Something very interesting about Pierce that struck me while I was reading, was his evolution of thought toward the paramount of importance of semiotics, of signs, which he realized were essential to metaphysics, and understanding anything about consciousness more generally.
Schopenhauer’s books/writings in World as Representation, which greatly influenced Nietzsche, indirectly emphasized the importance of signs. The mind is a giant organ for representing the world.
The contents of mind are signs.
Signs have universal properties. Understanding these illuminate what it means to be conscious, possess it, or be possessed by it
Semiotics have been a preoccupation of mine for a long time. It’s not that these are inherent. These structures which represent the world are products of socialization, as much as they are innate to the brain/mind of man.
I’m very interested in sociology for this reason, and anthropology, social psychology, culture etc
William Dare 