An Updated Status of Semiotic Theory

SIG/FIS Proceedings, 1981

Information Science has been described as being in the preparadigm, prescientific state. However, several investigators have adopted a very powerful point-of-view, a total scientific paradigm. Its background, structure, use, and applications are examined in this paper. The Semiotic Paradigm contains a language, theory, experimental methodology, point-of-view, models, decisions on important problems, etc. and is a complete Weltanschauung. Among several other partial paradigms that have recently been suggested as candidate paradigms for information science, only the Semiotic Paradigm stands as a complete, scientific paradigm, and it stands alone where scientific paradigms really count --in its productivity of further knowledge, theories, experiments, and even applications.

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 2020

Zagaria, Andó́and Zennaro (in this issue) have offered that the discipline of psychology is fraught with conceptual chaos and a multiplicity of constructs. They have also assessed psychology to be a soft science, with much potential to be a hard science, should it allow itself to be unified by the principles offered by evolutionary psychology. With this approach, psychology would transition from its pre-paradigmatic to a paradigmatic status. In this commentary, we question their premise, method and conclusion, and finally submit that the preoccupation with paradigm is connected with a positivist view of scientific knowledge production. Psychological constructs are not ostensive in nature and cannot be treated as matter is in the hard sciences. This is neither possible, nor desirable. Additionally, such constructs are located in various theoretical perspectives, necessary to understand their multifaceted nature. We question the proposal of evolutionary psychology as an alternative meta-theory. Psychology is essentially a human endeavor, and we must step out of our need to follow the acultural Euro-American vision of positivist science, and instead build an enterprise that can be plural, contextually sensitive and incorporate the complexity and interdisciplinarity needed to be truly successful at approaching the human condition.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, 2023

This entry will focus on Kuhn's concepts of paradigm. After a brief introduction to Kuhn’s paradigms, it will first place the Kuhnian conception in the context of 20th century philosophy of science. Kuhn’s concepts of paradigm will then be outlined. Next, it will be seen how these concepts explain the pattern or regularity that Kuhn identifies in the development of science. It will continue with the identification of some relations of Kuhn's proposal with classical philosophy of science. Finally, it will be concluded by pointing out some further developments of Kuhn’s paradigms.

Semiotics, 2010

Peirce begins his theology with one fundamental principle: "Everything is nothing but God". From this one principle, he derives his entire "Theology of Evolutionary Love", which became the foundation for an important branch of 20 th century theology, Tables 1, 2, and 3. However, this principle is inconsistent with most ontologies. Peirce had to stop and develop a new ontology, which he calls "transcendental metaphysics". To make transcendental metaphysics rigorously consistent with the ontological principle, he had to develop a whole new logic and a new way of thinking (the Principle of Genuine Doubt), a new understanding of truth (the ultimate consensus of the entire community of investigators), a new theory of meaning with a strange and very subtle third component (the Pragmatistic Principle), a whole new set of ontological categories (firstness, secondness, and thirdness), and the newest and most revolutionary of all sciences -semiotics, (see ).

Revista de Filosofia Aurora, 2020

The concept of "paradigm" became widely known with Thomas Kuhn's book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. From there on, paradigms started being employed in the most diverse fields and situations. Curiously, though, the popularity of the term went hand in hand with an enormous vagueness in its application: numerous meanings were attributed to this concept and different things were claimed to be paradigms. The main reason for the lack of agreement regarding the notion and the use of paradigm was the absence of a detailed description and analysis of a concrete paradigm in Kuhn's book-especially, one coupled with a discussion that could contrast paradigms to other epistemic objects, such as "theories." The aim of this article is to fill this gap. First, I briefly examine the notion of paradigm, stressing its core meaning as that of "exemplar." Next, I analyze a specific case in economics, indicating the features that make it a paradigm: (i) the fact that it is an example not reducible to an axiomatizable theory, and (ii) that this example is constitutive of normal science.

Emergence, 2002

2016

After having published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn's contribution has not only been a break with several key positivist doctrines but also triggered the growth of a new academic discipline – the sociology of science. His idea that the development of science has periods of stable growth punctuated by the scientific revolutions is based on the cycle of normal science, crisis, and revolution. For him, such regularity in the development of various sciences is a paradigm which he thought to be a general feature of science. Thus, this study aims to analyze Kuhn's concept of paradigm as an intellectual framework which makes research possible. It is debated that the term could globally be understood as a disciplinary matrix in a sociological context whereas the term particularly refers to the concrete puzzle solutions which could be seen as exemplars of good science. It is showed that the process of paradigm change, for Kuhn, leads to a scientific revolution. Finally, Kuhn's argument on incommensurability of competing paradigms and the problem of objectivity are also discussed in order to show the problematic aspects of the concept.