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Schematic Enough to be Safe from Kidnappers: The Semiotics of Charles Peirce as Transitionalist Pragmatism
Author(s) -
OLTEANU ALIN
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1111/1467-9752.12403
Subject(s) - pragmatism , semiotics , sign (mathematics) , epistemology , argument (complex analysis) , philosophy , social semiotics , meaning (existential) , sociology , relation (database) , computer science , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , database
This paper explores the semiotics of Charles Peirce in relation to Colin Koopman's advocacy for a new wave of pragmatism, which he terms transitionalism. Presenting both similarities and differences between these two, the main point is that Peirce's semiotics fits the general idea of a transitionalist, as contrasted to substantialist, philosophy, even though Koopman explicitly excludes this possibility. This is argued both on the grounds of Peirce's own writings and in view of recent, post‐Peircean developments, particularly in semiotics, which highlight certain possibilities of Peirce's pragmatism. Overall, Peirce's concept of the sign as the tool of a relational logic that explicates the transition from hypothesis to conclusion recommends Peirce's pragmatism as avant‐garde for its time and justifies its labelling as transitionalist pragmatism. Some implications for education are identified along the development of the argument.