Luc Steels: A Symbolic Analysis

There has always been a distinguishing factor between humans and animals. What separates humans from animals is our capacity for symbolic representation. Symbolic representation refers to the use of “something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible.” In other words, we assign certain symbols to represent certain objects or situations. Animals can easily link a certain effect with a cause, more specifically, a certain sound with an action. However, humans who are capable of symbolic thought, require the higher-order ability to associate things that might not always have a physical or present correlation. For example, we often envision invisible objects like a “unicorn”, or invisible states like the “future”. Hence, as humans, we are able to access this seemingly virtual and representative world – the symbolic world full of abstractions, …show more content…
Luc Steels, a 21st century scientist, explains how a symbol is a mark used to represent objects in reality. The relationship of symbols to what they stood for is completely arbitrary. Symbols may or may not share a direct relation with what they represent. The association is defined by systematic relationships between the symbols itself. According to Steels, a symbol is grounded when there is a method that assigns the object to a concept associated with the symbol itself.
Steels introduces the idea of a semiotic network - the complex multi-link relationship between objects, symbols, concepts and their methods. For example, when a speaker refers to a particular object, say, an apple, he conveys his intention to the receiver via the word symbol – “a-p-p-l-e”. Subsequently, the receiver uses his method to translate the symbol “a-p-p-l-e” into his own mental interpretation(concept), before identifying the apple in