0827 The next section of the essay is titled, “Russian space”.
Consider the contrasts (B) to Russian identity3a (A) that have appeared in this examination.
Each of these dyads embody an Aristotelian thing. We encounter things. Things are composed of matter and form. Things can serve as matter for other things. Things can serve as form for other things.
0828 Perhaps, it is no surprise that geography is a thing that serves as matter, allowing me to form the way that I orient myself in Russian space. At the same time, geography is implicated in what I say, especially when I say, “Moscow is first of all, a tsardom, not a city, and that tsardom is oriented to Constantinople, that is Byzantium.” Geography, as a matter of cognition, substantiates “Russian space”, in the form of historic belongings.
No wonder the author describes Russian geography as a mystical historiosophy.
0829 Nothing is quite fixed, because directions are confounded with historical processes and so are… um… borders. Russia, is a form, with an expanse without borders as originating matter. Yet, Russia, as a form, is regarded as a nation.
Here is the geography of Russia, writ-large.
0830 The original thing is Russian space. An expanse without borders [substantiates] Russian space.
From page 274 to 279, the author dwells on the way that Russia, as a civilization, wrestles with Russia, as a nation.
The reason is clear. The Russian space, as form, entangles (through alliances and conflicts) the matter of borders.
Confoundings are dangerous.
0831 In the author’s historical telling, in its infancy, Russian civilization does not so much worry or fixate on borders. East and West offer principles that can be adopted or rejected. The West is logical, blabbering and deceitful. The East is none of these, because the East does not speak, and that can be sort of scary.
0832 The author does not detect a resolution of the entanglement in favor of the Western formulation of nations with borders. And yet, a particular closure is anticipated.
0833 Here is a picture.
0834 What is the promise?
Russia will join the West.
0835 What is the problem?
A nation-child is born at the same time as the mechanical philosophers of the 1600s. This child of the British Empirereaches adolescence. This adolescent breaks free. One orbit of Pluto later, the adult-nation is now a cacophonous grasping, manipulative and technologically savvy minion of oligarchs. The financial manipulators demand total submission as the price of being rewarded as promised. The USCB is now the Union of Socialist-Capitalist Bigilibs.
Please, conform to our empirio-normative domination.
AI guides iron hands within velvet gloves.
0836 So, now Russia, acting as a nation with borders is entangled in another matter, the need to become a nation without borders2a, through alliances, rather than through lines on a map.
0837 Yes, something is different.
The Russians are now a people.
And, the people advocate for Eurasian convergence (D).
See Comments onAlexander Dugin’s Book (2012) The Fourth Political Theory, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.
0838 Accordingly, Lotman’s typology of relations of cultural betweenness, depicted in the purely relational structure of the Greimas square, conjures an opportunity.
0839 Take a look at D in the last two figures and wonder, “What type of matter is thus entangled?”
0840 My thanks to the author, Mihhail Lotman, for publishing this article, whose full title is “History as geography: In search of Russian identity”.
0953 The article before me is published by Sign System Studies (volume 45(3/4), 2017, pages 317-334) by Peeter Torop in the Department of Semiotics at Tartu University, Estonia. This particular volume is dedicated to semiotics and history.
0002 Amazingly, this article has no subtitle.
Perhaps, I may add one: An Inquiry into the Chronotope.
0954 At first, I thought that the word, “chronotope”, coined by Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975 AD), was “chronotrope”, where “trope” is a label for a rhetorical trick that belies the complexity of things. Tropes change over time.
0955 For example, the Latin trope, “ens reale“, has been translated as “being that is real”, as well as “mind-independent being”. Add time, and the parole of the chronotrope stays the same, but the matter, the langue, shifts. “Ens reale” migrates from what the scholastics pursue in their philosophical discourses to what?… a being that is mind-independent? Does mind independence (as matter) somehow substantiate a form (that is the elusive goal of philosophical inquiry)?
0956 If I use Aristotle’s hylomorphe as an exemplar of Peirce’s secondness, I can diagram the following “chronotrope”.
0957 Peirce’s category of secondness consists of two contiguous real elements. For Aristotle’s hylomorphe, the real elements are matter and form. The contiguity, placed in brackets for proper notation, is [substance] or [substantiates]. Either noun or verb is appropriate, because the contiguity can be construed as either.
0958 Does Aristotle’s hylomorphe transmogrify, over time, into mind-independence as a real element and the term, “ens reale” as another real element?
Perhaps, mind-independence could work as matter that substantiates ens reale as form.
Or, maybe, mind-independence could associate to langue and ens reale could go with parole.
