Folklore Semiotic: Charles Peirce and the Experience of Signs
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Notes on Peirce's Semiotics and Epistemology
DIAGRAMMATIC THINKING: NOTES ON PEIRCE’S SEMIOTICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY Luis Radford In this paper, I discuss the role of diagrammatic thinking within the larger context of cognitive activity as framed by Peirce’s semiotic theory of and its underpinning realistic ontology. After a short overview of Kant’s scepticism in its historical context, I examine Peirce’s attempt to rescue perception as a way to reconceptualize the Kantian “manifold of senses”. I argue that Peirce’s redemption of perception led him to a se- ries of problems that are as fundamental as those that Kant encountered. I contend that the understanding of the difficulties of Peirce’s epistemol- ogy allows us to better grasp the limits and possibilities of diagrammatic thinking. Keywords: Culture; Diagrammatic thinking; Kant; Peirce; Perception; Semiotics Pensamiento Diagramático: Notas sobre la Semiótica y la Epistemología de Peirce En este artículo se discute el papel que desempeña el concepto de pen- samiento diagramático en el contexto de la actividad cognitiva, tal y como es concebida dentro del marco de la teoría semiótica de Peirce y su subyacente ontología realista. Luego de presentar una visión general del escepticismo kantiano en su contexto histórico, se examina el esfuer- zo de Peirce por rescatar la percepción, esfuerzo que lo lleva a indagar de manera innovadora el “multiespacio de los sentidos” del que habla- ba Kant. Se mantiene que este esfuerzo lleva a Peirce a una serie de problemas que son tan fundamentales como los que Kant encontró en su propio itinerario epistemológico. Se sostiene que la comprensión de las dificultades intrínsecas a la epistemología de Peirce nos permite cernir mejor los límites y posibilidades de su pensamiento diagramático. -
Chaosmosis : an Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm I Felix Guattari ; Translated by Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis
Chaosmosis an ethico-aesthetic paradigm Felix Guattari translated by Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS BLOOMINGTON & INDIANAPOLIS English translation© 1995, Power Institute, Paul Bains, and Julian Pefanis Chaosmosis was originally published in French as Chaosmose. © 1992, Editions Galilee All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses' Resolutions on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39 .48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guattari, Felix. [Chaosmose. English] Chaosmosis : an ethico-aesthetic paradigm I Felix Guattari ; translated by Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-253-32945-0 (alk. paper). - ISBN 0-253-21004-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Psychoanalysis-Philosophy. 2. Subjectivity. I. Title. BFl 75.G81313 1995' 95-31403 194-dc20 1 2 3 4 5 00 99 98 97 96 95 On the planking, on the ship's bulwarks, on the sea, with the course of the sun through the sky and the ship, an unreadable and wrenching script takes shape, takes shape and destroys itself at the same slow pace - shadows, spines, shafts of broken light refocused in the angles, the triangles of a fleeting geometry that yields to the shadow of the ocean waves. -
Semiotics As a Cognitive Science
Elmar Holenstein Semiotics as a Cognitive Science The explanatory turn in the human sciences as well as research in "artifi- cial intelligence" have led to a little discussed revival of the classical Lockean sub-discipline of semiotics dealing with mental representations - aka "ideas" - under the heading of "cognitive science". Intelligent be- haviour is best explained by retuming to such obviously semiotic catego- ries as representation, gmbol, code, program, etc. and by investigations of the format of the mental representations. Pictorial and other "sub-linguisric" representations might be more appropriate than linguistic ones. CORRESPONDENCE: Elmar Holenstein. A-501,3-51-1 Nokendal, Kanazawa-ku Yoko- hama-shl, 236-0057, Japan. EMAIL [email protected] The intfa-semiotic cognitive tum Noam Chomsky's declaration that linguistics is a branch of psychology was understood by traditional linguists as an attack on the autonomous status of their science, a status which older structuralism endorsed by incorporating language (as a special sign system) into semiotics. Semiotics seemed to assure that genuinely linguistic relationships (grammatical and semantic relationships) were not rashly reduced to psychological or biological relationships (such as associations or adaptations). If it is looked at more closely in conjunction with the general development of the sciences in the 20th Century, the difference between Chomsky (1972: 28), who regards linguistics as a subfield of psychol- ogy, and Ferdinand de Saussure (1916: 33), for whom it is primarily a branch of "semiology", comes down to the fact that Saussure assigns linguistics in a descriptive perspective to universal semiotics, whereas Chomsky assigns it in an explanatory perspective to a special semiotics. -
Dialogism and Biosemiotics
