Is the meaning of order intrinsic ?

Is the meaning of order intrinsic ?

There are lots of marks in the world but none of them mean anything unless
some agent designates them as signs [1].  In the pursuit of more complex
concepts, we designate meanings to ordered signs, and call it grammar.   But
to be able to do so, we must call upon this thing called order.   Yet order
itself seems not to need an act of designation to acquire its meaning.   Nor
can I find any way to designate an order of signs without just calling upon
properties of space .. that is without just marking things down in spatial
order {a  b c d .... } or calling things out in a sequenced utterance
(ordered by time).

Can anyone define (designate) order itself without using order?   Has anyone
studied this?  Are there any URLs to their thoughts ?

You may ask why I care.  Well I wish to establish that order itself is
prior, axiomatic, innate, and never needs a definition.  This certainly is
true when it comes to humans.  We perhaps acquire our intuitions of order
(and therefore grammar) from our early experience of space and time.  An
open question is:  Is order itself also axiomatic to our logic systems and
our machines?

[1] http://www.bestweb.net/~sowa/peirce/ontometa.htm

Seth Russell

Received on Thursday, 24 May 2001 13:45:06 UTC