0959 I suppose that tropes can shift (in time) in awkward ways.
0960 That leaves me with Bakhtin’s term, “chronotope”.
In chemistry, the nucleus of an element contains protons and neutrons. The word, “element”, precisely labels a fixed number of protons in its nucleus. The number of neutrons may vary, resulting in different atomic masses for two different isotopes of the same element. The word, “isotope” labels a fixed number of protons (characterizing the element) and neutrons (contributing to the isotopic mass). Some isotopes have too few or too many neutrons, making the nucleus unstable and subject to radioactive decay.
0961 Here is a picture.
0962 By analogy, a “chronotope” is the same element, but its placement in time may vary.
Is that correct?
0963 Is time neutronic?
Maybe the analogy of radioactive decay can introduce time into the elemental thing by producing a confounding, in the following manner.
Yes, a confounding labels one form associated with two matters,one originating and one entangled.
0964 The problem is that radioactive decay as matter cannot resolve into a substantiation of the element as form, since it changes the elemental form by altering the miox of neutrons and protons in the atom.
Well, certainly the elemental thing, {protons and neutrons as matter [substantiate] a radioactive isotope}, is subject to decay. But, does decay itself constitute an entangled matter, especially when the occasion of radioactive decay changes the original element into another element plus a radioactive emission?
0965 In other words, if radioactive decay occupies the slot for entangled matter, then the original elemental thingchanges form upon resolution of the confounding.
1088 The final section, on cultural semiotics as semiotics of cultural history offers the trope… er… slogan… saying, “Culture is memory.”
On the fundament, the literary text2bf offers something to remember, if for no other reason than it is encoded as a text. Texts may survive to be available to the future. Parole2af is often not so lucky.
Time is cruel
So many texts have been lost. Precious few oral traditions remain intact.
The issue is twofold. The text or the oral tradition needs to survive. Also, a code for translation must be retained… or… recoverable.
This is one of the problems with the writing of ancient Mesopotamia, where there are few texts that have more than one script in a single document.
1089 Lotman spends many hours reflecting on text and code.
Some of his reflections end up in his book, Universe of the Mind.
1090 The author presents a table on Lotman and Uspenskij’s views of the temporal aspect of chronotopical analysis.
1091 Of course, the above table does not correspond to Torop’s original table2bf (fundament and derivative, Figure 1).
Perhaps, this table further develops and refines Bakhtin’s semiological structuralist model2c (Figure 2).
However, it is hard not to imagine that the above figure translates into an interscope.
1092 Say what?
1093 The Tartu-Moscow School expresses two interscopes, the fundament culminates in the semiological structuralist model2c and the derivative rises to a yet-to-be-determined perspective-level actuality2c.
1094 Bakhtin’s notes and scribbles express two interscopes as well. These two interscopes constitute two adjacent tiers within a model more expansive than the semiological2a structuralist2b model2c. The construction of Torop’s article intimates that this expanse is well worth investigating.
1095 The way that Lotman’s thing includes time shows how Torop’s tables2af entangle a language2am of presence1b(as well as meaning1a). Lotman recognizes2bmtime2af as a formal requirement of the chronotope2am and forces Torop to construct his own table (Figure 4 on page 330) as a way to situate2bf that entanglement2a.
1096 Here is a juxtaposition of the virtual nested form inthe category of secondness for the derivative interscope and Torop’s reconstruction of Lotman’s approach.
1097 A virtual nested form proceeds down a column in a three-level interscope.
Here are the columns in the realm of actuality2.
1098 In the general form of the derivative interscope, a perspective-level actuality2c (to be determined) brings the situation-level actuality of {cognition2bm [substantiates] social interaction2bf} into relation with the possibility of {a literary text2af [entangling] a language2am of meaning1a, presence1b and message1c}.
1099 For Torop’s table addressing Lotman (Figure 4), the perspective-level actuality2c of {semiotic arrangements2cm[substantiate] human conditions2cf} virtually brings the situation-level actuality of {Lotman’s recognition of time2bm[substantiates] Lotman’s thing with respect to time (as a three-level table)2bf} into relation with the content-level possibility that {Torop’s tables as text2af [entangle] the chronotope’s formal requirements2am of the normal context of the Tartu-Moscow School3a}.
1100 Oh yeah, that makes sense.
Cultural history manifests in the framework of the semiotics of the text, where the text is a representation of culture.
Bakhtin’s culture, that is.
Lotman’s culture, too.
1101 If Bakhtin’s insights are formalized as text by Torop’s tables, then Torop’s tables constitute a semiological structuralist model2c of Bakhtin’s insights2af and support the entanglement of a language2am that sounds very much like any language of interpretation.
What is the meaning1a, presence1b and message1c of the chronotope?
Lotman’s thing focuses on time and produces a variation of the fundament interscope.
Torop’s table of Lotman’s consideration of time produces a categorical stairway to a perspective-level actuality2c in the derivative interscope.
