This book redraws the intellectual map and sets the agenda in philosophy for the next fifty or so years. By making the theory of signs the dominant theme in "Four Ages of Understanding", John Deely has produced a history of philosophy that is innovative, original, and complete. The first full-scale demonstration of the centrality of the theory of signs to the history of philosophy, "Four Ages of Understanding" provides a new vantage point from which to review and reinterpret the development of intellectual culture at the threshold of "globalization".
Deely examines the whole movement of past developments in the history of philosophy in relation to the emergence of contemporary semiotics as the defining moment of Postmodernism. Beginning traditionally with the Pre-Socratic thinkers of early Greece, Deely gives an account of the development of the notion of signs and of the general philosophical problems and themes which give that notion a context through four ages: Ancient philosophy, covering initial Greek thought; the Latin age, philosophy in European civilization from Augustine in the 4th century to Poinsot in the 17th; the Modern period, beginning with Descartes and Locke; and the Postmodern period, beginning with Charles Sanders Peirce and continuing to the present. Reading the complete history of philosophy in light of the theory of the sign allows Deely to address the work of thinkers never before included in a general history, and in particular to overcome the gap between Ockham and Descartes which has characterized the standard treatments heretofore. One of the essential features of the book is the way in which it shows how the theme of signs opens a perspective for seeing the Latin Age from its beginning with Augustine to the work of Poinsot as an indigenous development and organic unity under which all the standard themes of ontology and epistemology find a new resolution and place.
A magisterial general history of philosophy, Deely's book provides both a strong background to semiotics and a theoretical unity between philosophy's history and its immediate future. With "Four Ages of Understanding" Deely sets a new agenda for philosophy as a discipline entering the 21st century.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 190
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 0802047351 9781442675032
- LCCN
- B72
- LCCN Item number
- D43 2001eb
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- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOTU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xxxiii, 1019 p.)
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- Canada
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- CaOOCEL
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- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00600653 (OCoLC)244768158 (CaOOCEL)418156
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- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOTU
Table of Contents
- Contents 12
- Aviso: Why Read this Book? 8
- List of Tables and Illustrations 25
- Reconocimientos 28
- Preface: The Boundary of Time 30
- 1 Society and Civilization: The Prelude to Philosophy 38
- PART ONE: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY: THE DISCOVERY OF "REALITY" 50
- 2 Philosophy as Physics 52
- Beginning at the Beginning 52
- "Monism" 56
- "Pluralism" 60
- "Dualism" 64
- Mathematicism: A Theorem from Pythagoras 67
- Requirements and Dilemmas for a Philosophy of Being 69
- Summing Up 76
- 3 The Golden Age: Philosophy Expands Its Horizon 77
- Socrates (469–399BC) 77
- Plato (c.427–347BC) 88
- Aristotle (384–322BC) 96
- Looking Forward to Latinity, First Aspect 126
- 4 The Final Greek Centuries and the Overlap of Neoplatonism with Christianity 128
- The Founding of Stoicism, and, as Background Thereto, Cynicism 128
- The Stoic Development 131
- Skepticism and Epicureanism 134
- The Counterpoint of Stoicism and Epicureanism in the Last Greek Centuries 143
- Neoplatonism 147
- The Tree of Porphyry 179
