Review
"This book is a welcome addition to the power of semiotics to change the world, not through any ideological or theoretical framework, as in political movements, but by its uncanny ability to allow people to get to the meaning of things. Susan Petrilli is a giant in the field and, like very few others, knows the global village is expanding in sign-based ways. It is these ways that need to be deciphered and understood, so that life in the village can be truly harmonious." --Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto; Editor-in-Chief, Semiotica
"The present volume features a series of brilliant essays by the highly respected and internationally renowned Italian scholar, Susan Petrilli. The eight studies are representative of her work in semiotics, semioethics, and her interpretation the work of many of the illustrious pioneers of the inter-discipline of semiotics. The chapters in this collection typify her ability to explicate complex theoretical ideas in clear, lucid, and comprehensible prose. Scholars worldwide will welcome this collection of her essays on these timely topics because they add to our basic knowledge of them. Their clarity of purpose and originality make this volume one that every scholar in semiotics and interdisciplinary studies should possess." --Frank Nuessel, University of Louisville
"It is impossible for me to imagine a more lucid, informative, and insightful treatment of such central but somewhat elusive topics than the essays in this volume. Such topics as responsibility, bodies, translation, and the origin of language are explored here not only in depth and detail but also with clarity and precision." --Vincent Colapietro, Pennsylvania State University
“The seventh Thomas Sebeok Fellow of the Semiotic Society of America, Petrilli (Univ. of Bari, Italy) presents both her engagement with the major semioticians of the 20thand 21stcenturies and their own contributions to the field. She weaves semiotics as explored by Charles Sanders Peirce, Charles Morris, Michel Bakhtin, Roman Jakobson, and (most notably) Thomas Sebeok, to present a global semiotics, “a metascience concerned with all academic disciplines as sign-related.” Petrilli argues that semiotic studies “must account for all terrestrial biological systems, and she adds an ethical dimension to Sebeok’s global semiotics, concluding that semioethics “summons [one] to participation and involvement with the other beyond individual separatisms and interests.” In that sense, Petrilli’s semioethics is an offer of a new form of humanism that envisions an escape from both relativism and dogmatism.” Recommended. —Choice
About the Author
Susan Petrilliis the seventh Thomas A. Sebeok Fellow of the Semiotic Society of America and professor of philosophy of language and semiotics at the University of Bari, Aldo Moro, Italy. In addition, she is the author of numerous books, including Semiotics Unbounded (with Augusto Ponio), Signifying and Understanding, and Sign Crossroads in Global Perspective (Transaction).
John Deely is professor of philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas and managing editor of The American Journal of Semiotics. He is the author of numerous books including The Impact on Philosophy of Semiotics and What Distinguishes Human Understanding.
