The impact of an embodied theory of meaning on the epistemology of semiotics
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Jean-Marie Klinkenberg is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Liège, Belgium, where he held the Chair of Semiotics and Rhetorics. He has authored over 600 scientific publications, alone or with the interdisciplinary team known as “Groupe µ”; among other books: A General Rhetoric, Traité du signe visuel, Précis de sémiotique générale, La Langue dans la Cité. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
Abstract
Cognitive semiotics has an experiential basis: its thesis is that the origin of meaning – a problem that classical semiotics usually glosses over – lies in the sense system. This paper will outline the mechanisms that make possible such meaning construction, but its main focus will be the impact of the cognitive perspective on the epistemology of semiotics. It implies a process of naturalization of the humanities and the social sciences. This naturalization has triggered harsh criticism: its arguments are supposed to be circular; these are secretly founded on a postulate of innateness; it is at the service of an individualistic ideology in tune with a neoliberal society…. The paper will examine these pieces of criticism, which lead us to oppose and challenge both neural autonomism and the culturalist autonomism inherent in classical European semiotics. The conclusion is a plea for a continuum between nature and culture.
About the author
Jean-Marie Klinkenberg is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Liège, Belgium, where he held the Chair of Semiotics and Rhetorics. He has authored over 600 scientific publications, alone or with the interdisciplinary team known as “Groupe µ”; among other books: A General Rhetoric, Traité du signe visuel, Précis de sémiotique générale, La Langue dans la Cité. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- From Action-Oriented Perception to Language
- Cognitive and cathectic dimensions of semiosis
- The impact of an embodied theory of meaning on the epistemology of semiotics
- Do natural pictures mean natural tastes? Assessing visual semantics experimentally
- Book Reviews
- Roberta Trites: Literary Conceptualizations of Growth. Metaphors and Cognition in Adolescent Literature
- Esther Pascual: Fictive Interaction: The Conversation Frame in Thought, Language and Discourse
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- From Action-Oriented Perception to Language
- Cognitive and cathectic dimensions of semiosis
- The impact of an embodied theory of meaning on the epistemology of semiotics
- Do natural pictures mean natural tastes? Assessing visual semantics experimentally
- Book Reviews
- Roberta Trites: Literary Conceptualizations of Growth. Metaphors and Cognition in Adolescent Literature
- Esther Pascual: Fictive Interaction: The Conversation Frame in Thought, Language and Discourse
