The processes of meaning making, starting from the morphogenetic theories of René Thom. (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: De Luca Picione, Raffaele; Francesca Freda, Maria
• Is Part Of: Culture & psychology. Volume 22:Number 1(2016:Mar.)
• Page Start: 139
• Page End: 157
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: Semiosis -- cultural psychology -- continuity and discontinuity -- meaning making process -- catastrophes theory -- morphogenetic field of semiosis; Culture -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; Ethnopsychology -- Periodicals; 155.92
• DOI: 10.1177/1354067X15576171
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-067X

Abstract

Each process of meaning making can be seen as a field of semiotic organization that shows a variety of continuities and discontinuities, rather than as a linear trajectory of accumulated signs, progressively articulated through syntagmatic chains. In this work, we address the idea that the sign is a discontinuous form within a field; it emerges where there are different trajectories of meaning, different epistemic positions, and different subjective or affective ways of experiencing a phenomenon. The central aspect of the paper is based on the idea that the sign is a form within a semiotic relational system that allows its emergence towards a "morphogenetic field of semiosis". The starting point for this discussion is the philosophical, mathematical and semiotic work of Rène Thom, which addressed the relationship between continuity and discontinuity in natural human, social, and linguistic phenomena.