Four Ages of Understanding: The first Postmodern Survey of Philosophy from Ancient Times to the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

by John Deely

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 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.

Genres: Philosophy, Semiotics, Nonfiction, History, Linguistics

Hardcover

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I read the whole thing. I definitely skimmed the Aquinas chapter (yes, he was influential, but 100 pages out of the book, massive though it is, devoted to Aquinas is a little excessive), but I did make it through the entirety of the tome. And it is a tome.

Like much of Deely's work, Four Ages of Understanding is easily readable if you are reasonably familiar with academic language. He takes the reader on journey through the development of Western philosophies, dividing the narrative into four distinct ages. He writes from the perspective of a post-modern, specifically viewed through the lense of Charles S. Peirce's semiotic postmodernity. Deely traces the development of the sign through Greek and Roman times, into Christian medieval philosophy, followed by the directions taken by Enlightenment philosphers, and finishes with post-modern philosophers.

He makes brief digressions into the world events occuring during the philosophers' lifetimes, which grants the reader a more coherent understanding of the context in which certain ideas arose and flourished and why they eventually changed. There are some delightfully amusing comments on the people described in the book and their lives as well.

The book is large, so it may be intimidating, and he really does spend a bit more time on Aquinas than feels necessary (though he is somewhat excused from this due to his studies on Aquinas - it becomes difficult to write short essays on one's specialist subject after being immersed in the topic for too long). Another point that may be problematic is that the book is very much skewed towards Peircean semiotics. This was not a problem for me, as I love Peircean semiotics, but Saussureans may feel slightly insulted.

Four Ages of Understanding stems from and builds on Deely's earlier writings in the field of semiotics, and is a must for any serious student of semiotics, and for anyone wanting a solid overview of the history of Western philosophy.

[Gary Goldberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous review of the history of philosophy with the clear demonstration of how significant the transition from the 'Way of Ideas' to the 'Way of Signs' really is.
This is truly a masterpiece for anyone with an interest in how philosophy shapes society and culture and how we think about the world and our own existence in it.

[Rory Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Encyclopedic study provides a vast overview of 2000 years of Philosophical thinking. Its depth and clarity of philosophical thought is outstanding, and so also is its patient explanation of concepts and individuals from the eras it focuses upon.

Its over-arching theme is the idea of ‘signs.’ It is essentially arguing a simple thesis, which it exemplifies with quotes and references from almost all the major thinkers over its 2000 year span.

The thesis is that the ancient world had a concept of signs which were ‘natural.’ Thus a dark cloud was a (natural) sign, outside of people’s minds, that a storm was coming. Early Latin thinking also recognised the existence of ‘conventional’ signs which existed inside people’s minds, for example definitions of words.

This distinction was broadened and developed through the thinking of Augustine, Boethius, Aquinas and many other figures. By the seventeenth century end of the Latin era, thinking culminated in the writings of John Poinsot. He was able to show that natural and mental signs could both be mind dependent and mind independent. This is because the scholastics had a vigorous notion of signs as ‘relations’. So when they spoke of ideas in their minds, those ideas had a signifying relational existence which linked them to the real world.

With the rise of Descartes, modern philosophy ignored Latin scholasticism and got itself into a mess, viewing ideas as mental objects which represented the world. Once knowledge was reduced to an interaction with these mental objects, the question immediately arose as to whether there was a real external world beyond them.

All of the modern figures of the last several hundred years have engaged with (or skirted around) the resulting scepticism, and they have been largely unable to resolve the problem that their own conceptural framework created. This is because they were unable to get out of the false dichotomy of viewing reality as a contrast of ‘things’ or ‘ideas.’ Having lost the scholastic concept of ‘relations’ they had no way of getting back to the more healthy and more sophisticated philosophical models of signs, which were the culmination of seventeenth century Latin scholasticism.

This sad situation was only finally resolved with the insights of Charles Sanders Peirce and the subsequent invention of the field of Semiotics, which is where the book closes.

