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theoretical semiotics
1. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Marc Champagne Axiomatizing umwelt normativity
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Prompted by the thesis that an organism’s umwelt possesses not just a descriptive dimension, but a normative one as well, some have sought to annexsemiotics with ethics. Yet the pronouncements made in this vein have consisted mainly in rehearsing accepted moral intuitions, and have failed to concretely further our knowledge of why or how a creature comes to order objects in its environment in accordance with axiological charges of value or disvalue. For want of a more explicit account, theorists writing on the topic have relied almost exclusively on semiotic insights about perception originally designed as part of a sophisticated refutation of idealism. The end result, which has been a form of direct givenness, has thus been far from convincing. In an effort to bring substance to the right-headed suggestion that values are rooted in the biological and conform to species-specific requirements, we present a novel conception that strives to make explicit the elemental structure underlying umwelt normativity. Building and expanding on the seminal work of Ayn Rand in metaethics, we describe values as an intertwined lattice which takes a creature’s own embodied life as its ultimate standard; and endeavour to show how, from this, all subsequent valuations can in principle be determined.
2. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Marc Champagne Постулируя нормативность умвельта. Резюме
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3. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Marc Champagne Postuleerides omailma normatiivsust. Kokkuvõte
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4. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Margus Vihalem What is ‘the subject’ the name for? The conceptual structure of Alain Badiou’s theory of the subject
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The present paper outlines some basic concepts of Alain Badiou’s philosophy of the subject, tracking down its inherent and complex philosophical implications. These implications are made explicit in the criticism directed against the philosophical sophistry which denies the pertinence of the concept of truth. Badiou’s philosophical innovation is based on three nodal concepts, namely truth, event and subject, and it must be revealed how the afore-mentioned concepts areorganized and interrelated, eventually leading to reformulating the concept of the subject. In its exercise, philosophy is intimately affiliated to the four adjacent procedures of mathematics, art, love and politics that could be understood as overall conditions on the margins of which philosophical thinking takes place. Separating philosophy from ontology and charging philosophy with what exceeds being, Badiou transforms it to the general theory of the event. Consequently the concept of the subject is disconnected from that of the object, the subject being not an instance of knowledge, but always a part of generic procedures and thus definable simply as a finite fragment or an operative configuration of the traces of the event. Therefore, it could be stated that Badiou’s theory of the subject is formal and refuses all essentialist connotations.
5. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Margus Vihalem Что означет ‘субъект’? Концептульная структура теории субъекта Алена Бадью. Резюме
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6. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Margus Vihalem Mida tähistab ‘subjekt’? Filosoofilis-semiootiline sissevaade Alain Badiou’ sündmuseteooria tähendusse. Kokkuvõte
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semiotics of culture
7. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Irene Machado Lotman’s scientific investigatory boldness: The semiosphere as a critical theory of communication in culture
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The main focus of this article is the analysis of the concept of semiosphere as it has emerged from the conception of culture as information — instead of describing the transmission of messages from A to B, it is based on the general process of meaning generation. Following Lotman’s criticism on the paradoxes in communication and its theoretical domain, the article confronts the paradoxical concepts on: (1) the concept of message transmission from the addresser toaddressee; (2) the notion of isolated processing systems; (3) the idea that culture speaks a unique language. From the standpoint of the semiosphere, the new object for studying such controversies could be found in the concept of text. When text is taken at the centre of the analysis of culture, nothing appears in an isolated fashion. Lotman’s thinking does not fear the new hypothesis in proposing the conceptual domain of semiosphere to the scientific study of culture.
8. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Irene Machado Научная смелость Лотмана: семиосфера как критическая теория внутрикультурной коммуникации. Резюме
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9. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Irene Machado Lotmani teadusuurijalik julgus: semiosfäär kui kultuurisisese kommunikatsiooni kriitiline teooria. Kokkuvõte
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10. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak Cultural codes in the iconography of Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus)
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This paper examines some aspects of the cultural codes implied in the iconography of St Nicholas (Santa Claus). The argument posits the iconography of St Nicholas as a vessel for capturing meanings and accumulating them in the construction of public culture. The discussion begins from the earliest developments of the Christian era and proceeds to contemporary depictions (imagology). The study is conducted on the basis of a representative selection of renditions of Saint Nicholas, including 350 pictures of medieval representations (Western and Eastern Christianity), folk extensions and secular representations and it is theoretically grounded in the Tartu School of semiotics.
11. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak Kultuurilised koodid Püha Nikolause (Jõuluvana) ikonograafias. Kokkuvõte
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12. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak Культурные коды в иконографии Санта-Клауса. Резюме
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13. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Roger Parent, Stanley Varnhagen Designing a semiotic-based approach to intercultural training
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This exploratory enquiry seeks to examine the largely unexplored potential of semiotics for intercultural training and education. The proposed three-partdiscussion describes the process by which semiotic theoretical principles were selected and progressively refined into an applied model which was then pilotedthrough a 2007 research initiative entitled Tools for Cultural Development. The case study involved six groups of French and Australian trainees from both theacademic and professional sectors, in collaboration with university, government and community partners. The first part of the article summarizes a review of theliterature on approaches to cultural competence training. The study then outlines the transcoding process by which the stated objectives of intercultural educationwere reformulated in semiotic terms, particularly in reference to cultural semiotics on which the theoretical core of the applied model was subsequently based.Relevant principles from other semiotic schools as well as similar theoretical and methodological stances in the social sciences reinforced the established body of theory for the training design. The third part of the study discusses the process by which semiotic principles were further defined as skill-based outcomes and goals for workshop implementation. This pragmatic defining process facilitated development of questionnaires and surveys, thereby allowing participants to evaluate the training experience by examining their perceptions about the workshop outcomes at the beginning and end of the sessions. This article presents the quantitative results of the evaluation and, in discussing the gains and limits of data obtained, provides the context for a follow-up article on the qualitative findingsof the study.
14. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Roger Parent, Stanley Varnhagen Разработка семиотического подхода к межкультурной коммуникации. Резюме
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15. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Roger Parent, Stanley Varnhagen Semiootikapõhise lähenemise kujundamisest kultuuridevahelises kommunikatsioonis. Kokkuvõte
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approaches to communication
16. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Ülle Pärl A semiotic alternative to communication in the processes in Management Accounting and Control Systems
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This conceptual paper addresses Management Accounting and Control Systems (MACS) from a communication process perspective as opposed to a functionaldesign perspective. Its arguments originate from a social-constructionist perspective on the organization. Its line of argument is that building a social theoryof a social phenomenon such as MACS, demands that attention be paid to the characteristics of the communication process. An existing theoretical frameworkthat does the same is Giddens’ structuration theory, but it is only partly satisfactory because it refuses to consider communication-as-interaction from a dynamiccontextual perspective, instead falling back on an argument related to the behavioural aspects of agency. An alternative is a semiotic-based communicationperspective that includes context as well as addresses the epistemological level of a MACS theory based on communication. The semiotic model of Jakobson is provided and developed as a specific alternative.
17. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Ülle Pärl Коммуникация в процессе руководства и мониторинга (MACS): семиотическая альтернатива. Резюме
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18. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Ülle Pärl Kommunikatsioon juhtimisarvestuse ja monitooringu protsessis: semiootikal põhinev alternatiiv. Kokkuvõte
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19. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Torkild Thellefsen, Bent Sørensen, Martin Thellefsen The significance-effect is a communicational effect: Introducing the DynaCom
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The paper presents the concept significance-effect outlined in a Peircean inspired communication model, named DynaCom. The significance effect is a communicational effect; the formal conditions for the release of the significance-effect are the following: (1) Communication has to take place within a universeof discourse; (2) Utterer and interpreter must share collateral experience; and (3) The cominterpretant must occur. If these conditions are met the meaning of thecommunicated sign is likely to be correctly interpreted by the interpreter. Here, correctly means in accordance with the intentions of the utterer. The scope of thesignificance-effect has changed from knowledge effects caused by technical terms to emotional effects caused by lifestyle values in brands, for example.
20. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 39 > Issue: 1
Torkild Thellefsen, Bent Sørensen, Martin Thellefsen Сигнификационный или коммуникативный эффект: ознакомление с DynaCom. Резюме
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