Signification Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The author argues that Günter Figal sheds novel light on language in his recent Objectivity: The Hermeneutical and Philosophy through a debate he appears to stage with the position Jacques Derrida develops in some of his early essays on... more

The author argues that Günter Figal sheds novel light on language in his recent Objectivity: The Hermeneutical and Philosophy through a debate he appears to stage with the position Jacques Derrida develops in some of his early essays on deconstruction. Figal describes language as a form of showing and emphasizes the openness and flexibility of expression involved in determining significance. Yet, he rejects the idea he finds in Derrida that such flexibility should lead us to wholesale suspicion of the capacity of language to fix significance. Whereas Derrida concludes that all attempts to fix significance through supplementation of our expressions can only end in the need for further supplementation, Figal stresses the dialectical mien of language that allows supplementation to yield genuinely determinate significances.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the... more

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

The article explores the ikat clothes from viewpoint of fetishism

FROM THE BACK COVER: What is the essential nature of meaning? . . . . . This book answers by examining interpretive theories from the past and present. It finds that an historical struggle with meaning has been underway since the... more

FROM THE BACK COVER: What is the essential nature of meaning? . . . . . This book answers by examining interpretive theories from the past and present. It finds that an historical struggle with meaning has been underway since the Reformation, a struggle that reaches crisis proportions in the 20th century. On the one hand, this crisis is mollified by Heidegger's hermeneutical phenomenology, which argues that we are always already in a meaningful relationship to the objects of the world. On the other hand, this crisis is exacerbated when phenomenology, structuralism, and aesthetic theory directly make meaning into an object of study. . . . . . . . . These historical developments culminate with the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, whose non-hermeneutical phenomenology delimits a cause of meaning said to be closely linked to the core of subjectivity. Intriguingly, Lacan's work reveals meaning to be sexual in nature. By integrating his notion of sexual difference with his work in discourse theory and topology, this book demonstrates how the subject's struggle with meaning can be suspended.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Broadly speaking, the majority of books on Jacques Lacan focus on the earlier periods of his career. They also tend to target the psychoanalytic clinical community, or else discuss his work in various political, social, and cultural contexts. But in almost all cases these books refrain from a detailed exegesis of his actual texts. They instead prefer to comment on his theoretical apparatus as a whole before turning to its practical implications. . . . . . This book positions itself against this grain. Firstly, it closely analyzes some half-dozen key Lacanian texts. This analysis is organized under a single thematic – the question of meaning – in order to advance the reader's understanding of the trajectory of Lacan's thought across his entire career, as well as to promote the book's thesis that the field of meaning can be suspended. Accordingly, an initial chapter takes up the hermeneutical tradition from Flacius onward. This is then supplemented by a chapter which surveys phenomenological, structuralist and aesthetic theories of meaning and their differing methods of textual analysis. Together these two chapters provide a unique context for the sustained analysis of Lacan's texts which begins in the third chapter, an analysis that forms the bulk of the book's content. This contextualization potentially widens the book's appeal to any scholar wishing to explore his relationship to those textual objects he interacts with on a daily basis. And because this book assumes the reader has little to no familiarity with Lacan, the reader will find patient explanations of the basics of his theories before slowly being led up to the more difficult theories of his late years. Again the argument is that Lacan has something to offer all scholars. His work is not just reserved for psychoanalysts. . . . . . It is with his late theories that the serious student of Lacan will find the book's most original contribution. For in the fourth chapter a detailed account is provided of how Lacan derived his infamous formulae of sexuation from Aristotelian logic. These formulae are then extensively discussed against the backdrop of interpretive theory and textual analysis, showing how these formulae capture much more than just the difference between the sexes. Strikingly, this difference is also found to run through meaning itself, something the final chapter aims to demonstrate. It does this by amalgamating three key components of late-Lacan: sexuation, discourse theory and his use of topological spaces. This amalgamation is a first in the literature. But this amalgamation is not just useful in demonstrating the book's thesis. It further suggests how seemingly divergent aspects of late-Lacanian theory can be made to work together.

