Semiotica delle passioni

Abstract

Numerous introductions have been written on Algirdas Julien Greimas’s semiotic theory. Some have accentuated its linguistic and philosophical presuppositions and underpinnings, showing how his thought is the product of his times and how, despite its originality, it remains part of the episteme shaping the social sciences over the last fifty years. Others have attempted to bring to the fore its logical and scientific nature. Hence, in our foreword to the last volume of works by A. J. Greimas, "Semiotica e scienze sociali" (1976), we suggested that whereas a dual thrust existed in the general field of semiotics with respect to the application of semiotic theory and its philosophical foundations, the originality of semiotics is that it maintains an articulation between the two extremes defining it, the epistemological level and the level of application. We further stressed that Greimas’s semiotic project was characterized both by its speculative and empirical intent and that, for him, methodology constituted the meeting ground for the theory of signs and the human sciences insofar as its function is to establish the missing link between epistemological and textual knowledge.