Distinction Is Sufficient

> Spencer Brown’s seminal work Laws of Form presents an iconic algebra that can be interpreted as propositional logic. Laws of Form launches us into a postsymbolic territory where spatial forms condense symbolic complexity, where there is no syntax/semantics barrier, where objects are united with processes, where absence is a primary conceptual tool, and where the viewing perspective of the reader is directly implicated within the form. When applied to logic, Spencer Brown’s iconic arithmetic challenges a foundational assumption of Western thought, that rationality requires dualism. By comparing seven different conceptual and notational formal systems to laws of form, the article traces in detail how one accustomed to symbolic thinking might misunderstand Spencer Brown’s iconic forms. Spatial notation provides structural room for both breadth and depth of expression, resulting in an economy of concepts. Laws of form incorporates only one relation (containment), fully expressing Boolean logic within an algebra consisting of one binary function, one variable, and one constant. Transcribing laws of form into string notation converts depth of nesting into threaded replicas of labels that impose computational constraints such as serial reading and syntactic ordering. Sets and logic are too much mechanism. Distinction, as described by both Spencer Brown and Bateson, is sufficient for rationality.