Although codes have been readily scrutinized in their literary and visual contexts standing on their own, it is worth examining the recent reappearance of the image as text. As was vital to language systems such as hieroglyphs, as well as... more

Although codes have been readily scrutinized in their literary and visual contexts standing on their own, it is worth examining the recent reappearance of the image as text. As was vital to language systems such as hieroglyphs, as well as in the import of images upon the written word in emblematic literature of the Renaissance, images have become the means by which emotions are conveyed in otherwise sparse text messages and social media posts. In comparing the modern usage of emoji – sometimes referred to as “smiley faces” in contemporary communication systems to Saussure’s conceptions of “langue” and “parole,” the quotidian system of signification of emoji will be considered as a new system of language in the advent of the technology age.

This paper proposes that advertising work and therefore testing be viewed from a new theoretical perspective; that of modern semiotics. This perspective gives new insight into the constructive nature of meaning, the system of... more

This paper proposes that advertising work and therefore testing be viewed from a new theoretical perspective; that of modern semiotics. This perspective gives new insight into the constructive nature of meaning, the system of signification, the dominant role of the signifier over the signified, and the active participation of the individual in receiving and constructing messages. Within this framework, it is proposed that a clear understanding of advertising work/effectiveness arises when investigation of the form, i.e. the system through which the content/message of an ad is constructed, gains primary importance in the research process. Utilising a constructive approach to advertising work allows for a reliable understanding of the relationships which produce meaning; as these are constructed by the consumer and utilised in defining sense of social and self-identity.

"This work investigates Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', one of the exemplary heteronormative love stories in Western culture. By engaging in new queer or pomosexual readings of Shakespeare's text, in relation to various adaptations,... more

"This work investigates Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', one of the exemplary heteronormative love stories in Western culture. By engaging in new queer or pomosexual readings of Shakespeare's text, in relation to various adaptations, including 'Shakespeare in Love, Tromeo and Juliet ', and 'Get Real', this thesis challenges the traditional heteronormative reading of the play and argues that the play itself is queer. I argue that queering involves the non-normative and disruptive process(es) of reading texts. Adaptation, as a process of re-writing/disrupting a normative, 'originary,' historically situated text, is by definition a queer process. 'Romeo and Juliet' is a historical text that has been adapted, and thus queered, numerous times; Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is itself an adaptation and therefore is always already a queer text. Thus, adaptations of Shakespeare's text are necessarily involved in queering the queer(ed): a pomosexual process that ultimately leads to the breakdown of the normative signification system."

Il contributo si propone di produrre un’introduzione sistematica e meditata ad alcune premesse fondamentali della semantica di Giovanni Buridano, il famoso maestro che insegnò all’università di Parigi nel XIV secolo. Inizialmente,... more

Il contributo si propone di produrre un’introduzione sistematica e meditata ad alcune premesse fondamentali della semantica di Giovanni Buridano, il famoso maestro che insegnò all’università di Parigi nel XIV secolo. Inizialmente, l’attenzione è posta sulla cosiddetta dottrina dei “livelli linguistici”, la quale prevede il riconoscimento di tre tipologie divergenti di oratio (scritta, vocale e mentale), e ai parallelismi di tipo semantico, e non sintattico, sussistenti tra di essi. Proseguendo su questa scia, viene trattata la differenza tra termini significativi ad placitum e naturaliter e si riflette – non senza allusioni alla cultura contemporanea – sui divergenti meccanismi impositivo-istitutivi descritti dal maestro piccardo, che condurrebbero all’istituzione e all’elaborazione di nuove tipologie di linguaggio. Successivamente, il focus è posto sulla rielaborazione originale – proposta nei primi paragrafi del De suppositionibus – della nozione di significatio, che viene non soltanto ad assumere una predisposizione cognitivo-intensionale, ma si configura come un processo che, insediandosi nelle normali dinamiche comunicative, può dirsi compiuto soltanto quando c’è un reale intendimento tra le parti. Nelle pagine conclusive, inoltre, viene evidenziata la profonda coerenza di buona parte dei contenuti della semantica buridanea con questa impostazione di base.

