The Textual Society (Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Communication)

Semiotics - the study of the encoding of meaning - has so far been confined largely within the humanities, where it has forged a whole new way of understanding meaning and its construction. In this multidisciplinary study, Edwina Taborsky applies semiotic theory to her analysis of the organization of knowledge and therefore the organization of societies. Taborsky looks at knowledge as a social construction involving two forces: stasis and variation expressed within the group and the individual. These levels never merge, but exist in a state of continuous dialogical interaction, which transforms energy and permits meaning to exist. The unique, even tragic nature of individuals is that they are the only means of expression for both realities, for the two opposing forces of energy - stasis and variation. Focusing on the nature of the dialogue between the two realities, Taborsky draws key theoretical themes from the pragmatics and semiotics of Charles S. Peirce, the dialogics of Mikhail Bakhtin, and the fields of biology and quantum physics. As a whole, the book explores cognition as the social transformation of energy, and looks at different types of societies as differently organized forms of energy. In this unique look at the social construction of knowledge, the dialogical framework of two realities - that of the group and that of the individual - provides a powerful analytic tool for the analysis of cognition and social behaviour. Semiotics - the study of the encoding of meaning - has so far been confined largely within the humanities, where it has forged a whole new way of understanding meaning and its construction. In this multidisciplinary study, Edwina Taborsky applies semiotic theory to her analysis of the organization of knowledge and therefore the organization of societies. Taborsky looks at knowledge as a social construction involving two stasis and variation expressed within the group and the individual. These levels never merge, but exist in a state of continuous dialogical interaction, which transforms energy and permits meaning to exist. The unique, even tragic nature of individuals is that they are the only means of expression for both realities, for the two opposing forces of energy - stasis and variation. Focusing on the nature of the dialogue between the two realities, Taborsky draws key theoretical themes from the pragmatics and semiotics of Charles S. Peirce, the dialogics of Mikhail Bakhtin, and the fields of biology and quantum physics. As a whole, the book explores cognition as the social transformation of energy, and looks at different types of societies as differently organized forms of energy. In this unique look at the social construction of knowledge, the dialogical framework of two realities - that of the group and that of the individual - provides a powerful analytic tool for the analysis of cognition and social behaviour. We Are Disparate Beings Made Up Of Multiple Forces. We Are Isolate And Interactional, Social And Biological; We Are Forms Of Thought And Thoughts Are Forms Of Energy. We Are As Variable As The Gods Who So Easily Transform Themselves Into Multiple Images And Live Their Lives Within The Semiosis Of Duplicity And Variation. But Unlike The Gods We Are Mortal And Finite. Out Of This Very Specificity Of The Mortality Of Our Experiences Have Come Signs, The Basis Not Merely Of Thought But Of Existence. It Is Through Signs And The Logic And Order They Bring With Them, Signs Whose Nature Is Far Broader Than Envisaged By Prometheus Who Gave Them To Us, That We Exist. It Is Hoped That This Book Can Be Used To Broaden Our Use Of Signs And Semiosis.--jacket. 1. The Realities Of The Social Text -- 2. The Action Of Textuality -- 3. Otherness In The Production Of Meaning -- 4. Dialogical Time -- 5. The Pattern Of Cognition -- 6. Textual Change -- 7. Two Bodies / Two Powers: Stasis And Heteroglossia In The Textual Society -- 8. Conclusion: Society As Text. Edwina Taborsky. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [213]-221] And Index. Edwina Taborsky moves semiotics away from being a descriptive tool within the humanities and uses its powers of analysis on the organic and social nature of cognition