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Books / Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language
Umberto Eco 

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Note ix
Introduction 1
Signs 14
1. Crisis of a concept 14
2. The signs of an obstinacy 15
3. Intension and extension 18
4. Elusive solutions 18
5. The deconstruction of the linguistic sign 20
5.1. Sign vs. figura 20
5.2. Signs vs. sentences 21
5.3. The sign as difference 23
5.4. The predominance of the signifier 24
5.5. Sign vs. text 24
5.6. The sign as identity 25
6. Signs vs. words 26
7. The Stoics 29
8. Unification of the theories and the predominance of linguistics 33
9. The 'instructional' model 34
10. Strong codes and weak codes 36
11. Abduction and inferential nature of signs 39
12. The criterion of interpretability 43
13. Sign and subject 45
Dictionary vs. Encyclopedia 46
1. Porphyry strikes back 46
1.1. Is a definition an interpretation? 46
1.2. The idea of a dictionary 47
1.3. The interpretation of the markers 54
2 Critique of the Porphyrian tree 57
2.1. Aristotle on definition 57
2.2. The Porphyrian tree 58
2.3. A tree which is not a tree 61
2.4. The tree is entirely made up with differentiae 64
2.5. Differentiae as accidents and signs 67
3. Encyclopedias j 68
3.1- Some attempts: registering contexts and topics 68
3.2. Some attempts: registering frames and scripts 70
3.3- Some attempts: stereotypes and commonsense knowledge 73
3.4. Clusters 78
3.5. The encyclopedia as labyrinth 80
3.6. The dictionary as a tool 84
Metaphor 87
1. The metaphoric nexus 87
2. Traditional definitions 89
3. Aristotle: synecdoche and Porphyrian tree 91
4. Aristotle: metaphors of three terms 92
5. Aristotle: the proportional scheme 94
6. Proportion and condensation 96
7. Dictionary and encyclopedia 97
8. The cognitive function 99
9. The semiosic background: the system of content 103
9.1. The medieval encyclopedia and analogia entis 103
9.2. Tesauro's categorical index 105
9.3. Vico and the cultural conditions of invention 107
10. The limits of formalization 109
11. Componential representation and the pragmatics of the text 112
11.1. A model by 'cases' 112
11.2. Metonymy 114
11.3. 'Topic', frames', isotopies 117
11.4. Trivial metaphors and 'open' metaphors 118
11.5. Five rules 123
11.6. From metaphors to symbolic interpretation 124
12. Conclusions 127
Symbol 130
1. Genus and species 134
2. Expressions by ratio facilis 136
2.1. Symbols as conventional expressions 136
2.2. Symbols as expressions conveying an indirect meaning 136
3. Expressions produced by ratio difficilis 137
3.1. Symbols as diagrams 137
3.2. Symbols as tropes 139
3.3. The Romantic symbol as an aesthetic text 141
4. The symbolic mode 143
4-4.1. The Hegelian symbol 143
4.2. Archetypes and the Sacred 144
4.3. The symbolic interpretation of the Holy Scriptures 147
4.4. The Kabalistic drift 153
5. Semiotics of the symbolic mode 156
6. Conclusions 162
Code 164
1. The rise of a new category 164
1.1. A metaphor? 164
1.2. Dictionaries 165
2. The landslide effect 166
3. Codes and communication167 
4. Codes as s-codes 169
4.1. Codes and information 169
4.2. Phonological code 169
4.3. Semantics-codes 171
5. Cryptography and natural languages 172
5.1. Codes, ciphers, cloaks 172
5.2. From correlation to inference 173
5.3. Codes and grammars 175
6. S-codes and signification 177
6.1. S-codes cannot lie 177
6.2. S-codes and institutional codes 179
7. The genetic code 182
8. Toward a provisional conclusion 185
Isotopy 189
1. Discursive isotopies within sentences with paradigmatic disjunction 193
2. Discursive isotopies within sentences with syntagmatic disjunction 194
3. Discursive isotopies between sentences with paradigmatic disjunction 195
4. Discursive isotopies between sentences with syntagmatic disjunction 195
5. Narrative isotopies connected with isotopic discursive disjunctions
generating mutually exclusive stories 196
6. Narrative isotopies connected with isotopic discursive disjunctions
that generate complementary stories 198
7. Narrative isotopies connected with discursive isotopic disjunctions
that generate complementary stories in each case 199
8. Extensional isotopies 200
9. Provisional conclusions 201
Mirrors 202
1. Is the mirror image a sign? 202
2. The imaginary and the symbolic 203
3. Getting in through the Mirror 204
4. A phenomenology of the mirror: the mirror does not invert 204
5. A pragmatics of the mirror 207
6. The mirror as a prosthesis and a channel 208
7. Absolute icons 210
8. Mirrors as rigid designators 211
9. On signs 213
10. Why mirrors do not produce signs 216
11. Freaks: distorting mirrors 217
12. Procatoptric staging 219
13. Rainbows and Fata Morganas 221
14. Catoptric theaters 221
15. Mirrors that 'freeze' images 222
16. The experimentum crucis 226