1102 Once again, what is Lotman’s thing?
Oh, yes, it is the archaeological recovery of an insight that is present… at least in potential… since the very origins of Slavic civilization.
In the beginning is the Word, and the Word as matter substantiates the human condition as form.
1103 Here is a picture.
Such is the resolution, of the confounding where history substantiates culture and culture entangles semiotics.
1104 My thanks to Peeter Torop, for putting pen to paper and for building the tables that demonstrate the fecundity and the surprising beauty of the first iteration of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. May a second iteration follow.
0377 The article before me is published by Sign System Studies (volume 45(3/4), 2017, pages 404-448) by two well-regarded semioticians. The full title is “Boris Uspenskij on history, linguistics and semiotics”. Kalevi Kull conducts the interviews. Ekaterina Velmezova performs translation.
The article consists of two sit-downs. The first takes place at the end of a eighth session of the Tartu Summer School of Semiotics, in August 25, 2011. The topic of the Summer School was Semiotic Modelling. The second takes place at Uspenskij’s home in Rome on May 27, 2012. The questions are based on his book, Ego Loquens: Language and the Communicative Space (2007).
0378 This examination seeks to appreciate how one of the leading figures of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, which flourished from the 1960s to the 1980s, weaves Saussure’s definition of spoken language as two arbitrarily related systems of differences, into a science-friendly inquiry into the literature of the Slavic civilization.
0379 Two arbitrarily related system of differences?
Parole (speech talk) also corresponds to the written word as well as symbolic artifacts. Parole can be observed and measured.
Langue (the machinations that automatically decode and encode speech talk) cannot be directly observed in the same way as parole. Yet, langue is there. It must be. Otherwise there is no way that someone can think before speaking, should that person choose to do so.
0380 Parole and langue are two contiguous real elements. The continuity, if placed in brackets is [arbitrarily related].
This configuration satisfies the definition of Peirce’s category of secondness, where one real element [is contiguous with] another real element. For Aristotle’s hylomorphe, the two real elements are matter and form. I label the contiguity, [substance] or [substantiates], but it also could be [entangles]. Substance is typical. Entanglement is tricky.
0381 Here is a picture of the comparison between Aristotle’s hylomorphe and Saussure’s definition of language.
0382 Saussure’s definition of language appears to be scientific, because there is no substance. That is, there is no metaphysical reason for why what we think comes to be associated to what we say. So, the arbitrary relation is simply a conditioned response. A conditioned response conforms to truncated material and efficient causalities.
Another term for “conditioned response”?
How about “code” and “decode”?
0383 Okay, if that is the case, then what?
What if what we think (langue) is like matter? What if what we say (parole) is like form?
Then, the contiguity, [arbitrary relation], seems to say that we can attach any word to any thought, without structure. So, something structural would need to situate the content of a spoken word, even if that structure is a habit or a convention. Once that happens, then the hylomorphe, {langue as matter [substantiates] parole as form}2a, occupies the actuality2a on the content-level of a two-level interscope. Language2bm is the situation-level matter that induces a constellation of the content-level hylomorphe.
0384 Okay, if language2b is (by Saussure’s definition) the dyad, {langue2am [arbitrary relation] parole2af}, then how can language2b situate itself2a?
This can only happen if language2b is already participating as a situation-level category-based nested form involved in the production of statements2b.
0385 Here is a picture.
0386 It is as if the content-level actuality2a is immediately situated by a demand to substantiate a statement, as if language2b is matter and a statement2b is form.
0387 But, obviously, there is more.
The content-level actuality2a is accompanied by a normal context3a and potential1a.
So is the situation level actuality2b.
0388 For the content level, the normal context of Saussure’s semiology3a brings the dyadic actuality of {langue as matter [substantiates] parole as form}2a into relation with the potential of ‘a signified and its signifier’1a.
0389 For the situation level, the normal context of a linguistic structure (or genre or system)3b brings the dyadic actuality of {language as matter [substantiates] statements as form}2b into relation with the potential of ‘the laws of the system’1b.
0627 Today, we no longer are who we evolved to be.
What does this imply?
We can no longer be who we evolved to be.
Our current Lebenswelt is not the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
0628 Today, the general ego interscope presents a purely relational structure (a suite of triadic relations) that may be processed implicitly. This is the configuration of langue, as opposed to parole.
Here is a picture.
0629 Almost all of the elements of the interscope are filled with explicit abstractions.
A trace of Aristotle’s philosophy resides in the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics.Upwellings from deep within Slavic civilization breathe into explicit abstractions.
An archaeology can be seen in the structure of the content- and situation-level actualities. According to Aristotle’s hylomorphe, matter [substantiates] form. But, this Christianized pagan civilization realizes the inverse is also a thing. Form [entangles] matter.
