Abstract

The problem of the relation between the symbol and that which it represents is not only a problem in epistemology, but it has a clear counterpart in formal logic where it may be associated with the theory of types and in empirical sciences, such as psychology, where it is met in a variety of contexts including the dichotomy between learning and instinct or between environment and heredity.Such dualistic distinctions may be shown to be convenient for purposes of decision making within defined contexts and may therefore be meaningful in terms of « practical » problems, but this does not necessarily reflect an underlying dualism in the empirical world.Concepts such as « learning » and « instinct » may be said to have limited operational significance and are thus functions not of our experience as such but of our outlooks upon our experience.