From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!yorku.ca!rreiner Tue Nov 19 11:09:46 EST 1991
Article 1282 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!yorku.ca!rreiner
>From: rreiner@nexus.yorku.ca (Richard Reiner)
Subject: Re: Is semiotics an "informal logic"?
Message-ID: <rreiner.689955910@yorku.ca>
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References: <Veo4aB1w164w@depsych.Gwinnett.COM> <rreiner.689651023@yorku.ca> <91313.225035MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET> <1991Nov12.115624.14166@nuscc.nus.sg>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1991 14:25:10 GMT

smoliar@hilbert.iss.nus.sg (stephen smoliar) writes:

>In article <91313.225035MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET> MORIARTY@NDSUVM1.BITNET
>writes:
>>
>>Concerning Eco's reliability as a scientist, there is no doubt in my
>>mind that he was writing fiction.

>Perhaps now we should entertain the hypothesis that all of semiotics is nothin
>more than post-modern fiction.  (Who care is Pierce and Morris had nothing to
>do with literary movements?)  That might be a good justification for its
>popularity in France, might it not?

I think you're on to something, although I wouldn't put it quite the
same way.

I have a list of about 30 reviews of Eco (1979), published in all the
respectable journals of his field.  I have actually looked at about
half of these, and they all take the book quite seriously, some
lavishing high praise upon it.

Conclusion: if Eco (1979) is a joke, so is the whole discipline.
Since I already believe that semiotics is a joke, I'm quite prepared
to accept this.