0630 In the example, the form of a small bird entangles the matter of a young initiate.
The claim coheres with the crucial claim of Razie Mah’s book on hominin evolution, The Human Niche. Our niche is the potential of triadic relations.
The lesson appears like a banner on the perspective level.
0631 This brings me to the joke about Juri Lotman’s soulful encounter with St. Methodius.
During the first ascent of the Tartu-Moscow School in the USSR, structural3b semiological3a models2c are on the scientific side of the fence. The fence demarks the academic turfs of science (Marxist theory) and superstition (Christian faith, in all its diversity).
Now, the second ascent of the Tartu-Moscow School occurs as the USSA, the maven of technology without meaning,claims the mantle of science (psychometric theory) as opposed to superstition (still Christian faith, in all its diversity).
0632 Does the second ascent of TMS forgo occupation of the science side of the fence?
Or does it straddle the fence?
0633 It may sound uncomfortable, but take a look at the following sequence of perspective level nested forms.
0634 In regards to the universe of signs, Lotman challenges Marx’s paradigm.
Do material arrangements [substantiate] the human condition2cf?
Lotman begs to differ.
0635 In regards to the evolution of humanity, Peircean diagrams turn out to be useful for depicting the relational beings inherent in implicit abstraction.
Consider Comments on Michael Tomasello’s Arc of Inquiry (1999-2019), by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.
0636 In regards to the human as a semiotic animal, one must not forget that both exemplar and interventional signs intercalate in the perspective level of an interscope.
The specifying, exemplar and interventional signs appear in Looking at John Deely’s Book (2010) “Semiotic Animal”. This sequence of blogs appears in Razie Mah’s website in October 2023.
0637 What wonderful opportunities for the second ascendance of the TMS!
0638 But, that is not the only challenge that comes from this examination of the interview with Boris Uspenskij in the early 2010s and published in Sign Systems Studies in 2017.
I suppose that there is more than one way to denote primary, secondary and tertiary modeling systems, so why not advance one more?
0639 Here is another proposal.
Consider three tiers of interscopes, with the perspective-level of each tier displaying the following nested forms.
0640 To me, this sequence of primary, secondary and tertiary modeling systems suggest that Peirce’s diagrams may assist in knitting biosemiotics and TMS together into one overarching theoretical framework.
Three tiers of interscopes works well in the chapter on presence in Razie Mah’s How To Define The Word “Religion”. So, this might be a diagram worth mulling over.
0641 I thank the interviewer, Kaveli Kull, and Boris Uspenskij for engagements worthy of examination. I thank Ekaterina Velmezova for the translation into English.
0642 The article before me is published by Sign System Studies (volume 45(3/4), 2017, pages 230-248) by Boris Uspenskij (1937-present), one of the members of the first ascent of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, in the 1960s through the 1980s. The full title is “Semiotics and culture: The perception of time as a semiotic problem”. The paper was originally presented as a lecture held in Madrid in 2010. Plus, the paper is based on a two-part article published under the title “History and Semiotics (the perception of time as a semiotic problem)” in 1988 and 1989.
0643 The first ascent of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics builds a fundament of semiology3a, structuralism3b and disciplinary languages3c that retain formal and final causations along with material and efficient causalities (called “exact methods3c“). The result is an actuality2c, a semiological structural model2c (SVi), that stands for a dyadic actuality2a where {the literary text2af (SOi) [entangles] a language2am of meaning, presence and message1a}.
0644 Here is a diagram of the fundament interscope.
0645 Exact methods3c?
Think of it3c as flying a probe2bm into a cloud of phenomena1c that cannot fully objectify the noumenon of a literary text2bf. This scholarly data-collector2bm extracts observations and measurements1c that will be evaluated (using exact methods) on the basis of signification3a(1a) and structure3b(1b).
0646 Semiological structural model2c?
According to the empirio-schematic judgment, a disciplinary language (relation, thirdness) brings a mechanical or mathematical model (what ought to be, secondness) into relation with observations and measurements of phenomena (what is, firstness).
A parallel construction follows.
A disciplinary language of exact methods3c (relation, thirdness) brings a semiological structuralist model2c (what ought to be, secondness) into relation with observations and measurements of phenomena1c within a literary text2bf (what is,firstness).
0647 Phenomena1c?
Phenomena are observable and measurable facets of a noumenon, a thing itself.
According to Kant’s slogan, a phrase that Kant may have never uttered but which is attributed to him in the same way that the entire Pentateuch is attributed to Moses, a noumenon cannot be fully objectified as its phenomena. A thing itself cannot be reduced to its observable and measurable facets.
0648 Language2bm?
Language2bm is the situation-level matter (as opposed to form) constituted by Saussure’s definition of language2aentering into a structure (or system)3b, such as a mother tongue3b, a genre3b, a style3b, an artistic community3b, a tradition3b, and other civilizational beings3b.
