Self-reference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-reference is a phenomenon in natural or formal languages consisting of a sentence or formula referring to itself directly, or through some intermediate sentence or formula, or by means of some encoding. In philosophy, it also refers to the ability of a subject to speak of or refer to himself, herself, or itself: to have the kind of thought expressed by the first person pronoun, the word "I" in English.
Self-reference is possible when there are two logical levels, a level and a meta-level. It is most commonly used in mathematics, philosophy, computer programming, and linguistics. Self-referential statements can lead to paradoxes (but see Antinomy for limits on the significance of these).
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[edit] Usage
An example of a self-referential situation is the one of autopoiesis, as the logical organization produces itself the physical structure which creates itself.
In metaphysics, self-reference is subjectivity, while "hetero-reference", as it is called (see Niklas Luhmann), is objectivity.
Self-reference also occurs in literature when an author refers to his work in the context of the work itself. Famous examples include Cervantes's Don Quixote, Denis Diderot's Jacques le fataliste et son maître, Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, many stories by Nikolai Gogol, Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth, and Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author. This is closely related to the concepts of breaking the fourth wall and meta-reference, which often involve self-reference.
The surrealistic painter René Magritte is famous for his self-referential works. His painting The Treachery of Images, shown at right, includes words claiming, in French, that it is not a pipe, the truth of which depends entirely on whether the word "ceci" (in English, "this") refers to the pipe depicted—or to the painting or the sentence itself?
Self-reference is also employed in tautology and in licensed terminology. When a word defines itself (e.g., "Machine: any objects put together mechanically"), the result is a tautology. Such self-references can be quite complex, include full propositions rather than simple words, and produce arguments and terms that require license (accepting them as proof of themselves).
In computer science, self-reference occurs in reflection, where a program can read or modify its own instructions as if they were data. Numerous programming languages support reflection to some extent with varying degrees of expressiveness. Additionally, self-reference is seen in recursion (related to the mathematical recurrence relation), where a code structure refers back to itself during computation.
[edit] Examples
Many of the following examples appear in Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, Metamagical Themas, or I Am a Strange Loop.
[edit] Words
A word that describes itself is called an autological word. This generally applies to adjectives, for example sesquipedalian, but can also apply to other parts of speech, such as TLA, as a three-letter acronym for Three-letter acronym.
See: Appendix:Autological words and Category:Autological words.
[edit] Mathematics
[edit] Sentences
- "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation. (This is a version of the liar paradox, an example of indirect self-reference through a quine, which leads to a paradox.)
- Russell's paradox: The set of all sets which are not elements of themselves (which includes, and therefore does not, and therefore does include itself)
[edit] The Fumblerules
Fumblerules state rules of good grammar and writing through sentences that violate those very rules. George L. Trigg and William Safire have made their own lists, but anyone knowledgeable on grammar can do the same.
[edit] Literature
- beware: do not read this poem by Ishmael Reed - "the hunger of this poem is legendary, it has taken in many victims"
- The Monster at the End of This Book references itself in the title, as well as throughout the story.
- Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman
- The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein considers the universe (multiverse) as an author-manipulated object including the plot in the book itself.
- Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, in which the titular character realizes she is the character of a book.
- The Neverending Story by Michael Ende uses self-reference of the book prominently, when a character (Atreyu) of a story within the story (also called 'Neverending Story') finds a book called the same, and it is the same book the reader is reading.
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers has characters referring to their role in the book and references to the book itself. This includes a list of tips to help better enjoy the book (including several tips not to bother reading large sections of the book), and a guide to its symbols and metaphors.
- Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello involves a collection of people that show up at a play rehearsal claiming to themselves be characters in search of a playwright to help them finish their story. The play plays itself out as a way of (possibly) doing just that.
- You're So Vain, a song by Carly Simon which contains the lyrics, "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."
[edit] Other
- Self-enumerating pangrams
- Article 52 of the Irish Constitution has prohibited publication of Article 52 in official texts since 1938 despite continuing to have the force of law.
- Don't Download This Song by "Weird Al" Yankovic
- Steal This Album! by System of a Down
- Steal This Album by The Coup
- Stigler's law of eponymy is itself an instance of Stigler's law of eponymy
- referring to oneself in third person narrative
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Hofstadter, D. R. (1980). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. New York, Vintage Books.
- Raymond Smullyan (1994), Diagonalization and Self-Reference, Oxford Science Publications, ISBN 0-19-853450-7
[edit] External links
- Self-Referential Story, from the Internet Oracularities #1353
- Elegancelessness A collection of self-references by Paul Niquette
- Self-Referential Aptitude Test, by Jim Propp
- Self-reference and apparent self-reference* Self-reference jokes
- The Paradox of Self-Amendment: A Study of Logic, Law, Omnipotence, and Change, by Peter Suber (Peter Lang Publishing, 1990). A book-length study of self-reference in law. (The book is OP but the full text is free online.)
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Self-Reference in ``Self-Reference in `Self-Reference in ...'", a review of a review of a review of ...
