The Foundations of Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of how meaning is made — how a sound, an image, a gesture, or a clue comes to stand for something beyond itself, and how entire systems of thought are built from these small acts of interpretation. This course offers a systematic introduction to the field through its two founding figures, Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Peirce. From Saussure, we’ll examine how language works as a structured system of arbitrary signs. From Peirce, we’ll explore inference, doubt, and the logic that moves us from evidence to belief. These two traditions converge in the semiotics of Umberto Eco, whose model of culture as an open, ever-expanding “encyclopedia” gives us a way to think about meaning-making across every domain of human life.
Rather than limiting itself to abstract theory alone, each week pairs a foundational idea with a concrete case: Umberto Eco’s "The Name of the Rose" and its medieval detective-monk; Eco’s revisitation of the labyrinthine library of Jorge Luis Borges; Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty arguing with Alice about who controls language; Sherlock Holmes’ methods of investigation; Galileo defending science against scriptural authority; the portraits and death masks of the poet Giacomo Leopardi. By the end of the semester, you’ll have the tools to notice, analyze, and understand the countless systems of meaning we live inside every day, largely without realizing it.
No prior background in linguistics or philosophy is required.

PQ: Taught in English.