0649 Clearly, the semiological3a structuralist3b model2c aims to capture an Aristotelian expression of how language as matter2bm substantiates a literary text as form2bf.
Without the literary text2bf,a semiological structural model2c cannot coalesce because there is nothing to delimit free-floating, unanchored language from the phenomena that an inquirer is interested in. It is like matter without a form to substantiate. It’s useless.
0650 So, in the fundament interscope, language as matter2bm gives substance to the literary text as form2bf.
At the same time, the literary text as form2bf allows the entire situation-level hylomorphe2b to take a shapewhere language2bm may be regarded as phenomena.
0651 Say what?
Language2bm substantiates the literary form2bf and, at the same time, may be regarded as phenomena of the literary form2bf.
It2bm is substantiating matter2bm(esse_ce) because it virtually situates the content-level actuality2a, {langue2am[substantiates] parole2af}.
It2bm is regarded as literary phenomena by the perspective-level potential1c.
0652 The substantiated form2bf(essence) is like a noumenon and its2bf substantiating matter2bm (esse_ce) serves as its2bf observable and measurable facets (that is, its phenomena).
0732 The article concludes after the third asterisk (3).
Discussion shifts from the topic of the future to the metaphor of space.
0733 Historical consciousness discusses the future as the place that we are going.
Cosmological consciousness portrays the future as a place that we have been before.
0734 Both ways, the message1c is that the future will be a continuation of past and present.
But, what if we lived in a Lebenswelt where our hand-talk could not picture and point to these explicit abstractions?
What if we could manual-brachial gesture an arcfrom the location of the sun (or moon) towards its point of rising (past) or setting (future)?
Would these hand-talkwords testify to an implicit abstraction?
0735 What if we could not explicitly state that the normal context of space-time3c brings the dyadic actuality of {continuity in time as matter2cm [substantiates] our current Lebenswelt as form2cf} into the relation with the potential of ‘a message concerning the continuity of past, present and future’1c?
0736 Here is a picture of the interscope with that perspective-level nested form.
0737 Space is an excellent metaphor fortime.
We move through time, just as we move in space.
0738 Our motion in space is continuous, so time must be continuous as well.
Well, it must be continuous if space and motion and time are metaphors for one another.
But, one wonders.
0739 Does the perspective-level hylomorphe, {continuity in time2cm [substantiates] our current Lebenswelt2cf} apply to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?
Does the derivative interscope explicitly manifest in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?
0740 Can one express the explicit abstractions of history, cosmology, consciousness, continuity, and space-time in hand-talk?
What is there to image or point to?
0741 It makes me wonder. Are the foundations for these explicit abstractions somehow, built into the human thing… er… being?
Matter and form?
After all, “ego loquens” means “I speak”.
But, what if our kind evolves in the milieu of hand talk?
0742 My two conclusions are obvious and open-ended.
First, Uspenskij’s work may be diagrammed using the fundament (loquens) and derivative (ego) interscopes.
Second, time is not the only semiotic problem.
0743 My thanks to Boris Uspenskij for publishing this brief, yet engaging article.
0001 If I may present my conclusion at the beginning, “I suggest the following motto: First the bauplan, then the twist.”
0002 The full title of the essay under examination is “Unpacking the Neolithic: Assessing the Relevance of the Neolithic Construct in Light of Recent Research”. The article appears in the Journal of World Prehistory (2025) in volume 38:11, pages 1-58 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-025-09198-0). The author is affiliated with the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
0003 The author’s argument follows the Greek tradition of (A) setting out prior propositions, (B) adding further information and assessments and (C) proposing one’s own solution.
Prior propositions (A) are covered in the section titled, “The Origin of the Term ‘Neolithic'”.
Further information (B) includes sections on neolithic emergences in southwest Asia and other regions, including China, Japan, eastern north America, Mesoamerica and the northwest America.
The author’s proposal (C) appears in a section titled, “Repackaging the Neolithic”.
0004 I examine each movement in the sequence A, C then B.
0005 In regards to the historical origin of the term, “neolithic” (A), the word appears in the 1850s in the context of prehistoric lithic technology. A distinction between old “paleolithic” and new “neolithic” tools reflects a fairly recent change in the human condition. The Paleolithic extends very far back into the evolution of the Homo genus. The Neolithic is fairly new and applies only to Homo sapiens. By “new”, I mean, say, starting less that 20,000 years ago.
0006 As it turns out, stone tools and fossilized bones are the most recoverable items from the distant past. So, the idea that our kind evolves will of course rely of this type of data. The implications are significant. If lithic technologies are like matter, then the archaeologist may speculate on forms of prehistorical human (or “hominid” or “hominin”) conditions.
