The mirage of the world of ideas and symbols

1. The signifier and the signified.

The so-called signifier is the living real world that has not been abstracted and simplified; and the referent is the world of ideas that is becoming more and more powerful in its self-abstraction and self-verification.

Humans created symbols such as language and writing, and then named all perceptible things in nature. Every naming is a simplification and abstraction of things. This creates distortion.

What’s worse is that in the process of dissemination and use of symbols, they have to face the end of increasingly rich meanings and increasingly blurred boundaries. Just like a rag used to clean a table is scrubbed in a basin of water, the water will inevitably become dirtier and dirtier.

So, if we use symbols as tools to explore the real world and ourselves, can we reach the truth?

We can understand the relationship between symbols and the real world with the help of the structure of the symbols themselves.

Linguist Saussure divided signs into two parts, which we often call the signified and the signifier.

Refers to a concept, such as orange. The concept of oranges in your mind is the result of abstracting all the oranges you have seen and eaten.

The signifier refers to the material part of a symbol, such as the pronunciation of the word "orange" when you say it with your mouth, or the pronunciation of the word "orange" when you write it with a pen. handwriting.

Distinguishing symbols into signifiers and signifiers just makes it easier for you to understand the internal structure of the symbol, just like cutting an orange open so you can see inside. But the signifier and the signified are inseparable.

In Saussure's own words: "A signifier without a signifier has no meaning, and a signifier without a signifier is unimaginable."

There is no signifier, just like a baby's babbling, or a child's scribbling on paper. The reason why "signified without signifier" is unimaginable is because any concept must be carried on material forms that can be perceived by the senses, that is, sounds and words.

2. The world of ideas

Through symbols, we recreate a world, just like nature creates a mirage with light. But the symbolic world is much worse than a mirage.

Why?

First, a mirage is just a faithful refraction of light in the real world, but this is not the case with symbols. After we invented language and writing, we were not only keen on naming all perceivable things in nature, but also invented countless abstract concepts that did not exist in nature.

Second, mirages have no impact on the real world, but the power of human beings to construct concepts through symbols has a destructive power on the real world. Just like Heine's famous saying: "Don't underestimate the power of ideas. Philosophical ideas grown in a professor's quiet study can destroy a civilization."

The symbolic world describes the real world, evaluates the real world, and gives meaning to the real world, but it is not the real world itself. On the contrary, because the symbols themselves produce symbols, branches and vines grow side by side and mountains are stacked on top of each other, like a wildly growing tumor.

But just like a tumor cannot live without its host, the world of symbols cannot exist independently from the real world. Once separated from the real world, symbols are ultimately a void of meaning.