The Analogy of Signs

The Analogy of Signs
Author: Rory Misiewicz
Publisher: Fortress Academic
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781978710023

Utilizing the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, Rory Misiewicz argues for a new approach to the problem of theological language in Christian theology. This approach, the "analogy of signs," serves as a critical alternative to influential models of theological language based upon an analogy of being, grammatical analogy, or analogy of faith.

The Analogy of Signs

The Analogy of Signs
Author: Rory Misiewicz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-02-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1978710038

The longstanding debate over how God-talk is intelligible gravitates around how we should understand the putative answer, “by analogy.” For some contemporary Christian theologians, analogy involves an ontological claim about creaturely and divine being (i.e., an analogy of being). For others, it involves a semantic or syntactical structure that legitimates the linguistic performances associated with analogy (i.e., a grammatical analogy). Still others appeal to faith in God’s self-disclosure in Jesus Christ (i.e., an analogy of faith). Rory Misiewicz argues that all of these approaches fall flat in their explanatory efforts. He draws upon the work of American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce to rethink the relation between God and human beings. He argues that Christian theologians may view that relation as being established by an “analogy of signs”: both God and human beings are univocally involved in semiosis, or sign-process, and the confirmation of God’s semiotic identity is found in the revelation of God in the person of Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. Therefore, ordinary analogical language is intelligible, for divine signs are commensurate with human signs.

Augustine's Theory of Signs, Signification, and Lying

Augustine's Theory of Signs, Signification, and Lying
Author: Remo Gramigna
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2020-01-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110596628

The aim of this study is to present, as far as possible, a general description of the theory of the sign and signification in Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), with a view to its evaluation and implications for the study of semiotics. Accurate studies for subject, discipline, and significance have not yet given an organic and systematic vision of Augustine’s theory of the sign. The underlying aspiration is that such an endeavour will prove to be beneficial to the scholars of Augustine’s thought as well as to those with a keen interest in the history of semiotics. The study uses Augustine’s own accounts to investigate and interpret the philosophical problem of the sign. The focus lies on the first decade of Augustine’s literary production. The De dialectica, is taken as the terminus ad quo of the study, and the De doctrina christiana is the terminus ad quem. The selected texts show an explicit engagement with poignant discussion on the nature and structure of the sign, the variety of signs and their uses. Although Augustine’s intention never was to establish a theory of meaning as an independent field of study, he largely employed a theory of signs. Thus, Augustine’s approach to signs is intrinsically meaningful.

Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education

Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education
Author: Peter J. Aubusson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2006-06-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1402038305

Years ago a primary teacher told me about a great series of lessons she had just had. The class had visited rock pools on the seashore, and when she asked them about their observations they talked about: it was like a factory, it was like a church, it was like a garden, it was like our kitchen at breakfast time, etc. Each student’s analogy could be elaborated, and these analogies provided her with strongly engaged students and a great platform from which to develop their learning about biological diversity and interdependence. In everyday life we learn so many things by comparing and contrasting. The use of analogies and metaphors is important in science itself and their use in teaching science seems a natural extension, but textbooks with their own sparse logic, do not help teachers or students. David Ausubel in the 1960s had advocated the use of ‘advance organisers’ to introduce the teaching of conceptual material in the sciences, and some of these had an analogical character. However, research on the value of this idea was cumbersome and indecisive, and it ceased after just a few studies. In the 1980s research into children’s conceptions of scientific phenomena and concepts really burgeoned, and it was soon followed by an exploration of a new set of pedagogical strategies that recognised a student in a science class is much more than a tabula rasa.

Between Signs and Non-signs

Between Signs and Non-signs
Author: Ferruccio Rossi-Landi
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 353
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9027224196

The Italian philosopher F. Rossi-Landi (1921-1985) conducted pioneering work in the philosophy of language. His research is characterised by a critique of language and ideology in relation to sign production processes and the process of social reproduction. Between Signs and Non-Signs is a collection of 14 articles by Rossi-Landi written between 1952 and 1984 and gives an overview of his contribution to the philosophy of language and his critique of Charles Morris, Wittgenstein, Bachtin, and his Italian contemporaries. It is in fact a project initiated by the author and now posthumously completed by the editor, with a complete bibliography of Rossi-Landi's extensive work. Susan Petrilli's Introduction gives a fresh view of the importance of Rossi-Landi's work to modern critical theory.

Consciousness and the Philosophy of Signs

Consciousness and the Philosophy of Signs
Author: Marc Champagne
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2018-03-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319733389

It is often thought that consciousness has a qualitative dimension that cannot be tracked by science. Recently, however, some philosophers have argued that this worry stems not from an elusive feature of the mind, but from the special nature of the concepts used to describe conscious states. Marc Champagne draws on the neglected branch of philosophy of signs or semiotics to develop a new take on this strategy. The term “semiotics” was introduced by John Locke in the modern period – its etymology is ancient Greek, and its theoretical underpinnings are medieval. Charles Sanders Peirce made major advances in semiotics, so he can act as a pipeline for these forgotten ideas. Most philosophers know Peirce as the founder of American pragmatism, but few know that he also coined the term “qualia,” which is meant to capture the intrinsic feel of an experience. Since pragmatic verification and qualia are now seen as conflicting commitments, Champagne endeavors to understand how Peirce could (or thought he could) have it both ways. The key, he suggests, is to understand how humans can insert distinctions between features that are always bound. Recent attempts to take qualities seriously have resulted in versions of panpsychism, but Champagne outlines a more plausible way to achieve this. So, while semiotics has until now been the least known branch of philosophy ending in –ics, his book shows how a better understanding of that branch can move one of the liveliest debates in philosophy forward.