A semiology: Problems and routes
A semiology: Problems and routes

Summary/Abstract: If I should summarize in one sentence what the semiology I intend to present here consists in – a semiology that is, certainly, a generalization and a development of the theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and his continuators from the Prague School – I would say that such a semiology is not a theory of knowledge – philosophers have already dealt with that – but rather a theory of the rationale, the raison d’être, of knowledge and, to be more precise: a theory of the raison d’être of the knowledge of material reality. The principle upon which this semiology is built is that the validity of such knowledge does not only depend, as it is usually admitted, on its truth, but also on its pertinence. In fact, pertinence appears as a criterion of validity that is logically prior to that of truthfulness, for the question of whether knowledge is true or not is only raised regarding knowledge that has been already deemed pertinent. If truthfulness is a relation between knowledge and the object being known, pertinence is, on the contrary, a relation between knowledge and the subject, by definition socio-historical, who either construes or uses such knowledge. This is why a semiology that takes as its starting point the principle that truthfulness and pertinence both contribute to the validity of knowledge can also be characterized as a study of the knowledge of material reality that takes into account the subject of knowledge, and thus approaches knowledge considering its social and historical dimensions.

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