This paper is the first in a series that will inquire about the status of semiotic theory in the twentieth century. It will address the tacit or unacknowledged influences of war, economics and mass migration, that shape the theory as narrative, and limits claims to its scientific or objective status. This part will focus on the prominent French semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas, with reference to the IASS 2017 Congress, held at Kaunas Lithuania. It will also mention the eminent thinker Emmanuel Levinas.
Behind the flexible plethora of applied studies using semiotic methodology, there are regular claims to theoretical status. Key concepts, like that of sign itself, are given an abstract necessity, or in philosophical terms, a priori meaning, that permits inquiry to cross and transcend a remarkably wide field of inquiry, and also to articulate and respond to “meta” questions about language, human identity and being, consciousness, logic, body and mind, and culture, which previously have been the domain of philosophy. Key thinkers, such as Deleuze and Peirce, regard semiotics as an extension or embodiment of philosophy, or even as a substitute for philosophy to the extent it could address and resolve long standing problems.
The assumption of philosophical accreditation is what underpins the various associations, conferences, congresses, journals and even degrees and tertiary organisations that have evolved in the past five decades. A casual visitor to such events might mistake them even as zealous in their determined and bold quest to unlock meanings – such an impression was offered by my guest at the Congress of the International Association of Semiotic Studies, in Kaunas, Lithuania, June 2017.
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