Contemporary geographical thought is constrained by a political economic imagination rooted in binarism, which is exemplified in debates surrounding neoliberalism. Neoliberal proponents call for decentralization and increased capital... more

Contemporary geographical thought is constrained by a political economic imagination rooted in binarism, which is exemplified in debates surrounding neoliberalism. Neoliberal proponents call for decentralization and increased capital flows, while Marxists respond by pairing centralization with capitalism’s abrogation. The latter view considers hierarchy necessary, a position that promotes authority and regards horizontal politics as propitious to neoliberalism. Anarchism’s coupling of decentralization with anti-capitalism is dismissed because Marxism cannot accommodate the processuality of prefigurative politics. Marxism demands a revolution with a masterplan, considering horizontality a future objective. Such a temporality ignores the insurrectionary possibilities of the present and implies a politics of waiting. The spatial implications of centralized hierarchy are also questionable, employing a vertical ontology, wherein horizontal organization is deemed inappropriate when ‘jumping scales’. Yet scale represents both a theoretical dis-traction from grounded everyday particularities and a ‘master-signifier’ by providing a point de capiton, or anchoring point, that rests on the exclusion of unconsciousness–the knowledge that is not known¬. Thus the point de capiton is the (Archimedean) point at which an essentialist illusion of fixed meaning is created, as scale is unconscious of geography’s ‘hidden enfolded immensities’. The discourse of scale accordingly dismisses the openness of rhizomic politics by predetermining the political as an arborescent register. Yet the inevitable terra incognita that scalar hierarchies produce becomes a powerful resource for the oppressed, which is why anarchist direct action often proceeds outside of authority’s view. A flat ontology has significant resonance with anarchism, imparting that politics should operate horizontally rather than vertically. This ontological shift suggests that we need not wait for the emergence of a ‘greater’ class-consciousness, as one can immediately disengage capitalism by reorienting economic landscapes in alternative ways. Consequently, a human geography without hierarchy gains significant traction when we reject scale and embrace an anarchist flat ontology.

Corporeity can be shown as an important study element of the relations between individuals, indicating a singular modus for the development of cognitive-affective processes. The aim of this study was to develop a reflection, starting from... more

Corporeity can be shown as an important study element of the relations between individuals, indicating a singular modus for the development of cognitive-affective processes. The aim of this study was to develop a reflection, starting from the analysis of a creative process that involved the realization of a poetic-theatrical experiment, in order to investigate how the dynamics between the word and the subtext were processed, using corporeity as argument for the explanation of the signification process. The thesis that I defend is that corporeity is the element that propitiate the process of signification, and the subtext being the in-between-place of this communication, establishing this dynamic as a pedagogy of the theatrical event. The dramaturgy of corporeity proposes a working way, originating from an intense intimate dynamization between the sensorial, corporeal, affective, aesthetical, esthesical, volitional, synaesthesical and imagery perceptions developed at the moment of the actors’ creative process. The working procedure addressing the dramaturgy of corporeity would also be a methodological alternative for the actors to learn to understand themselves as artists-educators and on how to make their work a potentiator of the link between these two words. In this study, the poetic-theatrical experiment, based on the text Prometheus Chained, by Aeschylus, was carried out as fieldwork, in order to foster the reflexive motes necessary for understanding the moments of aesthetic living, essential to an understanding of how pedagogy of the theatrical event works. With this work, it was possible to elucidate a differentiated way of operating the cognitive-affective processes, which occurs through the relations of corporeity. This fact made it possible to establish a singular means of educational, cognitive-affective processes, detached from traditional meanings in the field of education which usually think of them when focused through cognitive cognitive-encephalic analyzes. Thus, it was possible to observe the experiential relationships that occur during the theatrical event as an important field in the area of education, which has not yet received an explanatory approach as developed in this research.

