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ABSTRACT
The contemporary use of the term "semiotic" derives from the theory articulated by Charles Morris, who in turn acquired it from C. S. Peirce, the founder of modern semiotic. Peirce's semiotic is based upon his criticism of Cartesian nominalism with its emphasis on individual intuition as the basis for knowledge. Peirce argued for semiosis or triadic mediation as the sole source and end of cognition, as opposed to unmediated knowledge. Morris attempted to synthesize pragmatism with logical positivism to produce a new "science of science" to be termed semiotic. The result of Morris's attempted synthesis was a philosophy that combined the basic assumptions of logical positivism with a deceptive admixture of Peirce's semiotic vocabulary, and systematically reintroduced the very Cartesian intuitionism to which Peirce's semiotic is opposed.
The emerging field of studies known as semiotics is presently a welter of intellectual perspectives and tongues. Although the current lack of consensus as to what constitutes semiotics may be a sign of its vitality and broad scope, it is also quite possible that it symbolizes a Tower of Babel, a community of practitioners without a common language and understanding of a shared premiss. About the only thing a student entering the field can be sure of is that its practitioners share a common concern with the role of signs and symbols in whatever happens to be the object of study. Yet beyond this common denominator lies innumerable and often irreconcilable ideas concerning how signs and symbols should be studied, and even what constitutes a sign or symbol. Semiotic, or sign theory, has come to serve for many as an all-inclusive term, subsuming such diverse enterprises as semiology, cybernetics, hermeneutics, and so forth; yet the contemporary use of the term "semiotic" derives from the highly influential theory articulated by Charles Morris, who in turn acquired it from C. S. Peirce, the founder of modern semiotic.
The term semiotic was first used in modern times by John Locke, who mentioned it near the end of his masterwork, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke only suggested a division of science in which semiotic would form the third of three sections, and would be identified with logic. It was first used as a term denoting a specific and detailed...