Papers by Valerio Marconi
This paper aims to introduce pictorial personal codes that differ from linguistic ones. Since ind... more This paper aims to introduce pictorial personal codes that differ from linguistic ones. Since individual norms distinguish personal codes, the concept of norms serves as the starting point for extending their scope beyond language. Indeed, there is a strong case for nonverbal norms within the philosophy of normativity. Gestures and drawings can establish these nonverbal norms. Drawn norms, such as those enforced by traffic signals, are part of a pictorial code in our everyday experiences. However, the application of this code view has been challenged in the field of semiotics, particularly in art and visual semiotics. Conversely, the pictorial turn suggests that cultural history involves a struggle between words and pictures. Pictures differ from words, yet are not purely visual media. This distinction can be traced back to Marcello Barbieri's differentiation between the world of perceptual objects and the world of names. I hypothesize that pictorial personal codes lack an abstract system of rules but still present a set of norms that can be categorized into shared and individual. I exemplify this with a case study of the Venetian painter Tiziano Vecellio (Titian). By integrating research results from art history, I show that Titian transformed his workshop into a modern firm and, as a form of legitimization, defined his original style in terms of tragic painting, specifically a personal approach to painting that connotes a literary genre such as Greek tragedy. I also evaluate the role of a graphic code in Titian's productive system. Finally, I draw certain conclusions regarding the social ontology of the firm, suggesting that Titian's tragic painting illustrates how firms endure, thanks to personal or brand-specific codes, and propose that gestural personal codes, like pictorial ones and unlike linguistic ones, should include unsystematic legisigns and a set of norms that can be divided into shared and individual ones.
Linguistic Umwelten: The Polysemiotic Species
Linguistic Umwelten: The Polysemiotic Species, 2025
The paper formulates the concept of linguistic Umwelten out of Uexküll’s definition of Umwelt in ... more The paper formulates the concept of linguistic Umwelten out of Uexküll’s definition of Umwelt in terms of a closed unity of perceptual and agentive worlds. Linguistic Umwelten must be plural because language cannot explain the unparalleled cumulative or historical aspect of human culture, if language is abstractly construed as a faculty that is distinct from the traditions in which it manifests. Relying on authors like Peirce, Tullio De Mauro, and Marcello Barbieri, I argue that each human being dwells in a minimum of two Umwelten, namely the world of perceptual objects and at least a world of words. Employing Giorgio Prodi’s insights and the idea of distributed languaging, I translate Saussure’s circuit de la parole in terms of a Funktionskreis connecting the speaker’s effector organ with the hearer’s perception organ: individual organisms A and B, namely the speaker and the hearer, are organically entangled during their conversation and a linguistic Umwelt emerges as a pairing of A’s effectual world with B’s receptive world as much as a pairing of B’s effectual world with A’s receptive world. To show the explanatory potential of the new concept of linguistic Umwelten, I use it to account for polysemiosis (the fact that human communication always employs at least two semiotic systems). Eventually, I derive the concept of personal Umwelt from the previously introduced notions of the world of perceptual objects and the linguistic Umwelt: the personal Umwelt is the individual perceptual world as affected by the intersubjective linguistic Umwelt.
Chinese traditional characters share with Peirce's existential graphs the fact of being endowed w... more Chinese traditional characters share with Peirce's existential graphs the fact of being endowed with an object-language that they describe through a nonlinear syntax and in an iconic way. Here iconicity is not restricted to images and perceptive similarity since diagrams and graphic metaphors are iconic too. The graphs are shown to be a borderland between Western traditional logic and Chinese traditional writing and culture, so the écart (Jullien's concept for cultural distance) between characters and graphs is preserved even though graphs break with the Western prejudice in favor of conventionality at the expense of iconicity in logical systems. The take-home lesson for the study of writing systems is to substitute the orality-writing duality with the interplay among orality, writing, and pictures thus shifting from a linguistic typology to a semiotic one.
The concept of personal code is inspired by Peirce and Coseriu but is compatible with Code Biolog... more The concept of personal code is inspired by Peirce and Coseriu but is compatible with Code Biology. Persons can build their cultural code out of the codes available among their communities. Personal codes are social i.e., they are constructed by a population of interacting human code-makers, yet the interacting population is made of different states of the same human mind. The rules of personal codes are a set that can be partitioned into two subsets: the subset of rules that are shared with other human beings and the subset of rules that are followed by just one person. In a personal code, some of the meanings of a pre-existing cultural code are connected either with new cultural meanings or with meanings coming from a different pre-existing cultural code. The attachment of a new meaning to a previous one will be exemplified by analyzing Giacomo Leopardi’s poem La Ginestra, while the personal connection between two different cultural codes will be shown in a text written by a young migrant. These two case studies employ Hjelmslev’s connotative analysis of sign systems.
