Umberto Eco's semiotic threshold

Authors

  • Winfried Nöth University of Kassel, Georg-Forster-Str. 3, D-34109 Kassel

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2000.28.03

Abstract

The "semiotic threshold" is U. Eco's metaphor of the borderline between the world of semiosis and the nonsemiotic world and hence also between semiotics and its neighboring disciplines. The paper examines Eco's threshold in comparison to the views of semiosis and semiotics of C. S. Peirce. While Eco follows the structuralist tradition, postulating the conventionality of signs as the main criterion of semiosis, Peirce has a much broader concept of semiosis, which is not restricted to phenomena of culture but includes many processes in nature. Whereas Eco arrives at the conclusion that biological processes, such as the ones within the immune system, cannot be included in the program of semiotic research, Peirce's broader defmition of semiosis has meanwhile become thefoundation of semiotic studies in biology and medicine and hence in biosemiotics and medical semiotics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2000-12-31

How to Cite

Nöth, W. (2000). Umberto Eco’s semiotic threshold. Sign Systems Studies, 28, 49–61. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2000.28.03

Issue

Section

Articles