St. Augustine's Press
"Deely's book, the only successful modern English introduction to semiotics, is a clear, creative, and provocative synthesis of major trends, past and present." - Thomas A. Sebeok, Indiana University
The last half century has produced an increasing interest in semiotics, the study of signs. As an interdisciplinary field, moreover, semiotics has produced a vast literature from many different points of view. As the discourse has expanded, clear definitions and goals become more elusive. Semioticians still lack a unified theory of the purposes of
semiotics as a discipline as well as a comprehensive rationale for the4 linking of semiosis
at the levels of culture, society, and nature. As Deely suggests in his preface, the image of the modern semiotic universe is the same as that of astronomy in 1611 as suggested by John Donne: "Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone; / All just supply, and all Relation."
This short, cogent, philosophically oriented book outlines and analyzes the basic
concepts of semiotics in a coherent, overall framework.
John Deely is Professor of philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies of the
University of St. Thomas (Houston), and author of numerous works on philosophy and
semiotics, most recently The Impact on Philosophy of Semiotics (St. Augustine's Press), The
Four Ages of Understanding (Toronto), and What Distinguishes Human Understanding (St
Augustine's Press).
The Basics of Semiotics
168 pages, 6" x 9", paperbound,
preface, footnotes, references, index
ISBN: 1-58731-061-9
$15.00 (£9.00)