Algirdas J. Greimas’s Egology

Abstract

Then it spoke to me without voice : “You know it, Zarathustra ?” And I cried with fright at this whispering, and the blood left my face ; but I remained silent. Then it spoke to me again : “You know it, Zarathustra, but you do not say it !” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra 1. The Egological Perspective1 Egology is a philosophical analysis, conception or theory of a specific being : a person. This notion was introduced by Edmund Husserl, but retrospectively the problematics of egology is manifest throughout the history of Western philosophy. It turns especially important in the modern era, as the subject — the ego — becomes the point of departure, the core, and the ground of philosophical thought. In this context, the egology of Algirdas Julius Greimas designates an understanding, more or less clearly articulated or implicitly assumed, of what and how a person is, what constitutes the contents, limits, and conditions of this being. Greimas was not only a semiotician but also an essayist and journalist, who frequently discussed or at least touched upon the problematics of a person and personhood in his writings. Greimas’s egology may also be discussed in another sense : as his understanding, perception, and image of his own I. Such things are expressed in special texts nowadays termed “egodocuments”. The theoretical status of this “second” egology is neither entirely clear nor unequivocal. Perhaps, it should rather be called “egography,” even if some remarks that Gre