Dialogism and biosemiotics AUGUSTO PONZIO The notions of ‘modeling’ and ‘interrelation’ play a pivotal role in Sebeok’s biosemiotics. In dialogue with Thomas A. Sebeok’s doctrine of signs, we propose to inquire into the action of modeling and interrelation in biosemiosis over the planet Earth, developing the concept of interrelation in terms of ‘dialogism’. Indeed, in the light of Sebeok’s biosemiotics we believe that the concept of dialogism may be extended beyond the sphere of anthroposemiosis and applied to all communication processes, which may be described as being grounded not only in the concept of modeling, but also in that of dialogism. And remembering that the concept of dialogue is fundamental in Charles S. Peirce’s thought system, we also propose that the approach we are formulating be viewed as an attempt at developing the Peircean matrix of biosemiotics. Modeling systems theory and global semiotics ‘Modeling’ and ‘interrelation’ among species-specific semioses over the entire planet Earth are two issues that Thomas A. Sebeok’s puts at the center of his ‘doctrine of signs’ — the expression he prefers to ‘science of signs’ or ‘theory of signs’. The present paper focuses on these two topics developing them in the light of our own personal perspective. The term ‘dialogism’ in the present paper designates a development with respect to the condition of interrelation in global semiosis, as described by Sebeok. In our opinion modeling and dialogism are the basis of all communication processes. Another pivotal topic in Sebeok’s ‘doctrine of signs’ is his belief that humans alone are capable of ‘semiotics’, that is, of consciousness, of what we may designate as ‘metasemiosis’, the capacity to suspend the immediacy of semiosic activity and deliberate. -
Roman Jakobson, Parallelism, and Structural Poetics
Chapter 2 Roman Jakobson, Parallelism, and Structural Poetics In the early to mid-twentieth century these very issues regarding the conver- gence of poetics, style, language, and discourse structure were being exten- sively explored by eastern European literary theorists.1 The discipline that eventually emerged from the movement became variously known as, “critical theory, semiotics, structuralism, literary linguistics, cultural studies,”2 and one could add “structural poetics.” The movement was also in many ways a pre- cursor to DA. Structural poetics pioneered the analysis of literature, namely poetry, as discursive linguistic communicative function, or to use their termi- nology, a “semiotic system.” Saussurean structural linguistics functioned as the theoretical bedrock for evaluating literary texts as discourse. It is to Saussure’s theory of language that we now turn. 2.1 Structuralism, Structural Semiotics, Linguistics, and Discursivity French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure innovatively conceptualised language (Fr. langue) as an integrated and organised system of signs (i.e., semiotic sys- tem) whose various parts, or constituents (i.e., signs or signifiers), are only properly understood as a part of the greater structural (i.e., semiotic) system. Saussure conceived of gross constituent units, or “constituents” for short, as ar- bitrary signifiers (signs) that point to something meaningful (signified). There is a distinction, then, between the signified (meaning) and the signifier (form). The sign, or signifier, is the form that that which is meaningful (i.e., signified) takes within the system of forms. Implicit to this concept of the signifier and the signified is the idea that signification is activated precisely through the sign’s place within the greater 1 This movement is most directly associated with various schools of literary linguistic theory including New Criticism, Russian Formalism (or simply “formalism”), the Prague School, Structuralism, and Czech Structuralism. -
Bakhtin's Theory of the Literary Chronotope: Reflections, Applications, Perspectives
literary.chronotope.book Page 3 Tuesday, May 4, 2010 5:47 PM BAKHTIN'S THEORY OF THE LITERARY CHRONOTOPE: REFLECTIONS, APPLICATIONS, PERSPECTIVES Nele Bemong, Pieter Borghart, Michel De Dobbeleer, Kristoffel Demoen, Koen De Temmerman & Bart Keunen (eds.) literary.chronotope.book Page 4 Tuesday, May 4, 2010 5:47 PM © Academia Press Eekhout 2 9000 Gent T. (+32) (0)9 233 80 88 F. (+32) (0)9 233 14 09 [email protected] www.academiapress.be The publications of Academia Press are distributed by: Belgium: J. Story-Scientia nv Wetenschappelijke Boekhandel Sint-Kwintensberg 87 B-9000 Gent T. 09 255 57 57 F. 09 233 14 09 [email protected] www.story.be The Netherlands: Ef & Ef Eind 36 NL-6017 BH Thorn T. 0475 561501 F. 0475 561660 Rest of the world: UPNE, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA (www.upne.com) Nele Bemong, Pieter Borghart, Michel De Dobbeleer, Kristoffel Demoen, Koen De Temmerman & Bart Keunen (eds.) Bakhtin's Theory of the Literary Chronotope: Reflections, Applications, Perspectives Proceedings of the workshop entitled “Bakhtin’s Theory of the Literary Chronotope: Reflections, Applications, Perspectives” (27-28 June 2008) supported by the Royal Flemish Academy for Sciences and the Arts. Gent, Academia Press, 2010, v + 213 pp. ISBN 978 90 382 1563 1 D/2010/4804/84 U 1414 Layout: proxess.be Cover: Steebz/KHUAN No part of this publication may be reproduced in print, by photocopy, microfilm or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. literary.chronotope.book Page i Tuesday, May 4, 2010 5:47 PM I CONTENTS Preface . -
