Semiotics

In: Semiotics Theory and Applications ISBN 978-1-61728-992-7
Editor: Steven C. Hamel © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

THE SEMIOETHICS INTERVIEWS III: JOHN DEELY*:

HUMAN UNDERSTANDING IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL

AWARENESS

1

Morten Tønnessen

Department of Semiotics, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics,

University of Tartu (Estonia)

* Rudman Chair in Graduate Philosophy, Center for Thomistic Studies,

University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas (USA)

ABSTRACT

The general topic of this contribution is semioethics, widely regarded as one of the

most significant developments in semiotics after the turn of the 21st century, and along

with the existential semiotics of Eero Tarasti (2000) a sign of an ethical turn within

semiotics. The term semioethics, which signifies not least the emergence of a sense of

global responsibility, was introduced by Susan Petrilli and Augusto Ponzio in 2003, and

Petrilli in particular is associated with this emerging scholarly field. The semioethics

interviews, conducted by Norwegian-born Tartu semiotician Morten Tønnessen, starts

out (in four separate interview articles) with Professor John Deely, a prominent American

scholar known among other works for The Four Ages of Understanding: The first

Postmodern Survey of Philosophy from Ancient Times to the Turn of the 20th Century

(Deely 2001a). Deely, a semiotician as well as a philosopher, has joined Susan Petrilli

and Augusto Ponzio in their endeavour by grounding the notion of semioethics in

philosophical terms.

Topics include the responsibility of humankind, individuals and governments, the

place of culture as part of and yet distinct from nature, the semiotic side of modern

economic and technological development, the future prospects of human understanding

and morality in the light of current economic and political developments, and philosophy

• the distinction between ontology and epistemology, and the terminology of rights,

(^1) The current work has been carried out as part of the research projects The Cultural Heritage of Environmental
Spaces: A Comparative Analysis between Estonia and Norway (EEA–ETF Grant EMP 54), Dynamical
Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations (ETF/ESF 7790) and Biosemiotic Models of Semiosis (ETF/ESF
8403), and partaking in the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (CECT).