Mediation from Latin mediare, to be in the middle, medius – middle.
Mediation is the process of connecting things that would otherwise be unrelated; or the result of such a process.
This idea is important for semiotics, as signs perform the function of mediation.
When I put on my glasses, they mediate between my eyes and my visual field. When the curtain falls on the theater, it stands – and thus mediates – between the audience and the artists, who only a moment ago were visible to it. In both cases, it is a pre-process of mediating something between two other things. However, the result of such a process, as the examples show, is quite different. When I put on my glasses, they mediate in a way that makes available what would otherwise be beyond my ability to see, but when the curtain falls, it mediates by obscuring what was visible to the public only a moment ago.
In most circumstances, the result of such a process is an open question: whether mediation brings things together or divides them. The answer to this question can only be found in a case-by-case examination. Many attempts to define a sign and its general meaning focus on another function (for example, the function of one thing standing in place of something other than itself, or that of representing an object, or that of creating an interpretant).
The function of mediating or gathering things that would otherwise be separated or unrelated is considered to be the most important in considering what, correctly speaking, we might call a sign.
Given the very general and abstract nature of many terms in semiotics.
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