0007 For example, the earliest paleolithic stone tools are labeled “Oldowan”. These tools can be made on the fly. If I strike one rock with another, I can fracture off a shard and expose a sharp edge. Of course, one must choose the right rocks for this trick. Plus, technique is important.
Later stone tools are labeled “Acheulean”. These stone tools are made ahead of time, by the same technique of hammering off shards to reveal an intended form that… somehow… is intrinsic to the original rock.
0008 So, what am I suggesting?
Is the actuality of matter and form intrinsic to rocks, and ancestral hominins learn to tamper with one real element (matter) in order to sculpt the other real element (form)?
0009 I am suggesting more than that.
Aristotle’s hylomorphe (hylo = matter, morphe = form) is an exemplar of Peirce’s category of secondness. Secondness consists of (at least) two contiguous real elements. For paleolithic hominins, a rock (matter) could be sculpted into a stone tool (form). From the point of view of the archaeologist, the hylomorphic structure still applies. The question is, “How?”
Paleolithic stone-tool technology “sculpts” prehistorical human conditions.
0010 Of course, the word, “sculpts”, serves as an aesthetic metaphor for the contiguity between paleolithic technology as matter and hominin conditions as form.
0011 The challenge for nineteenth-century anthropology is clear. Propose a better, more scientific, or at least, less metaphysical, label for the contiguity.
With only geological strata, stone tools and fossilized bones as evidence, proposals were necessarily speculative. But, archaeologists continued digging, and by the 1850s could make the distinction between paleolithic and neolithic. Also, they figured out a reason for why the advance from Oldowan to Acheulean stone tools “sculpted” more advanced hominin conditions. Man was making himself.
0012 What do these evidential and rational developments suggest?
For a Peircean, secondness is the dyadic realm of actuality. Secondness is only one of Peirce’s three categories. The other two are thirdness (the triadic realm of normal contexts, judgments, signs, mediations and so forth) and firstness (the monadic realm of possibility).
Each of these categories manifests its own logic. Also, each higher numbered category prescinds from the adjacent lower category. Thirdness prescinds from secondness. Secondness prescinds from firstness. Prescission allows the articulation of the category-based nested form, as described in Razie Mah’ e-book, A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form.
0013 Thirdness bring secondness into relation with firstness.
A triadic normal context3 brings a dyadic actuality2 into relation with the possibility of ‘something’1.
0014 Now I can slide the above dyad into the slot for actuality2 for the category-based nested form intimated by the title of V. Gordon Childe’s 1936 book, Man Makes Himself.
0015 The slide clarifies the contiguity, paleolithic technology constellates a substance, which I label, “technique”, that manifests an essence for the conditions of evolving hominins (that is, a substantiated form).
Consequently, the appearance of a new stone tool technology indicates a change in techniques as well as a change in the essence of the prehistoric human condition.
0016 According to Childe (1892-1957), the “neolithic” label encompassed more than a change in lithic technology. The prehistoric human condition gets entangled with all sorts of other matters, including sedentary communities, economies of delayed returns, various modes of storage and so forth. A long list of material arrangements gets entangled.
0017 As it turns out, once matter substantiates form, then form can entangle other matter, which is a confounding. Here, “confounding” is a technical term, precisely labeling one form originating from one matter and entangling another matter.
Historically, a confounding is an idea that belongs to Aristotle’s tradition. It is stumbled upon long after Aristotle’s campus went out of business. It is the brainchild of the Byzantine and Slavic civilizations.
0018 Here is a picture of Childe’s confounding.
0019 The upper three lines presents the neolithic thing. Neolithic stone-tool technology [substantiates] the prehistoric human condition. The nature of the [substance] is labeled, “technique”.
The lower two lines presents the entangled matter. The [entanglement] is difficult to label, because its nature is.. well… a long list of material arrangements.
0020 A list of material arrangements appears in Table 1 of the article. Even the social components of social mechanism, magico-religious sanctions and trade can be shoved under the rug labeled, “material arrangements”.
0021 As such, the “neolithic” may serve as an adjective to a noun, “revolution”, that appeals to academics sympathetic to Marxist formulations. Yes, they are the ones who only promote academics with similar sympathies. Also, Childe was… um… a sympathizer.
The question is not about whether prehistoric folk are “communist” or “fascist”, even though these labels may apply to this or that anthropologist of the 1930s.
The question is whether the Marxist formula applies to prehistoric folk.
0022 The answer becomes obvious, when Childe’s confounding resolves into the following hylomorphic structure.
0023 The above figure depicts a Marxist version of Aristotle’s hylomorphe, {matter [substantiates] form}. Childe’s hylomorphe lasts for nine decades (that is, until the present day at the start of 2026). Man makes himself through a standard Marxist formulation. Soon, Soviet era archaeologists adopt the stance that the appearance of pottery is a hallmark of neolithic emergence. Pottery is a material arrangement. The emergence of the neolithic is a human condition.