- Looking Forward to Latinity, Second Aspect: The Greek Notion of Σημείον as "Natural Sign" 189
- PART TWO: THE LATIN AGE: PHILOSOPHY OF BEING 194
- 5 The Geography of the Latin Age 196
- Political Geography: The Latin Lebenswelt 196
- Intellectual Geography: Seeing Latinity Whole 240
- 6 The So-Called Dark Ages 247
- Augustine of Hippo (AD354–430) 247
- Boethius (c.AD480–524) 259
- The Tunnel to Latin Scholasticism 267
- Lights at the End of the Tunnel: Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033–1109), Peter Abaelard (c.1079–1142), Peter Lombard (c.1095–1160) 267
- 7 Cresting a Wave: The Second Stage 286
- Albertus Magnus (c.1201–1280) 287
- "The Splendor of the Latins" 288
- Into the Abyss 397
- 8 The Fate of Sign in the Later Latin Age 399
- Roger Bacon (c.1214–1292) 400
- Joannes Duns Scotus (c.1266–1308) 411
- William of Ockham (c.1285–1349) 420
- The Thicket (i.1349/1529) 429
- Domingo de Soto (1495–1569) and the Path Beyond the Thicket 443
- 9 Three Outcomes, Two Destinies 446
- The First Outcome: Pedro da Fonseca (1528–1599) 446
- Second Outcome: The Conimbricenses (1606, 1607) 457
- The Vindication of Augustine: John Poinsot (1589–1644) 465
- One Further Augustinian Heritage: Grammatical Theory and Modistae as a Minor Tradition of Latin Semiotics 470
- The End of the Story in Latin Times and Its Opening to the Future 478
- 10 The Road Not Taken 482
- Stating the Question 482
- Finding a Focus 490
- Adjusting the Focus: Understanding What We Have Found 496
- Conclusion 517
- PART THREE: THE MODERN PERIOD: THE WAY OF IDEAS 520
- 11 Beyond the Latin Umwelt: Science Comes of Age 522
- Questions Only Humans Ask 522
- Reasonable Questions Philosophy Cannot Answer 524
- The Quarrels between Faith and Reason 526
- Science and Academic Freedom: The Achievement of Modernity 544
- 12 The Founding Fathers: René Descartes and John Locke 546
- René Descartes (1596–1650) 547
- John Locke (1632–1704) 555
- The Common Heritage of Modern Times (c.1637–1867) 573
- 13 Synthesis and Successors: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 575
- Dr Jekyll Sets Up Shop. The Scientific Side of Modernity: Coming to Terms with Nature 575
- The Philosophical Side of Modernity: Abandoning the Way of Texts 577
- Enter Mr Hyde: The Problem of the External World as the Schizophrenia of Modernity 579
- Journey's End, Journey's Beginning 619
- 14 Locke Again: The Scheme of Human Knowledge 625
- Locke's Modest Proposal Subversive of the Way of Ideas, Its Reception, and Its Bearing on the Resolution of an Ancient and a Modern Controversy in Logic 626
- Expanding upon Locke's Initial Sketch 638
- A Distinction Which Unites 641
- PART FOUR: POSTMODERN TIMES: THE WAY OF SIGNS 644
- 15 Charles Sanders Peirce and the Recovery of Signum 646
- The Last of the Moderns ... 646
- ... and First of the Postmoderns 649
- Peirce's Grand Vision 663
- Categories and the Action of Signs 672
- The Peculiar Case of Firstness 680
- The Ethics of Terminology 697
- Conclusion 702
- 16 Semiology: Modernity's Attempt to Treat the Sign 704
- The Proposal of Semiology 704
- The Essence of Semiology's Proposal 711
- Points of Comparison between the Project of Semiotics and That of Semiology 715
- The Struggle for the Imagination of Popular Culture 720
- Steps to a Postmodern Doctrine of Signs 721
- 17 At the Turn of the Twenty-first Century 724
- Trattato di semiotica generale 724
- The History of Semiotics as It Appears Today (and When and Where Is That?) 728
- Theoretical Heart of Trattato di semiotica generale 734
- The Line of Advance 768
- 18 Beyond Realism and Idealism: Resumé and Envoi 770
- Rationale of This Work, in View of All That Could Be Said 770
- The Semeiotic Animal 771
- Resumé 772
- Envoi: Beyond Realism and Idealism 775
- Historically Layered References 778
- Gloss on the References 870
- Index 872
- A 873
- B 891
- C 897
- D 909
- E 915
- F 925
- G 929
- H 938
- I 943
- J 951
- K 952
- L 955
- M 964
- N 973
- O 979
- P 984
- Q 1008
- R 1009
- S 1016
- T 1037
- U 1043
- V 1045
- W 1046
- X 1048
- Y 1048
- Z 1048
- Timetable of Figures 1050