Given the wealth of literature on appearance manipulation generally, it is, perhaps, surprising that cosmetic usage receives so little empirical attention, and perhaps reflects a patriarchal approach to "appropriate" research... more

Given the wealth of literature on appearance manipulation generally, it is, perhaps, surprising that cosmetic usage receives so little empirical attention, and perhaps reflects a patriarchal approach to "appropriate" research areas. Incorporating a postfeminist approach, the current study aims to address, in part, this lacuna by providing a contemporary synopsis of the various and diverse motivations for cosmetic usage. Online, written responses to a semi-structured questionnaire were collected. In response to six broad questions, for example, "Why do you currently use cosmetics?", respondents were encouraged to write, in as much detail as they liked, on their motivations for using cosmetics. Thematic analysis, using deductive and inductive approaches, revealed four main themes: "Multiple selves"-Conformity, Impression Management, and Judgment; Enhancement and Confidence; Fun, Creativity and Well-being; and Signification and Identity. Whilst some of the...

I'm decoding the logo puma.

From opening books to read them, through the continuous effort at opening one's heart to God, to the eventual disclosure of God's mysteries to human beings, Augustine seems to trace an implicit conceptualization of openness in his... more

From opening books to read them, through the continuous effort at opening one's heart to God, to the eventual disclosure of God's mysteries to human beings, Augustine seems to trace an implicit conceptualization of openness in his 'Confessions'. The words of Matthew 7. 7-8 underlie Augustine's engagement with openness up to the very last sentence of the book, which ends with a sequence of verbs in the passive voice that culminates with the desired manifestation of the divine. The entire endeavour of opening oneself up undertaken in the 'Confessions' aims at this final passive openness, which is (always) yet to come as much as human opera are (always) yet to come to completion.

Talk presented to “Exchange of knowledge between literature cultures,” Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, 19 July 2021. Notations for numbers represent in a fundamentally different manner from... more

Talk presented to “Exchange of knowledge between literature cultures,” Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, 19 July 2021. Notations for numbers represent in a fundamentally different manner from writing for nonnumerical language: numbers instantiate quantity, while signs for language signify through resemblance and convention. Simply, three cuneiform wedges are three, while a picture of a head means something related to what it looks like-for example, a man, a head, a face, etc. Because they instantiate quantity, notations for numbers are unambiguously meaningful without phonetic specification, and in fact work better as numbers without the visual complexity it would add, the difference between 7 and seven. These qualities enable numerical notations to cross linguistic and cultural barriers with unusual ease and speed, often with little to no change in their form or meaning. In comparison, writing for language is generally ambiguous until it is specified, typically by incorporating strategies like identifying the type of word (determinatives) or providing clues to its pronunciation (phonography). Not all writing systems incorporate such strategies and rely instead on memorisation and interpretation. In writing systems that do incorporate strategies for specificity, signs increase in visual complexity, and crossing linguistic and cultural barriers means they must represent new sounds and different meanings, with both having significant potential to alter form and meaning. These differences in representational modes are ultimately traceable to neurofunctional and behavioural aspects of the cognitive systems for numbers and writing.

