From design to self-organization, or: A proper structure for a proper function

It is suggested that Charles Sanders Peirce's triadic semiotics provides a framework for a diagrammatic representation of a sign's proper structure. The action of signs is described at the logical and psychological levels. The role of (unconscious) abductive inference is analyzed, and a diagram of reasoning is offered. A series of interpretants transform brute facts into interpretable signs thereby providing human experience with value or meaning. The triadic structure helps in demystifying the relations between Penrose's three worlds when the latter are considered as constituting a semiotic triangle. © Springer 2005.