Abstract
As an application of their channel theory, Barwise & Seligman sketched a set-theoretic model of representation systems. Their model has the attraction of capturing many important logical properties of diagrams, but few attempts have been made to apply it to actual diagrammatic systems. We attribute this to a lack of precision in their explanation of what their model is about—what a “representation system” is. In this paper, we propose a concept of representation system on the basis of Barwise & Seligman’s original ideas, supplemented by Millikan’s theory of reproduction. On this conception, a representation system is a family of individual representational acts formed through a repetitive reproduction process that preserves a set of syntactic and semantic constraints. We will show that this concept lets us identify a piece of reality that the Barwise-Seligman model is concerned with, making the model ready for use in the logical analysis of real-world representation systems.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barwise, J., Seligman, J.: Information Flow: the Logic of Distributed Systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997)
Shimojima, A.: On the Efficacy of Representation. PhD thesis, Department of Philosophy, Indiana University (1996)
Shimojima, A.: Semantic properties of diagrams and their cognitive potentials (book in preparation)
Shin, S.J.: The logical status of diagrams. Cambridge U. P., Cambridge (1994)
Howse, J., Molina, F., Taylor, J., Kent, S., Gil, J.Y.: Spider diagrams: A diagrammatic reasoning system. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing 12, 299–324 (2001)
Miller, N.: Euclid and his twentieth century rivals: Diagrams in the logic of Euclidean geometry. CSLI Publications, Stanford (2007)
Millikan, R.G.: Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories: New Foundation for Realism. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1984)
Millikan, R.G.: On clear and confused ideas: An essay about substance concepts. Cambridge U. P., Cambridge (2000)
Lewis, D.: Languages and language. In: Philosophical Papers, pp. 93–115. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1975/1985) (Originally published in 1975)
Barwise, J., Perry, J.: Situations and Attitudes. CSLI Publications, Stanford (1983/1999) (Originally published from MIT Press in 1983)
Barwise, J.: Logic and information. In: The Situation in Logic, pp. 37–57. CSLI Publications, Stanford (1989)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Shimojima, A., Barker-Plummer, D. (2014). The Barwise-Seligman Model of Representation Systems: A Philosophical Explication. In: Dwyer, T., Purchase, H., Delaney, A. (eds) Diagrammatic Representation and Inference. Diagrams 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8578. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44043-8_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44043-8_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-44042-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-44043-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)