Conceptualizing Metaphors

Description

The enigmatic thought of Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914), considered by many to be one of the great philosophers of all time, involves inquiry not only into virtually all branches and sources of modern semiotics, physics, cognitive sciences, and mathematics, but also logic, which he understood to be the only useful approach to the riddle of reality.

This book represents an attempt to outline an analytical method based on Charles Peirce’s least explored branch of philosophy, which is his evolutionary cosmology, and his notion that the universe is made of an ‘effete mind.’ The chief argument conceives of human discourse as a giant metaphor in regard to outside reality. The metaphors arise in our imagination as lightning-fast schemes for acting, speaking, or thinking. To illustrate this, each chapter will present a well-known metaphor and explain how it is unfolded and conceptualized according to the new method for revealing meaning.

This original work will interest students and scholars in many fields including semiotics, linguistics and philosophy.

Contents

Preface

Conceptualizing Metaphors (Introduction)

1. The Theoretical Framework of the Forsaken Ideas

2. The Categories, The Ground and The Silent Effects

3. Unlimited Semiosis and Heteroglossia (C.S. Peirce and M.M. Bakhtin)

4. The Living Mind and the Effete Mind

5. The Iceberg and The Crystal Mind

6. The Missing Notion of Subjectivity in Charles Peirce’s Philosophy

7. The Unpredictable Past

8. The Quiet Discourse (Some Aspects of Representation in C. Peirce's Concept of Consciousness)

9. One-man-tango

10. How Is Meaning Possible?

Appendix: Ivan Sarailiev – An Early Bulgarian Contributor to Pragmatism

Bibliography

Author Bio

Ivan Mladenov is a senior research fellow at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His chief topic of interest is the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. His main publications embrace a vast spectrum of research, such as semiotics, philosophy, psychology, literary theory and the philosophy of science.

Related Subjects

1. 19th Century Philosophy
2. Cognitive Linguistics
3. Semiotics