Cet article propose une mise en perspective, à la lumière de la pensée de Charles Taylor, des tensions et malaises actuels à propos de la domination d’une raison purement instrumentale dans le travail social et dans les formations, à... more

Cet article propose une mise en perspective, à la lumière de la pensée de Charles Taylor, des tensions et malaises actuels à propos de la domination d’une raison purement instrumentale dans le travail social et dans les formations, à l’œuvre notamment dans le recours à de nouveaux référentiels. L’analyse, par Taylor, de la culture moderne dans ses tensions constitutives, permet d’identifier les sources profondes et les dangers de cette rationalisation en cours, mais également un conflit entre différents horizons de signification, au cœur des pratiques et des institutions contemporaines. Ces réflexions philosophiques, appuyées par l’analyse contrastée de deux référentiels en France (Barreyre, 2006) permettent de problématiser le statut et la manière dont on peut se rapporter aux référentiels du travail social : s’ils risquent de devenir des références standardisées définies de l’extérieur, s’imposant de façon monologique aux intervenants, ils peuvent aussi se définir dans un travail réflexif et dialogique, sur base de références normatives et d’horizons d’intelligibilité plus larges.

The goal of this article is to show how Dōgen’s views of language, perhaps the most “mystical” part of his thought at first glance, can be interpreted in a framework that is wholly rational in the broader sense of the word. Dōgen belongs... more

The goal of this article is to show how Dōgen’s views of language, perhaps the most “mystical” part of his thought at first glance, can be interpreted in a framework that is wholly rational in the broader sense of the word. Dōgen belongs to a pansemioticist tradition and indeed maintains that being is tantamount to signification, but unlike previous pansemioticists, such as Kūkai, he does not posit a signifying subjective Other to whom the “message” of reality can be attributed. In Dōgen’s view, the meaningfulness of an event is a concomitant characteristic of its very reality, because the availability of reality for us to experience is already a linguistic phenomenon. The article argues that this is not a mystical thesis, but a view that can also be articulated in a more familiar and fully rational idiom, and that it bears similarities with many different Western thinkers and theorists, such as Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Gadamer, Peirce, Jakobson, and others.

In Speech and Phenomena, Derrida's characterization of the sign as a reproducible ideality and as belonging to a language that exceeds yet constitutes any individual signitive act poses the central challenge to Husserl's determination of... more

In Speech and Phenomena, Derrida's characterization of the sign as a reproducible ideality and as belonging to a language that exceeds yet constitutes any individual signitive act poses the central challenge to Husserl's determination of the signitive act of soliloquizing thought as self-present and self-sufficient. Critics have found Derrida's work to present an external and illegitimate, rather than an immanent critique of Husserl's account of soliloquizing thought. This amounts to accusing Derrida of failing to adhere to his methodology, which obliges Derrida to demonstrate that his characterization of the sign and language can be drawn from Husserl's own text. I argue that while Derrida does fail to demonstrate his reading's critical resources to issue from, and thus be authorized by, the texts of the thinker to be deconstructed, the basic tenets of his argument and semiology can be discerned in Logical Investigations, as when Husserl speaks of "the repeatably recognizable general form" of the sign. By pitting such Husserlian ideas neglected by Derrida against Husserl's own characterization in Investigation I of the sign as an empirical element subject to reduction in soliloquy, and as rendered meaningful by the thinker rather than by language, soliloquizing thought can be seen, no less than any other signitive modality (speaking, listening, etc.), to entail engagement with the conventional institution of language. I nonetheless conclude Speech to remain blind to its ultimate task: a positive phenomenological account of the signitive act integrating both the intentional object and language as forms transcendent to consciousness.

O presente artigo pretende estabelecer uma aproximação entre a semiótica de Charles Sanders Peirce e o pensamento de Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari, demonstrando que o escopo da semiótica peirceana abrange tanto aquilo que Deleuze... more

O presente artigo pretende estabelecer uma aproximação entre a semiótica de Charles Sanders Peirce e o pensamento de Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari, demonstrando que o escopo da semiótica peirceana abrange tanto aquilo que Deleuze e Guattari chamam de “semiótica significante” quanto de “semiótica assignificante”.

