ABSTRACT
I say “I”; the living organism puts forth a sign for itself This sign is not simply an effect it produces and puts forth; it is that with which it puts itself forth. It does not only make a sign, it makes itself a sign. The sign is a sound uttered with the throat, or a visual mark made by the hand. A contraction in the throat, a diagram of muscular enervation in the fingers and wrist are sustained by the posture held by the whole body, by the sensory-motor nervous circuitry that orients it at the moment, by the respiratory and circulatory system that brings air to the throat and blood to the contracting and extending muscle system. The capacity to signal is everywhere in the corporeal substance. The muscle tonus and sensory thresholds, the rate and force of respiration, and the heartbeat signal; the posture, the muscle tensions and relaxations, the positions of the limbs and of the facial muscles—all diagram signs.