Peirce's Theory of Communication and Its Contemporary Relevance
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen Peirce’s Theory of Communication and Its Contemporary Relevance Introduction The mobile era of electronic communication has created a huge semi- otic system, constructed out of triadic components envisaged by the American scientist and philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914), such as icons, indices and symbols, and signs, objects and interpretants. Iconic signs bear a physical resemblance to what they represent. Indices point at something and say “there!”, and symbols signify objects by conven- tions of a community.1 All signs give rise to interpretants in the minds of the interpreters. It is nonetheless regrettable that the somewhat simplistic triadic ex- posé of Peirce’s theory of signs has persisted in semiotics as the some- how exhaustive and final description of what Peirce intended. The more fascinating and richer structure of signs emerging from their intimate relation to intercommunication and interaction (Peirce’s terms) has been noted much less frequently. Despite this shortcoming, the full Peircean road to inquiry – per- formed by the dynamic community of learning inquirers, or the com- 1 In fact, according to Peirce (2.278 [1895]): “The only way of directly communi- cating an idea is by means of an icon; and every indirect method of communicating an idea must depend for its establishment upon the use of an icon.” Peirce’s chef d’œuvre came shortly after these remarks into being as his diagrammatic system of existential graphs, a thoroughly iconic representation of and a way of reasoning about “moving pictures of thought”, which encompassed not only propositional and predicate logic, but also modalities, higher-order notions, abstraction and category-theoretic notions. -
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Palacký University, Olomouc Roman O. Jakobson: A Work in Progress edited and with an introduction by Tomáš Kubíček and Andrew Lass Olomouc 2014 Recenzenti: prof. PhDr. Petr A. Bílek, CSc. prof. PhDr. Dagmar Mocná, CSc. Publikace vznikla v rámci projektu Inovace bohemistických studií v mezioborových kontextech. Tento projekt je spolufi nancován Evropským sociálním fondem a státním rozpočtem České republiky. Zpracování a vydání publikace bylo umožněno díky fi nanční podpoře udělené roku 2014 Ministerstvem školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy ČR v rámci Institucionálního rozvojového plánu, programu V. Excelence, Filozofi cké fakultě Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci: Zlepšení publikačních možností akademických pedagogů ve fi lologických a humanitních oborech. Neoprávněné užití tohoto díla je porušením autorských práv a může zakládat občanskoprávní, správněprávní, popř. trestněprávní odpovědnost. Editors © Tomáš Kubíček and Andrew Lass, 2014 © Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2014 ISBN 978-80-244-4386-7 Neprodejná publikace Content Introduction .................................................................................................................5 Parallelism in prose ...................................................................................................11 Wolf Schmid Reopening the “Closing statement”: Jakobson’s factors and functions in our Google Galaxy .......................................25 Peter W. Nesselroth Elective Affi nities: Roman Jakobson, Claude Lévi-Strauss and his Antropologie Structurale ..............................................................................37 -
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Psychosemiotics: communication as psychological action Marko Mili Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) University of Western Sydney November 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my wife Juliana Payne for her patience, accessibility for debate on all issues, practical assistance, and help in avoiding clichés like the plague. My parents Petar and Nediljka Mili shared their enthusiasm for learning and balanced their encouragement with flexibility about the direction that their influence took. My sister, Angela Mili, provided moral and practical support. To my extended family—Ante, Maria, Mirko, Lina, Kristina, Anthony, and Nikolas Mili; and Steve and Veronica Harwood—thank you for your support for this project. Thanks to Megan McDonald for helpful grammatical-stylistic suggestions and to Domagoj Veli, who has been an enthusiastic supporter of this project from the beginning. Professor Philip Bell, Professor Theo van Leeuwen, Dr Scott Mann and Dr Phillip Staines provided me with valuable opportunities to assist in teaching their courses in mass media, semiotics, social theory and the philosophy of language. This experience has significantly enhanced the present work. My supervisor, Dr Agnes Petocz, consistently provided detailed and incisive feedback throughout the conception and execution of this work. Her vision of a richer science of psychology has been inspirational for me. As co-supervisor, Professor Philip Bell has been an exemplary mentor and model for post- disciplinary research. ii STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in whole or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. -
A Prologue to Charles Sanders Peirce's Theory of Signs
