The World as the Totality of Symbols

by Casian STEFAN, Principal Researcher at Essentia Mundi AI Lab. Contact: ai-AT-essentiamundi.com / ai.essentiamundi.com
May.2024.

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An incursion in the first definitions from the Tractatus lead me these days to the conclusion that there is maybe a way to interestingly re-catch the meaning of the statements.

"The world is everything that is the case.
The world is the totality of facts, not of things...
The facts in logical space are the world." etc.

On a former article: the moment we name a thing we make it abstract. What is this abstractness? Also on a former article, we have to pick a frame of reference, otherwise even a descend to the "real" the physics would not be able to define it. (eg. atoms, nothing etc.)

This abstractness when taking the reference as the human defined meaning of the objects, is, I would say, the Symbols.

Maybe the most simple Symbol (as the numeral) and why it is a Symbol, example: the definition of the isosceles right triangle with the measure of 1 as the length of the leg. The Hypotenuse will be the root 2 value, which is irrational.

We operate with Symbols. We domesticate ourselves with Symbols. In this context I would re-phrase the Tractatus lines and check against the meaning of the word symbol.

"The world is the totality of Symbols, not of..."

Where: the things, facts, atomic facts, objects, simple objects, entities, substance, statements, sentences, words, truths, properties, universals, sense datum, states of affair, concepts, pictures ...
follows the Symbols. The Symbols precede them. The Symbols can be composed, and be of any size and complexity. The Symbol is also the tip of the meaning. Beyond the Symbols there lies the limit of my world. I can only see clearer, down the road of Symbols, and recognize them in other systems. Thus can Observe below.

The Symbols of objects: eg. a needle.
The Symbols of social organization: eg. democracy.
The Symbols of entity: eg. a woman.
etc.

The Symbol has always some meaning (complete or not, overlapping or symbols, is also a symbol). We act with them, eg. not with the supporting matter they reside on (a lower frame of reference, we should not overlap.) Eg. in the relation man's attraction to a woman, is not attraction to the flesh/cell as seen, but it is the attraction to the Woman as Symbol. etc. 
From the behavioral to the phenomenological, when we try to articulate something, we operate with Symbols.
Any gesture, any action that grasps at the Symbols, is a measure of intelligence and down to any sign of consciousness.

Symbols are captured within a culture. A culture is captured within a network of shares by the culture's entities. Entities are captured in a Symbols Environment. This, is in turn captured within a physical environment. Physical environment has a supervening relationship to the Symbols environment.

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Exploration by C. Stefan, 24.May.2024 [about]
Last update: 24.May.2024 (versions: *) [versions]
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References: 
C. Stefan - Domestication through Symbols [here].
C. Stefan - Of Environment and Madness [here].