The ‘Semiotic Self’: From Peirce and Mead to Wiley and Singer

Norbert Wiley (1994) provides a synthesis of Peirce’s and Mead’s views on the self. The Peirce-Mead ideal type model of the self involves the
I and the me as well as the I and the you. Hence, at each moment we are a combined “me-I-you” in past, present and future.
Milton Singer (1989) discovers the semiotic self through his anthropological research, but does not apply the concept as rigorously as one might
hope. Peirce’s triadic epistemology and Pragmatism is explored to frame his contribution to the semiotic self. His categories
of Firstness, Secondnes and Thirdness are briefly considered. Some anecdotal information about the self in Indic Civilization
is discussed. It is argued that the INSOR model can be useful. The key is to move beyond Cartesian notions and to see the
semotic self as a “semiotic object,” always subject to interpretation by the person engaged in symbolic interaction and exchange.