Per una epistemologia orientata semioticamente: Charles W. Morris sulla verità

Truth is a very complex phenomenon that has exercised a fascination upon the human mind for millennia. Discussion on truth and falsehood goes back to the earliest day of philosophy and has continued ever since. Semiotics, as an independent discipline, has shown some interest towards this subject, although the research conducted in this field has been scant. This paper focuses on one aspect of this issue for it discusses the semiotic conception of truth in Charles Morris’ work. The reasons for this proposal are threefold. Firstly, in Sign, Language, and Behavior (1946), Morris tackles at length the problem of truth from a semiotic perspective. He offers a thorough and very technical account of truth that lays down the theoretical underpinnings for addressing this issue from a semiotic stance. Secondly, Morris develops an interesting yet overlooked conceptual apparatus. He introduced a precise and lucid set of semiotic distinction of the terms such as ‘truth, ‘adequacy’, ‘reliability’, ‘belief’ and ‘knowledge’ as applied to signs, which all deserve close scrutiny. One of Morris’ merits was to underscore that when such terms are applied to the study of signs, they must be kept distinct for they are independent terms. Thirdly, Morris’ theory of truth deserves attention because it has been almost neglected in contemporary semiotics. Thus, the goal of this study is to rework Morris’ stance on the subject, review the main theoretical distinctions that Morris formulated in regard to the semiotic conception of truth, and to discuss whether this pragmatic account on truth is still applicable today.La verità è un fenomeno molto complesso che esercita un certo fascino sull’uomo da millenni. Il dibattito sul problema della verità e della falsità risale agli albori della filosofia e continua ancora oggi. La semiotica, come disciplina indipendente, ha mostrato un certo interesse verso questo argomento, sebbene le ricerche condotte in questo campo siano poche. Questo articolo si concentra su un aspetto specifico di questo problema poiché discute la concezione semiotica della verità nel lavoro di Charles Morris. Le ragioni di questa proposta sono tre. In primo luogo, in Segni, linguaggio e comportamento (1946), Morris affronta a lungo il problema della verità da una prospettiva semiotica. L’autore offre un resoconto completo e molto tecnico della verità che stabilisce le basi teoriche per affrontare questo problema da una prospettiva semiotica. In secondo luogo, Morris sviluppa un apparato concettuale interessante, che è stato purtroppo trascurato. Morris ha introdotto una precisa e lucida distinzione semiotica di termini come ‘verità’, ‘adeguatezza’, ‘affidabilità’, ‘credenza’ e ‘conoscenza’ applicati ai segni, che meritano tutti un esame attento. Uno dei meriti di Morris è stato quello di sottolineare che quando questi termini sono applicati allo studio dei segni, essi devono essere mantenuti distinti perché in quanto si tratta di termini indipendenti uno dall’altro. In terzo luogo, la teoria della verità di Morris merita attenzione perché è stata quasi trascurata dalla semiotica contemporanea. Pertanto, l’obiettivo di questo studio è rielaborare la posizione di Morris sull'argomento, rivedere le principali distinzioni teoriche che Morris ha formulato riguardo alla concezione semiotica della verità e discutere se questa teoria pragmatica della verità sia ancora applicabile oggi.Truth is a very complex phenomenon that has exercised a fascination upon the human mind for millennia. Discussion on truth and falsehood goes back to the earliest day of philosophy and has continued ever since. Semiotics, as an independent discipline, has shown some interest towards this subject, although the research conducted in this field has been scant. This paper focuses on one aspect of this issue for it discusses the semiotic conception of truth in Charles Morris’ work. The reasons for this proposal are threefold. Firstly, in Sign, Language, and Behavior (1946), Morris tackles at length the problem of truth from a semiotic perspective. He offers a thorough and very technical account of truth that lays down the theoretical underpinnings for addressing this issue from a semiotic stance. Secondly, Morris develops an interesting yet overlooked conceptual apparatus. He introduced a precise and lucid set of semiotic distinction of the terms such as ‘truth, ‘adequacy’, ‘reliability’, ‘belief’ and ‘knowledge’ as applied to signs, which all deserve close scrutiny. One of Morris’ merits was to underscore that when such terms are applied to the study of signs, they must be kept distinct for they are independent terms. Thirdly, Morris’ theory of truth deserves attention because it has been almost neglected in contemporary semiotics. Thus, the goal of this study is to rework Morris’ stance on the subject, review the main theoretical distinctions that Morris formulated in regard to the semiotic conception of truth, and to discuss whether this pragmatic account on truth is still applicable today