in physical form, such future visions can be read and interpreted and considered by others who may not have had such articulations occur in their own minds. Thus, inspiration can spread like a blessed fire, just as fear and demagoguery can be communicated like a cursed plague. With the dawn of language, no longer was one's imagination limited to a silent musing. This, I believe, is the primary means by which human civilization has risen to such heights in such a short span of time, and it is also how we have at times become so collectively misguided and have made terrible destructive large-scale decisions such as genocide and mass-scale war. We can move together towards a united vision, or at least as close as we can get to each other's respective visions, by uniting around the words we share a common understanding of through our customarily developed linguistic system.

As those ideas which we articulate in the public sphere are to inevitably find themselves leaving impressions on the minds that understand and interpret them, it falls upon those who project their ideals to refine and shape them in the most mindful and considerate of ways. When one articulation is taken up and reinterpreted through another mind, the refining process can be further potentiated. It is in this way—by potentiating one another's ideals—that we can enact the greatest change by working collaboratively. But he who plants the seed has the initial responsibility of taking the time to understand and consider that which he is about to sow, and to foster a down-to-earth connection with the ground the seed is to be planted in. This is the essence of Semioethics: the endeavor within Semiotics wherein we contemplate and consider what it means to do something good. In Ethics we consider what is good and how we go about doing what is good. Semioethics takes a step deeper and asks what we mean when we say something is good.

With sincere, genuinely well-meaning intentions and inquisitive minds, we can take ourselves to incredible places. Now, I am not suggesting that you or I are tasked with hashing out the perfect ideal that will lead us all to some kind of salvation, nor would I encourage that degree of hubris. What I am suggesting is that we not take our ability to propose ideal futures for granted. Knowing the impact we can make, we can be mindful of the dreams we are dreaming, listen carefully to one another, and take the time to envision something that really makes sense. We can all recognize the great power we have at our fingertips, and in doing so there lies, as Spiderman's Uncle Ben so famously tells us, the recognition of great responsibility. Because everything we dream can become what we say and put out into the world in embodied form, and that has palpable potential to affect and shape reality. There's nothing supernatural about that. Of course, Uncle Ben got that idea from free-thinkers writing during the French Revolution. They saw that people in power are not noble just for having power, nor is nobility passed through blood, but that what is truly noble is to recognize the responsibility inherent in great power. I am using the statement in regard to our capability of imagining ideals, and I will acknowledge that even those who stay silent have some share of responsibility. But I am not the sort to push responsibility on people, but rather to simply point it out. The real point of this article is to thoroughly consider and give the reader a sense of the power we possess through the articulation of our ideals. And so here I can joyfully leave off and say: with great power comes great possibility.