Not only is this story an intellectual pilgrimage through all the major thinkers of Western thought, but the book also (unusually) digresses in places to cover historical issues. For example we get a relatively detailed explanation of why the ‘dark ages’ occurred (Kindle 13%). This provides context which explains not only the concepts in use, but also why specific concepts travelled, and why others didn’t.

In places the author gives an opinionated commentary on contemporary studies. For example he takes issue with McCord Adam’s simplifying of William of Ockhams name to William Ockham (30%). He is also unsympathetic to Wittgenstein whom he admits was a ‘genius of sorts’ but an ‘astonishingly ignorant one.’ (41%).

Overall these thousand pages are not an easy (or fast) read, but the book is written in a relatively accessible way which should enable readers of any background to engage with it; as long as they are prepared to be patient and re-read sections as necessary to aid comprehension. If so, then readers will find the book to be an immensely rewarding overview of Philosophy: one which fills the lacuna of late scholasticism which most philosophical overviews skip.

[Caleb Burdine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deely tells the story of Western philosophy by focusing on the question of the being proper to signs. The question, initiated by Augustine's proposal of the sign as indifferent to nature and culture was wrestled with throughout the Latin Middle Ages before reaching a decisive solution in the Tractatus de Signis of John Poinsot. The latter's achievement was, among other things, a recognition of the being proper to signs as consisting in the triadicity of ontological relations (secundum esse). Perhaps my favorite aspect of Deely's work is the light he sheds on early modern philosophy by showing how Descartes and his disciples ended up on the dead end known as "the way of ideas" by willfully ignoring the Scholastic "way of signs". Whereas the way of signs considered our concepts as formal signs which serve as the sign vehicles linking us to the object signified, the early moderns viewed such concepts as instrumental signs, or objects in their own right. The door was then opened for skepticism regarding the ability of such concepts to relate us to anything beyond themselves. Deely moves on to consider the ultramodern tradition (what is popularly labeled postmodern) in which Saussure stands as the founding father through his development of Semiology. It is this tradition that inspires Derrida, Althussier, and a host of others who hold no orthodoxy apart from a shared belief in the dyadic nature of the sign, and that all signs are conventional. The true Postmodern tradition, on Deely's telling, is the tradition initiated by the American logician and philosopher CS Peirce through his recovery of the Latin understanding of the triadic sign. Read this book if you are interested in the nature of signs and their role in the unfolding history of thought.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book was insightful and was a joy to read (even though it was quite difficult and certain places). I am a Thomist in my philosophical commitments but this has opened my eyes to a new way of looking at things as well, which I think can be done in harmony with the Thomistic synthesis. This book has convinced me that semiotics is a necessary part of metaphysics (the part relating to logic and epistemology -- and part of it, by extension, is intrinsically connected to philosophical anthropology). I also see a way forward through the contradictory schools of the modern philosophy of mathematics using a semiotic framework. I will definitely be reading more Deely: in fact, I've already started "The Basics of Semiotics" which seems to be a more systematic approach to the question than this work, which is a historical approach (both approaches being complementary, not contradictory).

[Ejansand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah. I’m not sure how to put this, but this book actually does what it claims it’s going to do - that is, reframe the trajectory of philosophical research upon a new paradigm (that of semiotic - medieval and Peircian) that transcends the realism/idealism divide.

While the text needs a thorough review, more than I can provide here, I have to say that it deserves wider readership and attention. In terms of a history, the best sections (or rather the fullest) are the Pre-Socratics and Greeks (First Age) and the Latins (Second Age, or the Medieval Period).

Just wow - what a book. It needs time to read at 1000-odd pages, but that time is well worth the investment.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the full The Thomist journal 2003 review of Deely's masterpiece by Benedict Ashley O.P., author of the excellent The Way toward Wisdom .

[Angelenee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy read, but well worth it.