0001 The article before me is published by Sign System Studies (44(3) (2016) pages 368-401) by two professors, Igor Pilshchikov and Mikhail Trunin, hailing from Tallinn University in Estonia. The title is “The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics”. The subtitle is “A transnational perspective”.
0002 The abstract promises to situate the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics of the 1960s through 1980s. The article delivers more than promised.
How so?
0003 The authors sketch dynamic developments among intellectual circles within the (now former) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
0004 The term, “transnational”, indicates that there are nations within the former Soviet Union.
During this period in history, the governments of Estonia and Russia (along with Czechoslovakia and Poland) owe fealty to an empire with the title, “Socialist”, in its name.
So, “transnational” tells me that the article looks back from the present, into a past era, with the intent of portraying ‘something’ historical, without acknowledging that the “Union” and the “Socialist” descriptors no longer apply (at least, not in the way that they once did).
0005 “Transnational” applies to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, 1918-1989) as well as the upcoming… um… Eurasian convergence?
Here is a picture with three city-sites. Tartu and Moscow belong to the title. Tallinn is the location where the authors write their article. The blue is the Baltic Sea.
0006 “Transnational” steps over the boundaries depicted in black in the above figure.
Never mind the fact that the above territories reside behind, what American pundits once called, “the Iron Curtain”.
0007 Perhaps, one must appreciate an ambiguity to the term, “transnational”, given that there is another transit. This transit is in time. Or, even better, this transit is across a boundary between battles among Enlightenment gods.
Consider where the time period of 1960s to 1980s resides in the following timeline of Western civilization in the twentieth century.
Also consider the year when the article under examination is published.
Notice the boundary.
0008 The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiology constellates within one battle, as a transnational collaboration.
The TMS is remembered during another battle, which is not resolved, and so cannot be objectified as “historical”. I suppose that it can be objectified as “cultural”. Better yet, “theodramatic”.
Already, there is more to this article than meets the eye.
0348 In section eight (8), the authors discuss the third post-Soviet approach, that of Juri Lotman.
The title of Lotman’s 1990 book is The Universe of Mind.
The title is somewhat funny, since the mind associates to the normal context and a universe resides in the corresponding potential.
0349 How so?
The “universe” is not the closed totality of material arrangements.
The “universe” is the open totality of semiotic arrangements.
0350 Open to what?
Messages.
Another term for “the universe of messages1” is “the semiosphere1“.
0351 On the content level, the normal context of a TMS positivist intellect3a brings the actuality of the dyad2a, {literary text2af [entangles] language2af}, into relation with the potential of ‘(positivist) meaning’1a.
On the situation level, cultural studies3b brings the dyad2b, {cognition2bm [substantiates] social interaction2bf}, into relation with the potential of ‘(civilizational) presence’1b.
On the perspective level, mind theory3c brings the dyad2c, {semiotic arrangements2cm [substantiate] human conditions2cf}, into relation with the potential of ‘the semiosphere’1c.
0352 Lotman’s derivative interscope stands right in line with Charles Peirce’s theory of evolutionary love.
The Universe of Possibility defines the category of firstness. Firstness contains a universe of messages.
The Universe of Actualities includes semiotic arrangements and belongs to the category of secondness.
The Universe of Mind3c brings the Universe of Actualities2c into relation with the potential of the Universe of Messages1c.
0353 Mind theory3c brings the dyadic actuality of {semiotic arrangements [substantiating] human conditions}2c into relation with the ‘semiosphere’1c.
Marxist theory3c brings the dyadic actuality of {material arrangements [substantiating] human conditions}2c into relation with the potential of ‘something to do with message’1c.
0354 Surely, Juri Lotman, as an old man, does not suspect that his mind theory3c stands as an alternative to Marxist theory3c.
Marxist theory3c contextualizes the message of Soviet communism1c.
The Universe of Mind3c contextualizes the semiosphere1c.
Welcome to the Fourth Age of Understanding.
0355 The concept of the semiosphere1c is an organic development of Juri Lotman and his collaborators of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics.
This explains why I claim, in point 0008, that there is more to this article than meets the eye.
This examination adds value to the authors’ article, in ways hitherto unimagined.
0356 In the following figure, the virtual nested form in the category of secondness is highlighted.
0357 The perspective-level dyad, {semiotic arrangements [substantiate] human conditions}2c virtually brings the situation-level dyad, {cognition [substantiates] cultural interaction}2b, into relation with the potential of the content-level dyad, {literary text [entangles] an aesthetic and positivist language}2a.
