There is a close relationship between the pragmatic theory of signs and the pragmatic theory of inquiry.  In fact, the correspondence between the two studies exhibits so many congruences and parallels it is often best to treat them as integral parts of one and the same subject.  In a very real sense, inquiry is the process by which sign relations come to be established and continue to evolve.  In other words, inquiry, “thinking” in its best sense, “is a term denoting the various ways in which things acquire significance” (John Dewey).  Thus, there is an active and intricate form of cooperation that needs to be appreciated and maintained between these converging modes of investigation.  Its proper character is best understood by realizing that the theory of inquiry is adapted to study the developmental aspects of sign relations, a subject which the theory of signs is specialized to treat from structural and comparative points of view.

References

• Charles S. Peirce (1902), “Parts of Carnegie Application” (L 75), in Carolyn Eisele (ed., 1976), The New Elements of Mathematics by Charles S. Peirce, vol. 4, 13–73.  Online.
• Awbrey, J.L., and Awbrey, S.M. (1995), “Interpretation as Action : The Risk of Inquiry”, Inquiry : Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 15(1), pp. 40–52.  Archive.  Journal.  Online.

Resources

• Inquiry
• Semeiotic
• Logic Syllabus
• Sign Relations
• Triadic Relations
• Relation Theory

Document History

Portions of the above article were adapted from the following sources under the GNU Free Documentation License, under other applicable licenses, or by permission of the copyright holders.

• Sign Relation • OEIS Wiki
• Sign Relation • InterSciWiki
• Sign Relation • MyWikiBiz
• Sign Relation • Wikiversity
• Sign Relation • Wikipedia

cc: Cybernetics • Ontolog • Peirce List (1) (2) • Structural Modeling • Systems Science