ABSTRACT
Complexity thinking has been described as, contra to linear and reductionist explanations, considering the causal effect of effects on effects. In complex systems, so the argument goes, one does not only have causes and effects. Rather, one has causes that have effects, which effects then cause further effects, which leads to systems of effects effecting effects. Through this complex working of effects on effects, reality in its various manifestations emerges.
In his seminal work on the emergence of mind from matter (or the absential from the sential), Terrence Deacon (2013) develops a theory of constraints in a complex theory of emergence that counters the reductionist tendencies in typical bottom-up conceptualizations of emergence. In his conceptualization, macro-level effects constrain the emergence of habits (Peirce 1994) at lower levels, thus explaining the role of the absential in the emergence of the sential.
In my chapter, I explore the implications of Deacon’s work for the theory of semiotranslation that I proposed elsewhere (Marais 2016; Marais and Kull 2016). In this theory, I explained development in terms of the creation of interpretants (in the Peircean sense) through a process of translation. What I now want to consider is the way in which translations act as constraints on further translations, thus contributing to the emergence of social/cultural forms in a particular space-time.
Apart from a brief conceptualization, my chapter will also consider possible-worlds theory as a methodology for analyzing subsequent states of the emergence of a particular set of social/cultural forms through semiotranslation. I hope to illustrate this methodology by means of relevant data.
