Abstract

Starting from Bateson’s insight that our mind acts by identifying differences and filtering these through successive levels, a simple formal symbology is proposed to represent the basic elements of knowledge and communication – description, definition and denomination – in order to demonstrate how the cognitive process can be linked to a succession of acts entailing distinction, description, definition and recognition. After defining the notion of the Observational Universe as a vector of dimensions through which the observer filters reality, we construct a technical description (not yet adopting specific language) as a vector of the determinations of those dimensions for a specific object “O”. Thanks to the innate process of analogy and analogical generalization, we start from descriptions repeated for a set of objects – held to be analogous, though different – in order to arrive at the technical definition of a “general object O*”, which in fact represents the concept (idea) of O* as well as the meaning (signified) of the signs that denote it. Gaining knowledge of the world means carrying out descriptions of “O”, constructing definitions of “O*” through which the observer gains knowledge of “O*” as a class of all “Os” and recognizes the latter as elements (examples) of “O*”. The same symbology is applied to define the basic elements of the process of linguistic denomination and the formation of languages through a signification process that couples a technical definition of “O*” – which represents the signified of the “general sign S*” – to the technical definition of “S*”, which represents the signifier of “O*”. Communication is the basis for the arguments made in the final part of the paper, where it is demonstrated that even the the Tarskian correspondence-truth «“the snow is white” is true if and only if the snow is white» requires processes of definition and description which are at the basis of knowledge.