0358 Likewise, in the virtual nested form in the category of thirdness, mind theory3c brings cultural studies3b into relation with the possibility of the TMS positivist intellect3a.
0359 Finally, in the virtual nested form in the category of firstness, the semiosphere1c, the universe of messages1c, brings civilizational presence1b into relation with positivist meaning1a.
0360 The authors briefly discuss Lotman’s later books, which are translated into English long after his death. The authors note that these books treat issues that are rarely associated with the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, even when they place its collegial collaborations in perspective.
0361 Nonetheless, some scholars wag an accusatory finger and assert, “He turned into a post-structuralist.”
0362 “Post-structuralist”?
Technical terms are so important, especially when they mean ‘something’ that common folk don’t think they mean.
There is a gap, which cannot be crossed, especially by those subject to empirio-normative domination.
Well, at least, that is what the experts on television tell me.
“Post-structuralist” is a derogatory label.
Only experts know what the label means.
0363 The authors offer a quick summary of the questions that Lotman raises in these last works. First (1), can inquirers devise a common approach to natural, social and spiritual phenomena? Second (2), how is a mind theory3c paradigmgoing to handle evolutionary (think, Lebenswelt that we evolved in) and explosive (think, our current Lebenswelt) cultural transitions. Third (3), does artistic labor serve as a workshop that builds semiotic arrangements (as matter) into the human condition (as form)?
0364 Surely, these are appropriate questions.
And, not surprisingly, the pen of Razie Mah offers literary texts that touch upon these questions. They are (1) How to Define the Word “Religion”, (2) The Human Niche and (3) An Archaeology of the Fall.
0365 The authors conclude that a global history of semiotics will tell Lotman’s tale, as well as the complicated intriguescultivating semiotic awareness beneath the watchful eyes of Soviet Socialist ideologues.
But, as far as this examiner is concerned, these modern histories may also be viewed through a lens that focuses on an illumination that harkens back to the beginning.
A light dwells deep within Slavic civilization.
0366 I wonder. Is there is an unconceived reason for why the Virgin Mary appears in Portugal, in a town bearing the name of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed and Khadija, and calls for the Catholic Church to consecrate her Immaculate Heart to Russia?
The visions happen in 1917, right before the Russian Revolution.
0367 In 2022, a Latin-tradition-despising pope, along with his reform-fixated Vatican-Two-promoting bishops, do precisely that. They consecrate the Immaculate Heart of Mary to Russia on March 25, 2022, at the same time when Russian (no longer Soviet!) troops enter into Ukraine. They invade in order to stop… what? Everybody in Russia apparently knows. Does anyone know in the Collective West?
0368 Perhaps not.
Is there a gap, which cannot be crossed?
Will a curtain of propaganda become transparent?
Or what?
0369 There is one more juxtaposition to make.
0370 The lower line should look familiar.
The triadic normal context of Lotman’s mind theory3a (now transcending Marxist theory3c) brings the dyadic actuality of {semiotic arrangements [substantiate] our current Lebenswelt}2a into relation with the monadic ‘semiosphere’1a,where the “semiosphere” is the potential of ‘the universe of messages’1a.
0371 The upper line is introduced in points 0355 though 0371 in Razie Mah’s e-book, Comments on Mariusz Tabaczek’s Arc of Inquiry (2019-2024) (part 1, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).
The triadic normal context of God’s Self-Actualization3c brings the dyadic actuality of {the Person who Speaks [utters] the Person who is the Word}2c into relation with the ‘Oneness of God’2c, where the “Oneness of God” is the monadic potential1c underlying God’s Self-Actualization3c.
0372 What does this juxtaposition inspire me to imagine?
Does it seem that the Speaker2c occupies the space for semiotic arrangement2cm?
Does it seem that Word2c, who creates the Lebenswelt that we evolved in (see Genesis 1-2.3) as well as our current Lebenswelt (see Genesis 2.4-10), occupies the space for the human condition2cf?
0373 Does it seem that God’s Self-Actualization3c encompasses a theoretical Universe of Mind3c?
Does it seem that the Oneness of God1c manifests the omnipresence and the omniscience of a universe of messages1c?
0374 It almost makes me wonder whether there is a post-post-truth condition.
0375 There is a story. It goes like this.
After the famous Russian philosopher, Marxist academic and scholar to be reckoned with, Juri Lotman, dies, he finds himself in a waiting room, in what looks to be an old Basilica. After a few minutes, the wooden door creaks open and he is greeted by St. Methodius, himself.
Lotman, confident of his own genius even in death, says, “Methodius, what can you tell me that I don’t already know?”
Methodius grins and says, “You’ve been working for us all along.”
0376 I thank the authors for this essay, published a decade ago, and fresh enough to support the fermentation of this examination.
