Signs, Mind, and Reality


Book Description

The book presents a new science of semiotic linguistics. The goal of semiotic linguistics is to discover what characterizes language as an intermediary between the mind and reality so that language creates the picture of reality we perceive. The cornerstone of semiotic linguistics is the discovery and resolution of language antinomies ­-contradictions between two apparently reasonable principles or laws. Language antinomies constitute the essence of language, and hence must be studied from both linguistic and philosophical points of view. The basic language antinomy which underlies all other antinomies is the antinomy between meaning and information. Both generative and classical linguistic theories are unaware of the need to distinguish between meaning and information. By confounding these notions they are unable to discover language antinomies and confine their research to naturalistic description of superficial language phenomena rather than the quest for the essence of language.(Series A)





Book Description




On Truth and the Representation of Reality


Book Description

In On Truth and the Representation of Reality, Dan Nesher develops a new theory of truth in the framework of pragmatist theory of representation. Using the pragmatist theory of perception for the basis of his epistemological explanation of our confrontation with external Reality and how it's represented, Nesher shows that in our perceptual operations we quasi-prove the truth of our perceptual judgments. He explains how- through our proving the truth of our propositions and theories, we know that they correspond to Reality, and through our proving their falsity, we know that they don't correspond to it.




Consciousness - My Ultimate Reality


Book Description

This book is an invitation to a journey that requires no physical travel or pilgrimage to a holy place. It is not a question of leaving the earthly world and pretending to arrive in paradise. It is simply an intimate self-inquiry; where there are no other realities or other beings. There exists deep within us a capacity for discernment between the Eternal and the ephemeral or between the Ultimate Reality, which does not change, and the material world, which is in perpetual change. The Ultimate Reality consists, for the author, of recognizing and manifesting the Divinity within oneself and of perceiving this Divinity in the Cosmos. As soon as this Ultimate Reality or Consciousness is found, man frees himself from the person he thought he was. Peace and happiness he has always sought outside of himself are finally found within him. It is the most important trip of his life.




Changing Signs of Truth


Book Description

Crystal Downing brings the postmodern theory of semiotics within reach for today's evangelists. Following the idea of the sign through Scripture, church history and the academy, Downing shows you how signs work and how sensitivity to their dynamics can make or break an attempt to communicate truth.




Is it Real? Structuring Reality by Means of Signs


Book Description

Is it Real? is a collection of twenty-eight papers on the most challenging, provocative – and profound – topics related to the quest for real and virtual realities of vision and other senses, and realities that are either constructed or imagined. There was no school, no theory, no methodology, nor any empirical approach in semiotics which was not forced to take a position, whether implicitly or explicitly, in attempting to discuss this issue. Semiotics is a discipline dealing with signs, and, thus, it is commonly thought that if we say of something that it is a “sign”, then it is something “less” real than the thing itself to which it refers. As such, the field of problems which opens from the theme “Is it Real?” is almost endless – but also relevant. This volume presents interactive dialogue related to this question structured under six different headings: five papers on the topic of “Visual Realities”; six on “What is Real?”; five on “Textual Realities”, concentrating on realities revealed from literature or the written language through texts; five on “Constructed Realities”; three on “Virtual Realities”; and, finally, four papers on “Imagery Realities”.




The Thought of Jonathan Edwards


Book Description

Jonathan Edwards is the greatest theologian of colonial America as well as its first important philosopher. As a theologian, he represents without any concession Calvinistic Orthodoxy, re-thought and re-lived through the experience of the Great Awakening. The large majority of his writings are of a theological character, yet this theology is articulated and expressed through a systematic philosophical reflection. Edwardsian thought covers three major areas: First, being, grace, and glory; then, the doctrine of the will extending to the study of the original sin and evil; finally, an entirely original theory of knowledge synthesizing spirituality, aesthetics, and epistemology. The present book, the first edition of which appeared in French almost thirty years ago, is a uniquely comprehensive study of the work of Jonathan Edwards. It discusses all the aspects of his thought over against the background of classical Protestant theology and of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Western philosophy. Our time witnesses a significant renewal of interest in Jonathan Edwards. Professor Veto's book should prove to be a major contribution to assist and to guide the readers of "America's Theologian."




Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Psychology (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First published in 1989, this book tackles a relatively little-explored area of Wittgenstein’s work, his philosophy of psychology, which played an important part in his late philosophy. Writing with clarity and insight, Budd traces the complexities of Wittgenstein’s thought, and provides a detailed picture of his views on psychological concepts. A useful guide to the writings of Wittgenstein, the book will be of value to anyone concerned with his work as a whole, as well as those with a more general interest in the philosophy of psychology.




Processes and Boundaries of the Mind


Book Description

The author of this volume explores questions of mind, reality, knowledge and signification in a provocative, stimulating and humorous way. Drawing on various domains such as systems research, semiotics, philosophy, and complexity sciences, he touches basic questions of our Being-in-the-World as cognate creatures, and presents a novel theory of the mind as a boundary phenomenon.




The Natural History of the Sign


Book Description

Our understanding of CS Peirce, and his semiotics, is largely influenced by a twentieth century perspective that prioritizes the sign as a cultural artifact, or as one that that 'distorts', in some way, our understanding of the empirical world. Such a perspective will always undermine appreciation of Peirce as a philosopher who viewed signs as the very mechanisms that enable us to understand reality through concept formation. The key to this repositioning of Peirce is to place his work in the broad frame of Hegelian philosophy. This book evaluates, in detail, the parallels that exist between Peircean and Hegelian thought, highlighting their convergences and also the points at which Peirce departs from Hegel's position. It also considers the work of Vygotsky on concept formation showing that both are, in fact, working within the same Hegelian template. This book, therefore, contributes to our broader understanding of Peircean semiotics. But by drawing in Vygotsky, under the same theoretical auspices, it demonstrates that Peirce has much to offer contemporary educational learning theory.