In Lieu of Saussure: A Prologue to Charles Sanders Peirce’s Theory of Signs E. San Juan, Jr. Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical consciousness that exists also for other men, and for that reason alone it really exists for me personally as well; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men. – Karl Marx, The German Ideology (1845-46) General principles are really operative in nature. Words [such as Patrick Henry’s on liberty] then do produce physical effects. It is madness to deny it. The very denial of it involves a belief in it. – C.S. Peirce, Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism (1903) The era of Saussure is dying, the epoch of Peirce is just struggling to be born. Although pragmatism has been experiencing a renaissance in philosophy in general in the last few decades, Charles Sanders Peirce, the “inventor” of this anti-Cartesian, scientific- realist method of clarifying meaning, still remains unacknowledged as a seminal genius, a polymath master-thinker. William James’s vulgarized version has overshadowed Peirce’s highly original theory of “pragmaticism” grounded on a singular conception of semiotics. Now recognized as more comprehensive and heuristically fertile than Saussure’s binary semiology (the foundation of post-structuralist textualisms) which Cold War politics endorsed and popularized, Peirce’s “semeiotics” (his preferred rubric) is bound to exert a profound revolutionary influence. Peirce’s triadic sign-theory operates within a critical- realist framework opposed to nominalism and relativist nihilism (Liszka 1996). I endeavor to outline here a general schema of Peirce’s semeiotics and initiate a hypothetical frame for interpreting Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s’ Ghost, an exploratory or Copyright © 2012 by E. -
Picasso's Cubism: Politics And/Or Semiosis
MIT 4.602, Modern Art and Mass Culture (HASS-D+CI) Spring 2012 Professor Caroline A. Jones Notes History, Theory and Criticism Section. Department of Architecture Lecture 10 SERIALISM & SEMIOSIS: Lecture 10: Picasso's Cubism: Politics and/or Semiosis 1990: Picasso's primitivism is part of a cultural discourse in which "Africa" conveyed widely accepted meanings that cannot be extricated from allusions to its art and people. - Patricia Leighton, 'The White Peril and I 'art m?gre ... " 1981 /'98: The extraordinary contribution of collage is that it is the first instance within the pictorial arts of anything like a systematic exploration of the conditions of representability entailed by the sign. - Rosalind Krauss, "In the Name of Picasso" I. Picasso's escape via Paris: from paternal academy, and provincialism A. The international "Youth Style" (Jugendstil, Joven Tut, Arte Joven magazines) B. Impressionist modes and motives, Barcelona -> Paris C. "Blue period" 1) the depressed fliineur (harlequin) 2) a "Moorish" Spaniard in France II. Picasso's escape from Paris: The Demoiselles d' A vignon A. Picasso's self-described "exorcism" - of what? B. The way modem abstraction works 1) African sculpture as "raisonnable ,. (conceptual) 2) towards a system of visual signs (away from representing towards signifying) C. Colonialist critique through performing the primitive (how different from Gauguin?) III. Cubism- hermetic language, or popular culture? A. "Braque, c 'est ma femme" - the codes of a private language 1) Georges Braque - wit, conceptualism, pattern, (French) fancypaint traditions 2) Pablo Picasso - weight, sculptural concerns, "modeling," oscillations between depth! surface B. The force of caricature in the portraits C. -
A Semiotic Theory of Music: According to a Peircean Rationale
A SEMIOTIC THEORY OF MUSIC: ACCORDING TO A PEIRCEAN RATIONALE The Sixth International Conference on Musical Signification University of Helsinki Université de Provence (Aix-Marselle I) Aix-en-Provence, December 1-5, 1998 José Luiz Martinez (Ph.D.) [1] The recent growth of musical applications of Peirce’s general theory of signs, such as in the works of David Lidov (1986), Robert Hatten (1994), William Dougherty (1993, 1994), shows that this approach, once set properly in both musical and semiotic contexts, has great analytical power on questions of musical signification. In this paper I will present the structure of a semiotic theory of music, as demonstrated in my doctoral dissertation, Semiosis in Hindustani Music (Imatra: International Semiotics Institute), submitted and approved by the University of Helsinki in 1997. [2] Peirce, in his studies of semiotics, concluded that thought is only possible by means of signs (vide CP 1.538, 4.551, 5.253). Music is a species of thought; and thus, the idea that music is sign and depends on significative processes, or semiosis, is obviously true. A musical sign can be a system, a composition or its performance, a musical form, a style, a composer, a musician, hers or his instrument, and so on. According to Peirce, signification occurs in a triadic relation of a sign and the object it stands for to an interpretant (CP 6.347), which - in music - is another sign developed in the mind of a listener, musician, composer, analyst or critic. [3] In Peirce’s classification of the sciences, semiotics (or semeiotic) has three branches: Speculative Grammar, Critic and Methodeutic (or Speculative Rhetoric) (CP 1.192).