Self-Expression

To define, or to interpret, is to produce an expression. To define 'define', or to interpret 'interpret', is to produce an expression an instance of which is the process that produces the expression. Hence, Definition, and Interpretation, are self-instantiating. But, 'instantiation' is a characterization from the perspective of generality, i. e. given an expression, which is general, an act which the answers the description presented by the expression, is an instance of it, so instantiation proceeds from general to particular. In contrast, 'self-exemplification' originates in the particular, from which generalization emerges, e. g. as Kantian 'universalization' is rarely appreciated as meaning. Similarly, Definition and Interpretation are self-expressive processes, i. e. they are processes of coming-to-expression in which what the produced expression expresses, first and foremost, is the process that produces it. Hence, the usual use of 'self-expression'--i. e. in which there is a pre-existing 'self', e. g. an artist, that proceeds to produce an expression, the content of which pre-exists the act of expression, e. g. a mood of the artist--is derivative.