Theories of the Sign in Classical Antiquity

by Giovanni Manetti, RCS Libri S.P.A. (Contributor)

"It's the first book which revisits Greek and Latin theories of signs from the point of view of a profound classical scholarship and a paramount knowledge of contemporary semiotics debates." ―Umberto Eco

Available in English for the first time is Professor Manetti's brilliant study of the origin of semiotics and sign theory. He seeks to discover the common thread that runs through the classical world from the very beginning of human thought to the fourth century A.D. In the "classical" tradition he sees a concept of the sign which is significantly different from that currently in use.

Genres: Philosophy

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An, at times, dense and careful reading of semiotics in antiquity, beginning with Mesopotamian divination and ending with Augustine's view of the sign. Thereafter, Manetti claims that no significant work on the sign was done until Saussure in the twentieth century. Hmmm. The chapters on divination were fun, and I liked the earliest Greeks, but wasn't sure what to do with Aristotle or the Stoics or the Epicureans or even the Romans. Which is another way of saying this is a book for people who read deeply about semiotics. Good for it's purpose.

[Knox Merkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real thriller

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giovanni Manetti's /Theories of the Sign in Classical Antiquity/ is a tightly focused explication of how processes of implication and inference were conceived of in the Greco-Roman world. Comprising analyses of the distinct functions and interrelations of the semiological terms employed by ancient writers, Manetti's book reveals how understandings of the cognitive, linguistic, and ontological status of signifiers and their signifieds developed between the 4th century BCE and the 4th century CE.

After an overview of the hermeneutics of ancient divinatory and medical practices, philosophical reflection commences with the linguistic inquiries of Plato, followed by the syllogistic codifications of Aristotle. The historical arc of the text then passes through the Stoic and Epicurean schools' theories of language and signs, and their dispute over the proper epistemological basis for inference. Next, we see how semiotic distinctions formulated by these philosophers were given practical application, and underwent further transformation, in the public rhetoric of Roman political and judicial debate. Finally, a survey of the works of Augustine indicates both his debt to the semiological developments of the preceding seven centuries, and his innovation in uniting linguistic and non-linguistic signs in a common theoretical framework.

Manetti does not propose an original thesis per se, and his analysis relies upon secondary literature in the field of semiotics to perhaps a greater extent than it does the ancient sources themselves, but it is nonetheless a cogent and interesting discussion of the topic.