December 2017
Intermediate to advanced
208 pages
3h 39m
English
Semiotics, or the doctrine of signs, is a branch of modern philosophy that has developed a set of ideas about the nature of meaning and representation. Its principal exponents include Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) and Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914).
Semioticians hold that all thought takes place in terms of signs, which may only be interpreted accurately within the broad cultural context in which they are manufactured. They assert that meaning in art is not held within an individual art object but is shared between all the signs and products of a culture. Some philosophers hold that all human intercourse is simply the exchange of signs within a culturally determined system. According to Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), “There ...