Behavioral Semiotic: A Critique

BEHAVIORAL SEMIOTIC: A CRITIQUE PORPHYRIDS has said that" the knower of many things, the true philosopher, is an observer of signs." 1 We know that from the time· of the Greek philosophers to that of the " hidden persuaders " of modern advertising, the sign has been the subject of detailed and painstaking investigation . The universal character of the sign requires this. Our personal experience is adequate testimony that our life is dependent on signs, and that any existence devoid of signs would indeed be a shallow one. The quinque viae rest on the theory of signs. The sacraments as signa rerum sac.rarum cannot be fully appreciated without a grasp of the nature of signs. Religiously, intellectually, socially and artistically, man is linked to signs; the range of his knowledge corresponds to the extension of signs. It was with all this in mind that Jacques Maritain wrote: There are no more complex problems, no problems of wider bearing on psychology and on culture than those pertaining to the sign. The sign involves the whole extent of moral and human life; it is in the human world a universal instrument, just as is movement in the physical world.2 Semiotic,8 the science of signs, must be considered in any evaluation of the last two decades of modern philosophy. While post-war interest in existentialism and phenomenology 1 Porphyrins. De Abstirnmtia IT. • J. Maritain, Redell'flling the Timll8, translated by H. C. Binsse (London: Geoftrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946), 191. 8 Semiotic comes from the Greek word 1T7Jp.e"io11 which means a sign, an omen, a flag or a boundary. Galen used the word 'II t17Jp.e,.,T,tc1, or TO IT7JP."'"'T'K611 as the science of symptons, diagnosis. (Claudii Galtmi Opera Omnia, Ed. C. G. Kuhn [Lipsiae: Cnoblochii, 1827], Tom. 14, 189). It is in this medical sense that the word has been most frequently used. John Locke gave the term a distinct philosophical meaning. Cf. J. Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Unde-rstanding, Edition of A. Fraser (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894) , Bk. IV, Ch. XXI, 4, 461. There Locke defines it as " the doctrine of signs, the most usual thereof being words, it is aptly enough termed also logic." 495 496 PATRICK ·GRANFIELD has been more widely publicized, semiotic is, nevertheless, deserving of careful investigation. The numberless articles, reviews and heated discussions on extremely subtle semiotical problems indicate that it is a provocative and important field of study. It is our intention, therefore, in this article, to examine modern semiotic in the light of Thomistic philosophy, and to discover the value of its principles. We feel that such a discussion is both useful and timely. We have chosen Dr. C. W. Morris as the subject of our investigation, because he is the leading representative and most articulat~ exponent of a theory of signs which is called " behavioral semiotic." At present research professor at the University of Florida and associate editor of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, his influence on American philosophers is evident. The author of many books,4 he is best known for Signs, Language and Behavior which Max Black, himself an eminent " linguistic philosopher," called " one of the most stimulating discussions of topics in the philosophy of language to have appeared in years." 5 Morris holds a significant place among American philosophers for the original work he has done in semiotic, as well as for the value his work has had in encouraging further study of semiotical problems. A glance at philosophical periodicals even now, sixteen years after his most important work, will reveal that he has not been forgotten. This article will be divided into two parts: the first ·will be an exposition of the main tenets of Morris' theory; the second will be devoted to a critical.evaluation of it. • Morris has written the following books: Six Theories of Mind, 1982; Logical Positivism, Pragmatism and Scientific Empiricism, 1987; Foundations of tke Theo1'1J of Signs, 1988; Paths of Life, 1942; Signs, Language and Behavior, 1946; The Open Self, 1948; Varieties of Human Value, 1956. 5 M. Black, The Philosophical Review, LVI, !'l, (March, 1947), 208. Another contemporary, Hans Reichenback, who was associated...