Typically, a sign is something that suggests the presence or existence of something else; it is a perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent. To study the way signs work, semiotics, a perspective on reality and experience developed. A large global group of semiotician scholars delve into the writings of Charles S. Peirce (pronounced “purse”) to understand his classification of signs.
Here, I present the comparison of John Deely’s spiral of semiosis with Vinicius Romanini’s solenoid of semiosis can shed light on Peirce’s classification, as suggested by Gary Fuhrman. Fuhrman’s Gnoxic Studies: Charles S. Peirce pages provides Peirce texts, notes, Fuhrman’s discussions with extensive studies of Peirce’s phaneroscopy and concept of information.
John Deely’s “Spiral” Semiosis
Deely
Deely is a Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, whose main research concerns the role of semiosis in mediating objects and things, specifically investigating the manner in which experience is a dynamic structure woven of triadic relations whose elements or terms (representamens, significates, and interpretants) interchange positions and roles over time in the spiral of semiosis.
From 2006–2007, Deely was Executive Director of the Semiotic Society of America and in 2008, he presented “A Sign is What?” video (48 minutes) as part of the 33rd SSA (Seimiotic Society of America) Annual Meeting on Oct. 18, 2008.
A Sign is What?
The following 48-minute series of video (playlist) is a dialogue between a semiotician and a realist. It directly addresses the difference semiotics makes for understanding what a sign is, in a strict sense.
Vinicius Romanini’s “Solenoid” Semiosis
Vinicius Romanini
Vinicius Romanini is Professor of Communication Studies at the School of Communications and Arts, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Along with Dr. Irene Machado,his is head of the Research Group of Semiotic of Communication and scientific editor of Semeiosis – Transdisciplinary Journal of Semiotics. Also a member of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) for the Peirce Society and its journal, the Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society.
Solenoid of Semiosis
A description of semeiosis as a dynamic process, organized in hierarchies: a solenoid of semiosis.
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