The 2021-2022 lecture was part of the continuation, begun in 2018-2019, of an examination of the links between ontology and semiotics, the aim of which was to show how, in the face of the many dead-ends reached in the 20th century by various " turns " (linguistics, cognitive, in particular), a reflection on language, but much more generally on signs and the links they forge with the mind and the world, is not necessarily dependent on a nominalistic metaphysics. On the contrary, it is possible to place semiotics within a logical, epistemological, metaphysical and realist perspective, as witnessed at the beginning of the 20th century by the systematic project undertaken by Charles Sanders Peirce. Last year, we looked back at a number of questions and authors who, in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times, had attempted this exercise, with varying degrees of success.
This year, the aim was to pursue the elucidation of the relationship between these three fundamental terms - language,mind and reality- and to show why this makes it necessary to examine the classical question of the universal and its inclusion in the study of the quarrel over universals. For this is not just another philosophical problem, historically and technically situated : it is the problem par excellence, where the identity of philosophy clearly takes shape. It's true that the ongoing reflection on the nature and status of theuniversal and universals, through its various elaborations and re-elaborations in the course of history, is the place where an in-depth and fertile examination of the complex relationships between words, concepts and things has taken place, and continues to do so today.