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Semiotics defined around the notion of the sign bears the burden of unsettled questions prompted by the never-ending attempt to define signs. This indeterminate condition is characteristic of all epistemological constructs, whether in reference to specific knowledge domains or semiotics. The alternative is to associate the knowledge domain of semiotics with the meta-level, i.e., inquiry of what makes semiotics necessary. In a world of action-reaction, corresponding to a rather poor form of causality, semiotics is not necessary. Only in acknowledging the anticipatory condition of the living can grounding for semiotics be found. This perspective becomes critical in the context of a semiotized civilization in which the object level of human effort is progressively replaced by representations (and their associated interpretations).<\/p>","DOI":"10.4018\/ijsss.2012010101","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,4,5]],"date-time":"2012-04-05T09:19:41Z","timestamp":1333617581000},"page":"1-31","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Reassessing the Foundations of Semiotics"],"prefix":"10.4018","volume":"2","author":[{"given":"Mihai","family":"Nadin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Texas at Dallas, USA, and Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2432","reference":[{"key":"ijsss.2012010101-0","unstructured":"Aristotle. (350 B.C.E.). Poetics (S. H. Butcher, Trans.). 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