Home Speaking one’s mind: the sign as subject of interpretation in the manuscripts of Charles S. Peirce, between the theories of rhetoric and communication
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Speaking one’s mind: the sign as subject of interpretation in the manuscripts of Charles S. Peirce, between the theories of rhetoric and communication

  • Fee Haase EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 10, 2022

Abstract

The name Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) is associated with the science of signs called semiotics, which studies the sign as the carrier of meaning that is placed in the center of his work. Peirce developed a system of concepts that describe how the sign as such is understood by the mind. For the conditions of its interpretations Peirce established various so-called interpretants for the explanation of signs associated with the utterer and interpreter and a shared process that enables the communication between communicators. Further to the renovation of the theory of rhetoric and communication, we show that medium and communication must be understood within the framework of his theory in association to the sign and the object. Throughout his manuscripts the triads of his concepts are realized in the text in rhetorical tricola as terms of his philosophy. In comparison to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, which employed the sign as a means for reasoning, we will show how Peirce developed techniques of reasoning based on Aristotle’s work and his model of mental understanding of the sign while foreshadowing a theory of communication that aims at describing the exchange of information in a model.


Corresponding author: Fee Haase, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College (UIC), Zhuhai, China, E-mail:

References

Alzamora, Geane Carvalho & Renira Rampazzo Gambarato. 2014. Peircean semiotics and transmedia dynamics communicational potentiality of the model of semiosis. Ocula 15. 1–13. https://www.ocula.it/files/OCULA-15-CARVALHOALZAMORA-RAMPAZZOGAMBAR ATO-Peircean-semiotics-and-transmedia-dynamics.pdf (accessed 23 August 2020).10.12977/ocula29Search in Google Scholar

Aristotle. 1926. Rhetoric, vol. 22, J. H. Freese (trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press; London: Heinemann. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0060 (accessed 23 August 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Aristotle. 1949. Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας (‘On interpretation’). In Aristotelis Categoriae et Liber de Interpretatione. Minio-Paluello, 49–72. Oxford: Clarendon Press. http://folk.uio.no/amundbjo/grar/interpretatio/texts/interpr_gr.txt (accessed 23 August 2020).10.1093/oseo/instance.00259050Search in Google Scholar

Aristotle. 1959. Ars rhetorica. In William David Ross (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0059%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D1 (accessed 23 August 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Aristotle. 1964. Aristotelis analytica priora et posterior. In William David Ross (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bibliotheca Augustana at Hochschule Augsburg. https://www.hs-augsburg.de/∼harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante04/Aristoteles/ari_a100.html (accessed 8 March 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Bergman, Mats. 2009. Peirce’s philosophy of communication: The rhetorical underpinnings of the theory of signs. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Bergman, Mats. 2000. Reflections on the role of the communicative sign in semeiotic. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 36(2). 225–254.Search in Google Scholar

Eckardt, Barbara von. 1995. What is cognitive science? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/7209.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Liszka, James Jakób. 2000. Peirce’s new rhetoric. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 36(4). 439–476.Search in Google Scholar

Petit, Arnaud. 2018. The universality of Peirce’s rhetoric. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 54(1). 84–104. https://doi.org/10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.54.1.05.Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles S. 1931–1966. The collected papers of Charles S. Peirce, 8 vols., C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss & A. W. Burks (eds.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. [Reference to Peirce’s papers will be designated CP followed by volume and paragraph number.]Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles S. 1967. Manuscripts in the Houghton Library of Harvard University, as identified by Richard Robin, Annotated catalogue of the Papers of Charles S. Peirce. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. [Reference to Peirce’s manuscripts will be designated MS or L.]Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles S. 1976. The new elements of mathematics, 4 vols., C. Eisele (ed.). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press. [Reference to Peirce’s New Elements will be designated NEM followed by volume and page number.]Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles S. 1982. Writings of Charles S. Peirce, 8 vols., M. Fisch, E. Moore & C. Kloesel (eds.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Reference to Peirce’s writings will be designated W followed by volume and page number.]Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles S. 1998. Essential Peirce: Selected philosophical writings, vol. 2 (1893–1913), Peirce Edition Project (eds.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Reference to vol. 2 of Essential Peirce will be designated EP 2.]Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles & Lady Victoria, Welby. 1977. Semiotic and significs, Charles S. Hardwick (ed.). Bloomington: Indianapolis University Press. [Reference to this work will be designated SS followed by page number.]Search in Google Scholar

Plato. 1903. Timaeus. In John Burnet (ed.). Oxford: University Press. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0179%3Atext%3DTim.%3Apage%3D17 (accessed 23 August 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Shannon, Claude. 1964. The mathematical theory of communication. In Claude E. Shannon & Warren Weaver (eds.), The mathematical theory of communication, 29–125. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press.Search in Google Scholar

Strand, Torill. 2013a. C. S. Peirce’s new rhetoric: Prospects for educational theory and research. Educational Philosophy and Theory 45(7). 707–711. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2013.809195.Search in Google Scholar

Strand, Torill. 2013b. Peirce’s rhetorical turn: Conceptualizing education as semiosis. Educational Philosophy and Theory 45(7). 789–803. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2011.00837.x.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2020-08-21
Accepted: 2021-07-21
Published Online: 2022-02-10
Published in Print: 2022-03-28

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 19.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/sem-2020-0086/pdf
Scroll to top button