Trademarks in the Light of the Thomas Theorem: a model of a social object ontology

Abstract

The paper considers the reasons for the existence of trademarks as a social phenomenon. The authors reveal three dominant functional explanations: rationalistic, stratification and semantic. A rationalistic model describes a trademark in terms of identifying the source of the goods (the trademark allows the consumer to identify the goods of a particular manufacturer). The stratification explanation defines the function of the trademark in terms of demonstratively maintaining social differentiation and the distribution of prestige. The semantic approach focuses on the trademark as a mental cell in the consumer’s memory archive, which contains information about the product and its associations. All three approaches are characterized by common problems of functional explanation, namely: the logical circle and internal connection with the homeostatic image of the social system. To overcome these problems, the authors propose an approach to the social ontology of trademarks based on the well-known “Thomas theorem”, which allows to establish causal relationships between the subjective and objective world on the basis of the postulation of equality between reality and perception at the level of formation of human actions. The authors demonstrate the explanatory power of the “Thomas theorem” on example of self-fulfilling prophecies that can be observed in the practice of using trademarks, considering the rationalistic, prestigious and semantic functions of trademarks through the prism of this principle.