Kobow has recently argued for introducing Vaihinger’s Als-ob in social ontology. She discusses at... more Kobow has recently argued for introducing Vaihinger’s Als-ob in social ontology. She discusses at length both models and fictions as cases of “thinking as if". Searle’s analyses on the linguistic structure of social reality are interpreted in the light of Vaihinger’s concept of fiction and the interplay between existential aspects of social life and language is thoroughly assessed. In my own discussion of Kobow’s work, I focus on possible integrations into her framework. I claim that Meinong’s views on assumptions can shed further light on fictions in social ontology and that semiotics of modelling systems can help us understanding what Kobow calls “horizon of action" in terms of culture.
Bozza dell'articolo pubblicato in GALASSI, R., MARCONI, V., ZORZELLA CAPPI, C. (a cura di),
Varia... more Bozza dell'articolo pubblicato in GALASSI, R., MARCONI, V., ZORZELLA CAPPI, C. (a cura di),
Variazioni Glossematiche, ZeL, Treviso 2019, pp. 105-
126
Bozza dell'articolo pubblicato in GALASSI, R., MARCONI, V., ZORZELLA CAPPI, C. (a cura di),
Vari... more Bozza dell'articolo pubblicato in GALASSI, R., MARCONI, V., ZORZELLA CAPPI, C. (a cura di),
Variazioni Glossematiche, ZeL, Treviso 2019, pp. 89-104
A differenza del più esteso "Galvano della Volpe e il metodo semiotico strutturale", il presente ... more A differenza del più esteso "Galvano della Volpe e il metodo semiotico strutturale", il presente testo si interroga sui fondamenti teorici e sugli esiti della parafrasi per la comprensione filosofica della poiesi, del fare letterario e artistico.
A new reading of the meaning of being in Aristotle based on the comparison with Peirce's doctrine... more A new reading of the meaning of being in Aristotle based on the comparison with Peirce's doctrine of categories.
If you want to quote or refer to this paper please purchase or consult
T. Gasbarro and D. Testa (edd.), Tempo: tra esattezza e infinito. Atti del IX Convegno Interdisciplinare dei Dottorandi e Dottori di Ricerca, Vol II – ISBN 978-88-3293-199-0.
The paper assesses Aristotle’s account of individuation, recent interpretations are considered an... more The paper assesses Aristotle’s account of individuation, recent interpretations are considered and to a certain extent confirmed. There are at least two criteria of individuation, namely form and matter. These criteria hold as far as they are individual, so the distinction between physical and logical point of view becomes relevant in order to separate matter as genus from matter as concrete constituent. The same holds in the case of universal and individual form. Proximate matter itself can be shown to be a relative and matter is generally the principle of all accidents. The strength of Aristotelian insights is a combination of the non-relational side of identity (form) with the relational one (matter), even if there might be a flaw in the story. How far we can take Aristotelian individual form to be such?
Review of an Italian book on Hegel and Contemporary Thought.
Ho già caricato l'abstract nella sezione Conference Presentations, il pdf dell'articolo è disponi... more Ho già caricato l'abstract nella sezione Conference Presentations, il pdf dell'articolo è disponibile nel sito dell' A.I.S.S. all'interno della rivista on-line "E/C": http://www.ec-aiss.it/index_d.php?recordID=840.
Articolo in volume: “Il concetto di categoria tra Aristotele e Hjelmslev”, in V. Marconi e C. Zor... more Articolo in volume: “Il concetto di categoria tra Aristotele e Hjelmslev”, in V. Marconi e C. Zorzella Cappi (a cura di), Caleidoscopio glossematico, ZeL Edizioni, Treviso, 2017, pp. 95-109.
