Premium
Deixis and Desire: Transitional Notation and Semiotic Philosophy of Education
Author(s) -
Pigrum Derek
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.12079
Subject(s) - deixis , sign (mathematics) , semiotics , indexicality , relation (database) , agency (philosophy) , value (mathematics) , epistemology , context (archaeology) , sociology , linguistics , notation , object (grammar) , philosophy , aesthetics , history , computer science , mathematical analysis , mathematics , archaeology , database , machine learning
The philosophical underpinnings of this article are the P eircian notion of the triadic nature of the sign as iconic, linguistic and indexical, and the use of the sign as a ‘ Zeug ’ or thing as a means of pointing to or deixis in the context of creative activity in the classroom. This involves Lyotard's conception of desire as the generation of a space where the pupil can be affected by what the world donates. Both deixis and desire take on added value in relation to the psychoanalytic theories of Winnicott in terms of the role of transitional object use in the generation of ‘potential space’, and Nussbaum's notion of tyche or being on the lookout for what the world has to offer. In terms of education, the central section of the article looks at the way these notions can be applied to teaching and learning in the secondary art classroom. This involves the use of what I have termed transitional notation, combining all three P eircian sign modes on a surface of inscription that is ‘ready‐to‐hand and that operates as what the anthropologist A lfred G ell termed an ‘index of agency’.