It is important to understand what I mean by semiosis. All dynamical action, or action of brute force, physical or psychical, either takes place between two subjects (whether they react equally upon each other, or one is agent and the other patient, entirely or partially) or at any rate is a resultant of such actions between pairs. But by “semiosis” I mean, on the contrary, an action, or influence, which is, or involves, a coöperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs.
Peirce 1907: “Pragmatism” in The Essential Peirce, vol.2: 411.
The answer we give to this simple-seeming question, “what is a sign?”, bears far more weight than it might initially appear. Signs are everywhere; we cannot think without them, we cannot do anything except through them. Despite their ubiquity, however, they are little understood in what they do or how we human beings have a unique mode of holding ourselves to signs. Indeed, they have been much neglected through the whole history of philosophy.
This seminar aims to rectify this neglect and, by a close and careful study of the works of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839—1914), the founder of semiotics (the study of the action of signs), we will bring to light an awareness of the central role of the sign in the economy of human life.
Peirce was, according to John Deely, the last of the modern philosophers and first of the genuinely postmodern: that is, not postmodern in the sense the term ordinarily is used (which, in fact, signifies nothing other than the carrying of modernity to its ultimate conclusion), but in the sense that philosophy—after centuries, finally by Peirce’s efforts—begins to free itself from the flawed foundations of modern thought.
The core texts of this seminar can be found in the two-volumes of The Essential Peirce. These are available on Amazon [Volume 1] [Volume 2] and may be found used for low costs (I also recommend checking Bookfinder.com). All additional readings will be provided in PDF by the instructor. The seminar will be conducted remotely through Microsoft Teams. Learn more about our seminars here. Discussions will be held each Saturday. Early access to the platform begins on 16 March 2024. Deadline to register is 4 April 2024. Download the Syllabus for more details.
Schedule
| Discussion Sessions 1:45pm ET (World times) | Study Topics & Readings |
| Week I 03/31–04/06 | Opening Inquiry: What is a Sign? » Lecture: Introducing Semiotics » Reading: »» Required: Kemple 2024: “The Familiar Unknown”. »» Recommended: Sebeok 1993: “Foreword” to Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life. »» Recommended: Brent 1993: “Preface” and “Introduction” in Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life. |
| Week II 04/07–04/13 | Categories and Experience » Lecture: Phaneroscopy » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1867: EP.1, “On a New List of Categories”. »» Recommended: Kemple 2019: “The Categories of Experience” in The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology, 130-50. |
| Week III 04/14–04/20 | Thought through Signs » Lecture: What is Thinking? » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1868 and 1869: EP.1, “Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man” and “Some Consequences of Four Incapacities”. |
| Week IV 04/21–04/27 | Signs of Thinking » Lecture: Discerning the Signs of our Thoughts » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1903: EP.2, “What is a Sign?” and “Of Reasoning in General”. »» Recommended: Maritain 1957: “Language and the Theory of Sign”. |
| 04/28–05/04 | BREAK |
| Week V 05/05–05/11 | The Structure of the Sign » Lecture: Triadic Relations » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1906-09: EP.2, Excerpts from Letters to Lady Welby and William James. »» Recommended: Kemple 2019: “The Categories of Experience” in The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology, 150-71. |
| Week VI 05/12–05/18 | Logic and Signs » Lecture: Signs in the Process of Reasoning » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1903: EP.2, “Sundry Logical Conceptions” and “Nomenclature and Division of Triadic Relations”. »» Recommended: Deely 1981: “The Relation of Logic to Semiotics”. |
| Week VII 05/19–05/25 | Semiotic Realism » Lecture: The Direction of Thought » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1905: EP.2, “What Pragmatism Is”. »» Recommended: Deely 2001: “…and First of the Postmoderns” in Four Ages of Understanding, 614-28. |
| Week VIII 05/26–06/01 | The Continuity of Thought » Lecture: Semiotics as Synechistic » Reading: »» Required: Peirce 1908: EP.2, “A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God”. »» Recommended: Deely 2001: “Peirce’s Grand Vision” in Four Ages of Understanding, 628-37. »» Recommended: N. Houser 2014: “The Intelligible Universe” in Romanini et al., Peirce and Biosemiotics: A Guess at the Riddle of Life, 9-32. |
Registration is Closed
Pricing Comparison
| Standard price | Basic Lyceum Enrollment | Advanced Lyceum Enrollment | Premium Lyceum Enrollment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benefactor | $200 per seminar | $90 | 3 seminars included $90 after | 8 seminars included $90 after |
| Patron | $135 per seminar | $65 | 3 seminars included $65 after | 8 seminars included $65 after |
| Participant | $60 per seminar | $40 | 3 seminars included $40 after | 8 seminars included $40 after |
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