Lo que creemos saber sobre la violencia de género (que es una lacra y los maltratadores unos machistas) puede estar comprometiendo hoy análisis, diagnósticos e intervenciones. Además “hace género” y afecta al modo y grado en que nos... more

Lo que creemos saber sobre la violencia de género (que es una lacra y los maltratadores unos machistas) puede estar comprometiendo hoy análisis, diagnósticos e intervenciones. Además “hace género” y afecta al modo y grado en que nos hacemos cargo de la desigualdad. Analizar las sustantivaciones, sinécdoques y metonimias de las tramas de la violencia permite reconstruir relaciones significativas. Porque ¿qué significa la preposición ‘de’ que conecta violencia y género?

“Haas’ book is unique...his own foray into metaphysics...an original metaphysics written in a way that is designed to afford a unique angle on the problems of metaphysics, specifically in their ineluctably problematic character”—Mark... more

Paru dans le Carnet Zilsel , 1er Avril 2016

أن تتوغل في حروف أديب كمال الدين يقتضي أن تكون لك فراسة ذات بصيرة ثاقبة ـ قريبة من علمي الرمل والزايرجة ـ وعمق في إدراك معنى الحرف ومبناه، بوصفه مرآة تكتنه عالم ذات الشاعر، وصورة للكون في تجاذباته. وبهذا المنظور يكون للحرف معانٍ،... more

أن تتوغل في حروف أديب كمال الدين يقتضي أن تكون لك فراسة ذات بصيرة ثاقبة ـ قريبة من علمي الرمل والزايرجة ـ وعمق في إدراك معنى الحرف ومبناه، بوصفه مرآة تكتنه عالم ذات الشاعر، وصورة للكون في تجاذباته. وبهذا المنظور يكون للحرف معانٍ، متجلية في الفكرة التي وُضعت لها، ومن أجلها

This paper is partly a response to the ongoing debate in the game world about whether games can be art, and partly an excerpt from my Ph.D. research. I aim to offer some insights in the cognitive experiences gamers have while playing -... more

This paper is partly a response to the ongoing debate in the game world about whether games can be art, and partly an excerpt from my Ph.D. research. I aim to offer some insights in the cognitive experiences gamers have while playing - hopefully useful to both designers and scholars. I will argue that an art experience is a particular kind of cognitive experience, namely a distinctive type of imagination. The essence of an art experience is the mental representation of a signification process, a sort of mirrored representation that is also known as mimesis. I hope to demonstrate that it is a universal feature of art to mirror life, or more accurately, a deliberate view on it. And that what constitutes art is not defined by the properties of an artefact, but by our experience of it, by our mental actions. Along the same line I maintain that the boundaries between what we usually label entertainment and what art can not be as sharply defined as we generally assume. The main arguments ...

This paper presents the most important features of Peirce's semiotics, including the emergence process of signs, their ways of signifying, as well as their practical dimensions. The study of Peirce's three philosophical categories as well... more

This paper presents the most important features of Peirce's semiotics, including the emergence process of signs, their ways of signifying, as well as their practical dimensions. The study of Peirce's three philosophical categories as well as the issue of "abduction" underlines the central role of Peirce's semiotics in his ontology and in his epistemology, in such a way that all thoughts and all kinds of process of signification can be considered to be stemming from his conception of signs. According to Peirce, signs are the structure of all thoughts and on this basis, life of every king of knowledge and even the relations between human beings depend on signs. In this regard, a brief comparative study between Peirce's three categories and the different kinds of perceptions in Islamic philosophy is also mentioned.
As a means of analysis of human thoughts and their practical consequences, Peirce's semiotics has also a pragmatist dimension, even though we can not consider him to be a strict follower of pragmatism. Peirce's semiotics has been used in various fields including philosophy of media, arts… In this context, one of the practical applications of his semiotics in the interpretation of a work of art is also tackled.

