I AM A REAL “ROBERT LANGDON”! =============================
/When I say “I’m a Real Symbologist,” I mean that I’m a real semiotician, one who applies the semiotics of the American semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). I use “symbologist” above only because, for most people, “symbology” is the more familiar term. “Semiotics,” however, is the real “symbology,” semiotics being the science of signs, of interpretation, and so I’m a scientist of the “signing action of nature.” And note: a “symbol,” for Peirce, is only one kind of sign! Oh, and when I say “I’m a Real Robert Langdon,” again, I am just using a well-known fictional character to draw attention to my Blog! So, let’s settle for this: I am a real “Dr. W. John Coletta,” semiotician, and a follower, again, of the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce.
As Peirce helps us understand (see the Peirce quotation under the masthead above), symbols are not merely decorative; they help make facts; therefore, semioticians help make the world! But as Peirce also helps us understand, objects (both dynamic, the thing before it is experienced, and immediate, the object as represented in a sign) drive and constrain interpretation. Both symbols and facts are real.)
My goal: Use semiotics (1) to undermine conspiracy theory, replacing it with scientific theory--which, not coincidentally, fosters social and environmental justice. Why does science do this? Because the universe itself is evolving in that direction, because, for example, 'semiotic freedom' (Jesper Hoffmeyer) is an emergent force in the 'semio physics' (Rene Thom 1990) of our universe, and (2) to develop advocates for Critical Global Semiotics (CGS, see Maureen Ellis's book of that name, 2020), CGS being itself a movement advocating the 'glocal' (global + local) (Ellis, Introduction, Critical Global Semiotics, 2020), a perspective that seeks sustainable growth (and social and environmental justice and equity) through applying semiotics and "semioethics" (Petrilli, Chapter 6, CGS 2020), two fields that replace the illogic of 'identity politics' with Peirce's 'logic of synechism' (Petrilli 87), a logic that undermines the false & destructive binaries and hierarchies of self-other, nature-culture, global-local, and black-white.
