Sémiotique de l’outil. Anasémiose et catasémiose instrumentées

Abstract

Our contribution is part of a more general work that aims at recasting semiotics by foregrounding its roots in the body and in nature. It establishes a distinction between anasemiosis, or meaning production, and catasemiosis, the action of that meaning on the outside world. In this framework a space must be reserved to the tool, not as an object, but as an instrument (principally catasemiotic, even if there also exist anasemiotic tools). The paper underlines the concepts of energy and work. Given the fact that meaning can be defined as potentialized work, the languages are among the most economical and efficient forms that this potentialization can take. This perspective allows us to visit anew the tool functions, among which the different types of mediation (following Lévi-Strauss), the socialization of knowledge and of practices, the formalization of experience, the establishment of task routines. The paper also proposes a semiotic typology of tools, based on such criteria as the type of implied energy, the tool form, its status and field of use. It also treats particular questions like the relationship between a semiotics of the tool and a semiotics of the object and practices, the continuum body-tool, and finally the constant evolution of the equipment, fuelling the increasing hold of catasemiosis onto the human world.

Keywords

• cognition
• body
• perception