The Semiotic Paradigm in Psychology. A Mature Weltanschauung for the Definition of Semiotic Mind.

Abstract

The author discusses the relevance of the semiotic perspective for the psychological studies in order to deal with some critical issues. In the view of the author, the presumed weakness of psychology, its difficult to be acknowledged among hard sciences, and the lack of worldwide acceptance of its constructs cannot be solved by an evolutionary perspective that risk to cut off many relevant features of living beings and human beings as well. The core of the issue remains untouched. Assuming a wide semiotic paradigm, the mind can be considered a situated, recursive and contextual process of sensemaking engaged in articulating a flow of signs. The process of semiotic mediation is a crucial point at stake: the use of signs is not only to refer/point something or to communicate a message in coded forms, but it is to create models of world in order to think, to act and to share experiences. By a wide range of semiotic processes (iconic, indexical, symbolic), each living specie create its own world. Continuities and discontinuities with humang beings are presented and discussed.