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Dicisigns and cognition: The logical interpretation of the ventral-dorsal split in animal perception

  • Frederik Stjernfelt is a professor at the University of Copenhagen, teaching semiotics, intellectual history and theory of science. He has published, inter alia, the books Diagrammatology (2007), Democratic Contradictions of Multiculturalism (with J.M. Eriksen, 2012), and Natural Propositions (in press).

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Published/Copyright: May 8, 2014
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Cognitive Semiotics
From the journal Cognitive Semiotics Volume 7 Issue 1

Abstract

The paper is a critical investigation of the linguist James Hurford's bold proposal that animal cognition conforms to basic logical structure – particularly striking in the ventral-dorsal split of visual perception. The overall argument is that dorsal processing of visual information isolates the subject of a simple, perceptual proposition, while ventral processing addresses the corresponding predicate aspect – the two indicating and categorizing the object of perception, respectively. The paper investigates some of the problems in Hurford's interpretation – particularly his refusal of animal proto-language to have anything corresponding to constants or proper names and his idea that all such propositions must be monovalent only (and thus not addressing relations). As an alternative to Hurford's psychological interpretation of Frege for his logical basis, Peirce's theory of propositions – so-called “Dicisigns” – is proposed.

Keywords: logic; ventral-dorsal; propositions; Hurford; animal cognition

About the author

Frederik Stjernfelt

Frederik Stjernfelt is a professor at the University of Copenhagen, teaching semiotics, intellectual history and theory of science. He has published, inter alia, the books Diagrammatology (2007), Democratic Contradictions of Multiculturalism (with J.M. Eriksen, 2012), and Natural Propositions (in press).

Published Online: 2014-5-8
Published in Print: 2014-5-1

©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editors' note
  3. Image schemas, mimetic schemas and children's gestures
  4. Co-constructing referential space in multimodal narratives
  5. Dicisigns and cognition: The logical interpretation of the ventral-dorsal split in animal perception
  6. Complexities of cognition in poetic art: Matthew Arnold's “The Last Word”
  7. Thinking together with material representations: Joint epistemic actions in creative problem solving
  8. Book Reviews
  9. The language of poetry
  10. Semiotics put to the test
  11. Interweaving narratology and experimental psychology
  12. The communicative mind
https://doi.org/10.1515/cogsem-2014-0004
Keywords for this article
logic; ventral-dorsal; propositions; Hurford; animal cognition

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editors' note
  3. Image schemas, mimetic schemas and children's gestures
  4. Co-constructing referential space in multimodal narratives
  5. Dicisigns and cognition: The logical interpretation of the ventral-dorsal split in animal perception
  6. Complexities of cognition in poetic art: Matthew Arnold's “The Last Word”
  7. Thinking together with material representations: Joint epistemic actions in creative problem solving
  8. Book Reviews
  9. The language of poetry
  10. Semiotics put to the test
  11. Interweaving narratology and experimental psychology
  12. The communicative mind
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