Abstract
This paper addresses the concept of semiotic scaffolding by considering it in light of questions arising from the contemporary challenge to the humanities. This challenge comes from a mixture of scientistic demands, opportunism on the part of Western governments in thrall to neo-liberalism, along with crass economic utilitarianism. In this paper we attempt to outline what a theory of semiotic scaffolding may offer to an understanding of the humanities’ contemporary role, as well as what the humanities might offer to the elucidation of semiotic scaffolding. We argue that traditional humanist positions adopted in defence of the humanities fail to articulate the enhancement of humanity that semiotic scaffolding represents. At the same time, we note that the concept of scaffolding is sometimes in danger of taking on a functionalist perspective which understanding the humanities modus operandi is likely to dispel. Putting forward these arguments, we draw on the work of Peirce, Cassirer and Sebeok in elucidating the structural and ‘future-orientated’ benefits of the scaffolding process as it suffuses the humanities.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In an important book, Lassègue (2015) charts how the notion of “symbolic form” in Cassirer emerged out of two often-overlooked sources. One is Felix Klein’s systematic generalization of geometry by means of group theory, after the grand challenge to mathematics posed by the appearance of non-Euclidean geometries in the mid-nineteenth century. His famous Erlangen program envisaged a general system of all possible geometries, defined by the related sets of invariances and transformations characterizing each of them - thereby opening also for the further development of future geometries for special purposes. Cassirer was deeply impressed by this result and took it as a model for Symbolic Forms more generally: the idea that, e.g. artistic expressions or languages might also be articulated as an open system where each single language could be characterized by its set of invariances and transformations. The second source was Einstein’s relativity theory - to which Cassirer dedicated a (1920) book immediately before embarking on the grand symbolic forms project, seeing, in effect this project, generalizing Kant, as an equivalence in philosophy to Einstein’s generalization of Newton.
References
Andrews, K. R. (1994). Liberal education for competence and responsibility. In T. J. Donaldson & E. R. Freeman (Eds.), Business as a humanity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bate, J. (2011). Introduction. In Bate (Ed.), The public value of the humanities. London: Bloomsbury.
Bruner, J. S. (1957). Going beyond the information given. New York: Norton.
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge: Belknap.
Cassirer, E. (1961). The logic of the humanities. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Clark, A. (1997). Being there: putting brain, body and world together. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Clark, A. (2008). Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. Analysis, 58(1), 7–19.
Cobley, P. (2014a). What the humanities are for – a semiotic perspective. The American Journal of Semiotics, 30(3–4), 205–228.
Cobley, P. (2014b) Enhancing survival by not enhancing survival: Sebeok’s semiotics and the ultimate paradox of modelling. The American Journal of Semiotics, 30(3–4), 191–204.
Collini, S. (2012). What are universities for? Harmondsworth: Penguin.
De George, R. T. (1994). Business as a humanity: A contradiction in terms? In T. J. Donaldson & E. R. Freeman (Eds.), Business as a humanity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the modern mind. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Eriksen, J.-M., & Stjernfelt, F. (2012). The democratic contradictions of multiculturalism. New York: Telos Press.
Fish, SE. (2008). Will the humanities save us? New York Times, 6 January.
Freeman, E. R. (1994). Epilogue. In T. J. Donaldson & E. R. Freeman (Eds.), Business as a humanity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practice. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4(1), 75–91.
Greenspan, S. I., & Shanker, S. G. (2004). The first idea: how symbols, language and intelligence evolved from our primate ancestors to modern humans. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo.
Hoffmeyer, J. (2007). Semiotic scaffolding of living systems. In A. Barbieri (Ed.), Introduction to biosemiotics (pp. 149–166). Berlin: Springer.
Jacob, F. (1988). The statue within: An autobiography, trans. Franklin Philip. Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Kagan, J. (2009). The three cultures: Natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities in the 21st century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kelly, M. (2011). Language matters 2. Modern languages. In J. Bate (Ed.), The public value of the humanities. London: Bloomsbury.
Lassègue, J. (2015). Ernst Cassirer, du transcendantal au sémiotique
Logan, R. K. (2013). McLuhan and the Extended Mind Thesis (EMT). Avant, 4(2), 45–56.
McDonald, R. (2011). The value of art and the art of evaluation. In J. Bate (Ed.), The public value of the humanities. London: Bloomsbury.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
O’Gorman, F. (2011). Making meaning: Literary research in the twenty-first century. In J. Bate (Ed.), The public value of the humanities. London: Bloomsbury.
Peirce, C.S. (1931-58). Collected papers, vols. I-VIII. (Eds.), C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss: Harvard University Press.
Sebeok, T. A. (1979). Pefigurements of art. Semiotica, 27(1–3), 3–74.
Stjernfelt, F. (2007). Diagrammatology. An investigation on the borderlines of phenomenology, ontology, and semiotics. Dordrecht etc: Springer Verlag.
Stjernfelt, F. (2014). Natural propositions. The actuality of Peirce’s doctrine of dicisigns. Boston: Docent Press.
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: the origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 675–691.
Tuchman, G. (2009). Wannabe U: Inside the corporate university. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press.
Watt, G. (2011). Hard cases, hard times and the humanity of law. In J. Bate (Ed.), The public value of the humanities. London: Bloomsbury.
Weber, B. H., & Depew, D. J. (Eds.). (2003). Evolution and learning: The Baldwin effect reconsidered. Cambridge, MA. and London: MIT Press.
Winston, B. (1998). Media technology and society – A history: From the telegraph to the internet. London: Routledge.
Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, 17(2), 89–100.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cobley, P., Stjernfelt, F. Scaffolding Development and the Human Condition. Biosemiotics 8, 291–304 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-015-9238-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-015-9238-z