Pragmatism and the Forms of Sense: Language, Perception, Technics (American and European Philosophy)

Making sense of the world around us is a process involving both semiotic and material mediation -- the use of signs and sign systems (preeminently language) and various kinds of tools (technics). As we use them, we experience them subjectively as extensions of our bodily selves and objectively as instruments for accessing the world with which we interact. Emphasizing this bipolar nature of language and technics, understood as intertwined "forms of sense," Robert Innis studies the multiple ways in which they are rooted in and transform human perceptual structures in both their individual and social dimensions. The book foregrounds and is organized around the notion of "semiotic embodiment." Language and technics are viewed as "probes" upon which we rely, in which we are embodied, and that themselves embody and structure our primary modes of encountering the world. While making an important substantive contribution to present debates about the "biasing" of perception by language and technics, Innis also seeks to provide a methodological model of how complementary analytical resources from American pragmatist and various European traditions can be deployed fruitfully in the pursuit of new insights into the phenomenon of meaning-making.

Making sense of the world around us is a process involving both semiotic and material mediation-the use of signs and sign systems (preeminently language) and various kinds of tools (technics). As we use them, we experience them subjectively as extensions of our bodily selves and objectively as instruments for accessing the world with which we interact. Emphasizing this bipolar nature of language and technics, understood as intertwined forms of sense, Robert Innis studies the multiple ways in which they are rooted in and transform human perceptual structures in both their individual and social dimensions.

The book foregrounds and is organized around the notion of semiotic embodiment. Language and technics are viewed as probes upon which we rely, in which we are embodied, and that themselves embody and structure our primary modes of encountering the world. While making an important substantive contribution to present debates about the biasing of perception by language and technics, Innis also seeks to provide a methodological model of how complementary analytical resources from American pragmatist and various European traditions can be deployed fruitfully in the pursuit of new insights into the phenomenon of meaning-making.

"Making sense of the world around us is a process involving both semiotic and material mediation - the use of signs and sign systems (preeminently language) and various kinds of tools (technics).". "The book foregrounds and is organized around the notion of "semiotic embodiment." Language and technics are viewed as "probes" upon which we rely, in which we are embodied, and that themselves embody and structure our primary modes of encountering the world. While making an important substantive contribution to present debates about the "biasing" of perception by language and technics, Innis also seeks to provide a methodological model of how complementary analytical resources from American pragmatist and various European traditions can be deployed fruitfully in the pursuit of new insights into the phenomenon of meaning-making."--BOOK JACKET. Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 Introduction: Pragmatism and the Forms of Sense......Page 12 1 On the Perceptual Roots of Linguistic Meaning......Page 30 2 From Indication to Predication: On Fields and Situations......Page 62 3 Paleo-Pragmatism’s Linguistic Turn: Lessons from Giovanni Vailati......Page 110 4 Technics and the Bias of Perception: The Tacit Logic of......Page 142 5 Pragmatist Aesthetics as Critique of Technology......Page 178 6 Form and Technics: Nature, Semiotics, and the ‘Information Revolution’......Page 214 References......Page 250 Index......Page 264 Back Cover......Page 277