Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2003
Abstract
In this paper, I consider a Buddhist response to the issue of unlimited semiosis: In other words, I offer a Buddhist account of how unlimited semiosis should be understood. I do this by following the doctrine of signs offered in an Indian Buddhist text of the Mahamyamna from circa the fourth century CE, a text known as the Mahamyamnasutra m mlamD kamra (Ornament to the Scriptures of the Great Vehicle; hereafter, ‘the Ornament’). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Buddhist semiotics, from both a historical and a philosophical point of view, is that in its theorizing of the semiotic process, Buddhist semiotics is directed toward bringing this process to its end or terminus — whether this means its ultimate perfection or its complete cessation. In Buddhist discourse, the ultimate end of semiosis is conceived in terms of a soteriological goal: one that is understood to be salvific in some final sense. In considering these issues, I offer this paper as a contribution to the general history of semiotics.
Published In
D'Amato, Mario. "The semiotics of signlessness: A Buddhist doctrine of signs." Semiotica 2003, No. 147 (November 2003): 185-207.
Publication Title
Semiotica
ISSN
0037-1998