The notion of a Symbolic Form is inherited from the philosophy of Ernst Cassirer who described symbolic forms as the basic cultural dimensions in human societies (the three main ones he studied personally being Language, Myth and Science). In the 'PerSemSoc' group, the notion of a Symbolic Form is now refined and interpreted as the basic trait of semiogenesis in the social construction of culture. The basic elements of this new approach to Symbolic Forms are twofold : First, in using the motto 'Semiotic Perception and Sociality of Meaning' as a general guide, we would like to stress that it is the phenomenological perception of meaning which is as part and parcel of its construction. Therefore, there is no way in which one can separate perception and meaning. In language for example, there is no way in which one can separate a linguistic meaning from its perceived signifier since it is through the forms taken by this signifier that meaning is both constructed and liable to evolution. Language cannot therefore be considered as a means of communication since the very idea of communication presupposes a clear cut divide between a message and the means through which this message is being conveyed. It is therefore the perceived forms taken by the general process of semiosis which are to be described. The second point of equal importance for the 'PerSemSoc' research project is a direct consequence of the first one. Once meaning has been severed from perception, what is considered as social in meaning is only defined as 'what lies outside' or 'what depends on context' and sociality appears consequently as a mere subsidiary qualifier for the construction of meaning. But let us view sociality as the collective process which takes its own evolution as the object of its construction : in that case, the fact that perception and meaning go hand in hand in specific forms is precisely the very definition of a social process. It is therefore sociality itself which lies at the core of any perceived meaning : any practice which has acquired a ritualized form expressing itself through a specific content is therefore liable to an analysis in terms of sociality. It is this second aspect that I would like to emphasize in Nov 16-17.

Lundi, 16 novembre 2009 / Monday November 16, 2009

EHESS Amphi - 105 boulevard Raspail, 75006

9 :30 Jean Lassègue : Foreword and Presentation of PerSemSoc ('Perception Sémiotique et Socialité du sens')

10 :00 Carlos Cornejo (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) : Meaning Holism and the Dynamics of Expression

11 :00 Coffee break

11 :15 Victor Rosenthal (MoDyCo CNRS - LIAS EHESS) : Expressive Worlds, Social Minds

12 :15 Lunch

13 :45 Webb Keane (University of Michigan) : Minds, Surfaces, and Reasons in the Anthropology of Ethics

14 :45 Clarisse Herrenschmidt (CNRS - Collège de France) : Do we imagine that characters, letters and signs used for writing languages have something to do with the body ?

15 :45 Break

16 :00 Jean Lassègue (CREA CNRS - École Polytechnique) : Robert Hertz a century later : Remarks on Natural and Social Polarity

Mardi, 17 novembre 2009 / Tuesday November 17, 2009

Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Salle 215, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006

10 :00 Aud Sissel Hoel (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) : Technics of Thinking : Cassirer's Differential Approach to Cognition

10 :40 Coffee break

11 :00 Jaan Valsiner (Clark University) : The Plasticity of Meaning : Modulation of the Hierarchical Depth of Semiotic Presentation