Cognitive Semiotics: Integrating Signs, Minds, Meaning and Cognition

Description

This volume serves as a reference on the field of cognitive semantics. It offers a systematic and original discussion of the issues at the core of the debate in semiotics and the cognitive sciences. It takes into account the problems of representation, the nature of mind, the structure of perception, beliefs associated with habits, social cognition, autism, intersubjectivity and subjectivity. The chapters in this volume present the foundation of semiotics as a theory of cognition, offer a semiotic model of cognitive integration that combines Enactivism and the Extended Mind Theory, and investigate the role of imagination as the origin of perception. The author develops an account of beliefs that are associated with habits and meaning, grounded in Pragmatism, testing his Narrative Practice Semiotic Hypothesis on persons with autism spectrum disorders. He also integrates his ideas about the formation of the theory of mind with a theory of subjectivity, understood as self-consciousness which derives from semiotic cognitive abilities. This text appeals to students, professors and researchers in the field. Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Contents Cognitive Semiotics. Radical Enactivism, Pragmatism and Material Engagement 1 The Threshold Between Nature and Culture 2 The Three Dimensions of Cognitive Semiotics 3 Enactivism, Sense-Making and Pragmatism 4 Cognitive Semiotics Sense-Making 5 Languages and Cognitive Systems References For a Cognitive Semiotics of Subjectivity 1 Subjectivity in Language 2 For an Enactive Semiotics of Subjectivity 3 The Pre-Logical Mind 4 Persona. The “I”, “You”, “He” Hierarchy 5 The Primacy of ‘He’ 6 Illeity References The Semiotic Mind. Beliefs, Habits and Extended Cognition 1 Anti-Cartesian Semiotics 2 Cognitive Semiotics and Pragmatism: Beliefs and the Extended Mind 3 The Semiotic Extended Mind (1): Parity Principle and Cognitive Intertwining 4 The Semiotic Extended Mind (2): Phenomenology 5 Semiotic Representations References Social Cognition and Autism Spectrum Disorders: From Mindreading to Narratives 1 Early Mindreading and Narrative Practices 2 Interaction Theory and Narrative Practices 3 Radical Enactivism, Interactive Specialization and Social Cognition 4 Two Discoveries 5 A Two-Levels Model. Low-Level: Action/Perception/Imagination Matching 6 A Two-Level Model. High-Level: Narrativity 7 Narrativity and Developmental Trajectories 8 From Deception to Pretend Play and Language Acquisition 9 Autism Spectrum Disorders and Cognitive Semiotics References Perception as Controlled Hallucination 1 Semiotics of Perception 2 Kant, the Platypus and the Predictive Processing 3 Diagrammatic Thinking, Inference and Perception 4 The Bootstrap Problem and the Metaphor of Vision 5 The Laws of Imagination 6 Perception as Controlled Hallucination 7 Perception, Imagination and Narratives References