Out of Place Language and its Accessibility, namely the poetic Place
The rules of poetic discour... more Out of Place Language and its Accessibility, namely the poetic Place
The rules of poetic discourse are not the rules of the language in which the poem is written. Poetry is a land ruled by a different law, even though it is not an independent state. This paper enquires the links between connotation in Hjelmslev’s sense and della Volpe’s poetics, which is based on Hjelmslev’s theory of language (glossematics). What we may call glossematic poetics presents strong analogies with the chapters XXI and XXII of Aristotle’s Poetics, whose interpretations given during Italian Renaissance were studied by della Volpe. The role of paraphrasis in the analysis of poetry is a common feature to Aristotle and della Volpe and their methodologies are shown to be consistent with glossematics. Furthermore, Aristotle’s account of metaphor is the most important to Eco’s own one. The insights of these authors can help us to understand the nature of poetry and its cognitive relevance, namely the competence with reading and understanding poetry can bring to a deeper awareness of our own conceptual schemes and to overcome them. Providing a population with such a competence is a way of enhancing its cognitive skills which seems less puzzling from a bioethical point of view than the employment of pharmacological enhancement.
Full text at http://www.ilsileno.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/10-Valerio-Marconi.pdf
In this ske... more Full text at http://www.ilsileno.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/10-Valerio-Marconi.pdf
In this sketch of Edith Stein’s phenomenology of language, I’ll focus on concepts of semiotic relevance such as Bild, Bildverhältnis, Sinn-Bild, Wahrzeichen, Symbol and Wesenheit. They are core notions to phenomenology of mystic experience as well and their link to metaphysics and semantics consists in their use in understanding the Word of God by Edith Stein. She unveils the presence of the divine Logos both in Sacred Scripture and in the writings by St Therese of Avila and St John of the Cross thanks to her study of Dionysius’ symbolic theology. The outcome is a description of symbolic expression and communication which are common to Scripture and mystic writing. I hold that this type of writings stands against the project of universal semantics; this is shown both by Stein’s metaphysics of sense (Sinn) and by Hjelmslev’s reflexions on structural semantics. The phenomenological analysis of sense is not limited to analysis of linguistic meaning but, as far as it concerns linguistic data, it is not lacking some methodological similarity to a structural analysis of meaning. Eventually, the divine Word who is studied by Stein and the semantic word to which structural semantics must be devoted (according to Hjelmslev) are analogical.
Scopo di questo contributo è valutare l’attualità della riflessione filosoficolinguistica di Aris... more Scopo di questo contributo è valutare l’attualità della riflessione filosoficolinguistica di Aristotele per quanto riguarda la nozione di ‘verbo’ non tanto dal punto di vista dell’analisi logica ma da quello dell’analisi linguistica. Nello specifico si considererà l’analisi linguistica di stampo strutturalista come essa è declinata dalla Glossematica di Louis T. Hjelmslev. Per caratterizzare l’analisi glossematica del verbo si farà, dunque, riferimento a "Il verbo e la frase nominale" poiché in tale saggio è proposto un distacco dalle teorie grammaticali classiche, le cui posizioni sul verbo poco o nulla hanno a che fare con Aristotele, che del verbo si è occupato nel "De interpretazione" (§2 e §3) e nella "Poetica" (§20). Il riferimento ai due luoghi in cui Aristotele analizza da un punto di vista più strettamente linguistico nome e verbo risponde alla considerazione delle critiche volte da Elio Montanari ad Antonino Pagliaro e a Walter Berardi: entrambi avrebbero sacrificato le differenze, storiche e teoriche, tra i due passi per poterli riadattare in un’unica prospettiva teorica che costituisse una monolitica teoria aristotelica del linguaggio. La tesi di Montanari è suffragata da dati oggettivi, seppure nella generale unitarietà del pensiero aristotelico resti chiaro un percorso evolutivo. Inoltre, nella sua pratica teorica lo Stagirita soleva adeguare la trattazione dell’argomento di volta in volta alla scienza dalla quale tale argomento era studiato. Infine, l'analisi linguistica del verbo può rivelare aspetti centrali sia del principio di non-contraddizione sia della concezione del segno linguistico comune ad Aristotele e Hjelmslev.
Full text available at http://www.ilsileno.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Marconi-Valerio.pdf
A d... more Full text available at http://www.ilsileno.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Marconi-Valerio.pdf
A definition of mysticism based on mysticism studies can show the phenomenological and semiological character of mystical experience. The experience of the One is both a limit-experience and unsayable; these two features respectively connect to phenomenology and to semiology. Following this path, we uncover a general relation between the two disciplines, as Greimas held. What is more is that mystical experience trials two core notions such as intentionality and reference. This highlights how peculiarly mysticism participates of the two disciplines’ subject matter. Considering Sini’s account of external world, it is possible to deconstruct the notion of referent as sign-independent and restore this notion as sign-dependent – although not necessarily as language-dependent. What Ghilardi holds to be a circularity between perception and signification is shortly broken in the mystical experience, but it is as much naturally fixed as it naturally went undone. We can experience non-linguistically, but we need to tell it. The reason of this fact is that only languages can say the unsayable, as Hjelmslev reached by considering the omniformativity of historical-natural languages. The analysis of mysticism corroborates the conclusion that, both in sign function analysis of sign and in semiotic triangle analysis of sign, what we call “referent” does not figure outside the sign.
