Signs Grow: Semiosis and Life Processes

Merrell, Floyd

ISBN 10: 0802071422 / ISBN 13: 9780802071422

Published by University of Toronto Press, 1996

About this Item

Following Sebeok, Merrell reminds us that 'any and all investigation of nature and of the nature of signs and life must ultimately be semiotic in nature.' Series: Toronto Studies in Semiotics & Communication. Num Pages: 356 pages. BIC Classification: CFG; GTC. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 229 x 153 x 26. Weight in Grams: 560. . 1996. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780802071422

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Signs Grow: Semiosis and Life Processes
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802071422
• ISBN 13: 9780802071422
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This is the third volume in Floyd Merrell's trilogy on semiotics focusing on Peirce's categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. In this book the author argues that there are passageways linking the social sciences with the physical sciences, and signs with life processes. This is not a study of the semiotics of life, but rather of semiosis as a living process. Merrell attempts to articulate the links between thought that is rooted in that which can be quantified and thought that resists quantification, namely that of the consciousness. As he writes in his preface, he is intent on `fusing the customary distinctions between life and non-life, mind and matter, self and other, appearance (fiction) and "reality,"... to reveal the everything that is is a sign.' In order to accomplish this goal, Peirce's terciary concept of the sign is crucial.

Merrell begins by asking `What are signs that they may take on life-like processes, and what is life that it may know the sign processes that brought it - themselves - into existence?' In order to answer this question he examines semiotic theory, philosophical discourse, the life sciences, the mathematical sciences, and literary theory. He offers an original reading of Peirce's thought along with that of Prigogine and of many others. Following Sebeok, Merrell reminds us that `any and all investigation of nature and of the nature of signs and life must ultimately be semiotic in nature.'

About the Author

Floyd Merrell is a Professor of Theory, Semiotics, Culture, and Latin American Literature in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Purdue University.