New discussions of the so-called “Liar Paradox” have broken out at several places on the web in recent weeks, just to mention a couple of cases:

• Foundations Of Mathematics (FOM) • The Liar Revenge
• Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP • Playing Chess With The Devil

Bedevilments of that ilk always bring to mind — to my mind at least — the critical ways the Peircean paradigm of logic as semiotics differs from the fallback paradigm bedeviling the thinking of those who have yet to see by Peirce’s lights.

And that in turn brings to mind the following oldie but still goodie saying what I spy as the issue lying at the root of the “Liar” and many other pseudo-problems.

Zeroth Law Of Semiotics

Meaning is a privilege not a right.
Not all pictures depict.
Not all signs denote.

Never confuse a property of a sign,
just for instance, existence,
with a sign of a property,
for instance, existence.

Taking a property of a sign
for a sign of a property
is the zeroth sign of
nominal thinking
and the first
mistake.

Also Sprach 0*
2002 Oct 09

cc: Cybernetics • Ontolog Forum • Structural Modeling • Systems Science
cc: FB | Semeiotics • Laws of Form (1) (2) • Peirce List (1) (2) (3)