Translation and commentary to a medieval quaestio.
Talks by Valerio Marconi
Handout utilizzato in occasione dei Seminari aristotelici a Urbino
Quasi-Platonic premises of Existential Graphs and their consequences in social ontology.
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Papers by Valerio Marconi
Variazioni Glossematiche, ZeL, Treviso 2019, pp. 105-
126
Variazioni Glossematiche, ZeL, Treviso 2019, pp. 89-104
If you want to quote or refer to this paper please purchase or consult
T. Gasbarro and D. Testa (edd.), Tempo: tra esattezza e infinito. Atti del IX Convegno Interdisciplinare dei Dottorandi e Dottori di Ricerca, Vol II – ISBN 978-88-3293-199-0.
The rules of poetic discourse are not the rules of the language in which the poem is written. Poetry is a land ruled by a different law, even though it is not an independent state. This paper enquires the links between connotation in Hjelmslev’s sense and della Volpe’s poetics, which is based on Hjelmslev’s theory of language (glossematics). What we may call glossematic poetics presents strong analogies with the chapters XXI and XXII of Aristotle’s Poetics, whose interpretations given during Italian Renaissance were studied by della Volpe. The role of paraphrasis in the analysis of poetry is a common feature to Aristotle and della Volpe and their methodologies are shown to be consistent with glossematics. Furthermore, Aristotle’s account of metaphor is the most important to Eco’s own one. The insights of these authors can help us to understand the nature of poetry and its cognitive relevance, namely the competence with reading and understanding poetry can bring to a deeper awareness of our own conceptual schemes and to overcome them. Providing a population with such a competence is a way of enhancing its cognitive skills which seems less puzzling from a bioethical point of view than the employment of pharmacological enhancement.
In this sketch of Edith Stein’s phenomenology of language, I’ll focus on concepts of semiotic relevance such as Bild, Bildverhältnis, Sinn-Bild, Wahrzeichen, Symbol and Wesenheit. They are core notions to phenomenology of mystic experience as well and their link to metaphysics and semantics consists in their use in understanding the Word of God by Edith Stein. She unveils the presence of the divine Logos both in Sacred Scripture and in the writings by St Therese of Avila and St John of the Cross thanks to her study of Dionysius’ symbolic theology. The outcome is a description of symbolic expression and communication which are common to Scripture and mystic writing. I hold that this type of writings stands against the project of universal semantics; this is shown both by Stein’s metaphysics of sense (Sinn) and by Hjelmslev’s reflexions on structural semantics. The phenomenological analysis of sense is not limited to analysis of linguistic meaning but, as far as it concerns linguistic data, it is not lacking some methodological similarity to a structural analysis of meaning. Eventually, the divine Word who is studied by Stein and the semantic word to which structural semantics must be devoted (according to Hjelmslev) are analogical.
A definition of mysticism based on mysticism studies can show the phenomenological and semiological character of mystical experience. The experience of the One is both a limit-experience and unsayable; these two features respectively connect to phenomenology and to semiology. Following this path, we uncover a general relation between the two disciplines, as Greimas held. What is more is that mystical experience trials two core notions such as intentionality and reference. This highlights how peculiarly mysticism participates of the two disciplines’ subject matter. Considering Sini’s account of external world, it is possible to deconstruct the notion of referent as sign-independent and restore this notion as sign-dependent – although not necessarily as language-dependent. What Ghilardi holds to be a circularity between perception and signification is shortly broken in the mystical experience, but it is as much naturally fixed as it naturally went undone. We can experience non-linguistically, but we need to tell it. The reason of this fact is that only languages can say the unsayable, as Hjelmslev reached by considering the omniformativity of historical-natural languages. The analysis of mysticism corroborates the conclusion that, both in sign function analysis of sign and in semiotic triangle analysis of sign, what we call “referent” does not figure outside the sign.
Talks by Valerio Marconi