Prologue

As discussed in the previous post, the reality can be conceptualized as a fractal of systems. Everything that maintains its identity through space-time can be thought as a system.

Furthermore, the form of these systems is fundamentally the same. They all share the same Four Periods as they all have the form of a Sign. For this reason the universe has a fractal nature, where the same patterns repeat themselves throughout the different levels of being.

But what are these systems then doing?

Every systems seeks to live in equilibrium – in harmony and balance – with itself and with its environment, which is constituted of other systems.

In essence systems aim to minimize surprise. They strive to minimize the gap between their expectations and their actual perceptions. The way to do this is by embodying habits.

The whole universe is, therefore, a complex balancing act of systems embodying habits and communicating with each other.

However, the balancing act or movement is not impulsive and sporadic chaos, but rather a gradual discovery of “the eternal verities” and forms. The cosmos moves towards its teleological purpose through continuous habit-braking and habit-taking on all levels of reality.

Habits namely form a continuum that stretches through all the levels of being. Matter embodies rigid habits with little room for fluctuation, whereas mind embodies fluctuating and open habits that are apt to change quickly.

Actually, matter is mind bound by habits, having barely any habit-breaking which manifests as only infinitesimal fluctuation in the outcomes. For this reason we can calculate trajectories with great accuracy.

As we proceed through the continuum the habits begin the loosen up. Protein unfolding can be barely calculated, although it is still quite strictly bound by habits, but there is much more room for spontaneity and chance.

Biological species are slow to change, and predictions about the offspring can be done with some accuracy, but species can go through drastic changes in the course of evolution, and the developmental stages of offspring has many processes characterized by high levels of chance.

Human psychology is quantifiable to some degree and the behaviour of individuals can be predicted with some accuracy, but here the certainty has already made a huge drop, as habits are much more open and fluid.

Human culture is much more volatile than human psychology, but still cultural changes can take generations. However, now predictions are almost complete shots into the dark.

We see how habit-taking and habit-breaking is shared across all levels of being, but the volatility and the element of chance and novelty change as we move from mind bound by habits, which we call matter, to mind which is active, like that of the social mind.

Slowly but surely our expectations and models of the real will become more accurate as we break old habits and form new ones. The amount of surprises will decrease and the cosmos as a whole moves towards the eternal verities by embodying them more and more completely. Through this process the cosmos will, in the long run, become the perfect icon of the Beautiful, Good and True.

The Four Phases

The Four Periods represent a static form, outlining how the sign is structured. In contrast, the Four Phases describe how semiosis, the process of sign interpretation and meaning making, progresses through this structure.

Essentially, while the Four Periods define the framework of a sign, the Four Phases illustrate how reality moves and develops within that framework.

When we talk about motion into this structure of Four Periods, we’re referring to the flow and interaction of the three categories within it. However, rather than examining Semiosis at so detailed level (the level of 15 Signs), we will focus only how habits (3rdness) form within the framework of the Four Periods.

Namely, the Periods can become habitual, meaning that a habit (3rdness) governs some period(s). When this happens, the period goes on “auto-pilot,” turning into an invisible background process that goes unnoticed.

For example, when we are driving a car and we face nothing surprising we often notice ourselves being in our thoughts. We have no clear recollection of how we drove the car, what we saw, and how we executed our actions. Everything was so deeply guided by habits, that it all went completely unnoticed.

The habit-taking in the Four Periods form the Four Phases of Semiosis. Each habit forming on a certain period refers to a certain developmental phase in semiosis.

The Four Phases are:

Perceiving/Acting (no habit guiding any period)
Experiencing/Executing (habit guiding the Grounding Period)
Understanding/Instruction (habit guiding the Presentation Period)
Sharing/Controlling (habit guiding the Representation Period)

But let us go through the Four Phases, that is, the four habits on the Four Periods.

Perceiving and Acting

When the habit is forming in the Grounding period, we are actively perceiving. The communication with the environment and information are perceptual. Our actions are mostly automatic and instinctual.

We perceive that that we got a bruise, that the surface is hard, that alarm bell rings and the clock is 6:00, that someone is angry, that the car moves fast, that it is night, flinching, feeling thirsty and drinking water.

Experiencing and Executing

When there is habit guiding the Grounding period, and begins to form in the Presentation period, perception becomes invisible and we look “beyond” the mere perceptual appearance of the sign, and inquire and experience it as “loaded” with meaning. This also allows for more deliberate execution of actions.

We experience letters as words, traffic signs as rules, players as part of a team, brands as signs of status, play and pause buttons in interfaces, dancing a Fortnite dance, showing the peace sign.

Understanding and Instructing

When habit is guiding the Presentation period, and begins to form in the Representation period, experience becomes invisible and we look beyond the presentational aspect, beyond the “thisness” of things, and move to the general rules that govern and guide presentation and grounding. Presentation is now habitual, so we are dealing with patterns and tendencies, not with something actual and particular. These are patterns are taught by instructing.

We understand cultural customs and traditions, social norms, instructing children to behave, teaching to drive.