The term 'communication' becomes meaningless if we cannot distinguish communication from what is not communication or if the notion of 'information transfer' is undifferentiated. The situation is complicated by the fact that some... more

The term 'communication' becomes meaningless if we cannot distinguish communication from what is not communication or if the notion of 'information transfer' is undifferentiated. The situation is complicated by the fact that some phenomena can be viewed as 'communicational' in some respects but not in others. A further complication is the range of phenomena which are similar to communication. Some suggestions are made for the distinction and for the range of intermediate cases. Apart from real-world events, our reasoning processes and mental models of reality, while communicable and exploiting information transfer are not communication. However, there is a danger that a dichotomy between communication and non-communication will divert attention from the integration of communication and non-communication in our understanding of reality. Résumé La 'communication' est dépourvue de sens si l'on ne saurait distinguer la communication de la 'non-communication' et si le 'transfert de l'information' n'est pas différencié. Le problème est en partie une question définitionnelle. Il existe des processus qui sont similaires à la communication mais qui ne répondent pas aux critères de la définition. La distinction est compliquée par de divers facteurs. À part les états et les évènements du monde physique, les signaux de tous sortes sont objectifiés et entrent dans les processus de raisonnement pour former nos conceptions de la réalité. Ni les formes du raisonnement ni les 'modèles mentaux' font part de la communication, bien qu'ils soient communicables. Pourtant, en séparant la communication de la non-communication on risque de divorcer la communication de son rôle dans la construction de la réalité.

Riffing on a Butler quote about love.

La pensée épistémologique de René Thom montre deux facettes qui correspondent grossièrement à deux périodes de sa recherche scientifique : (a) un platonisme mathématique qui recherche le corrélat des structures topologiques dans la... more

La pensée épistémologique de René Thom montre deux facettes qui correspondent grossièrement à deux périodes de sa recherche scientifique : (a) un platonisme mathématique qui recherche le corrélat des structures topologiques dans la réalité des phénomènes (la période de 1965 à 1977), et (b) la critique du paradigme galiléen en physique expérimentale et la pertinence d'une philosophie de la nature appliquée à la biologie et à la sémiotique (la période de 1978 à 1990). Les deux positions peuvent être analysées d'une part en partant du livre Stabilité structurelle et morphogenèse de 1972 et de son programme d'une analyse qualitative basée sur la théorie des catastrophes (ensemble avec Christopher Zeeman), d'autre part basé sur le livre de 1988 avec la vision d'une sémiophysique et un programme qui se met à la recherche des forces qui sélectionnent et canalisent la morphogenèse du sens (et qui permettent de constituer une sémantique en linguistique et une sémiotique dynamique). L'épistémologie de Thom peut être interprétée dans le contexte de la tradition philosophique de Leibniz à Kant et Husserl. Jean Petitot explique les rapports tout en considérant la sémiotique de Greimas et les recherches cognitives en linguistique et en neuropsychologie. Ces aspects historiques sont discutés brièvement. Cet article essaie de clarifier et d'évaluer la portée épistémologique des travaux de Thom pour la sémiotique et la linguistique. Il poursuit le but non seulement de faire comprendre cette contribution au débat épistémologique, mais aussi de circonscrire le potentiel épistémologique de la pensée morphodynamique de René Thom pour la sémiotique et la linguistique. Mots-clés : René Thom; théorie des catastrophes; platonisme; philosophie de la nature; prégnance.

This essay explicates connections between communication theory and François Cooren’s discussion of ventriloquism. Cooren provides a theoretical and practical exposition of a situated and contextually shaped communicative agent.... more

This essay explicates connections between communication theory and François Cooren’s discussion of ventriloquism. Cooren provides a theoretical and practical exposition of a situated and contextually shaped communicative agent. Ventriloquism offers a practical depiction of the limits of individualism, or unrestrained individual autonomy. Ventriloquism suggests that we live within sounds and voices that continually affect a communicator; one cannot confuse the influence of random and, at times, orchestrated sounds and voices with ownership grounded within a single communicative agent. Ventriloquism explicates everyday life as orchestrated by ongoing communicative music of sounds and voices.

Paper for ECER 2015 (Budapest), based on a lecture at the Rudolf Steiner University College, Oslo, January 2015