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.

Publication Title

Semiotica

ISSN

0037-1998

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