The impact of an embodied theory of meaning on the epistemology of semiotics

Cognitive semiotics has an experiential basis: its thesis is that the origin of meaninga problem that classical semiotics usually glosses overlies in the sense system. This paper will outline the mechanisms that make possible such meaning construction, but its main focus will be the impact of the cognitive perspective on the epistemology of semiotics. It implies a process of naturalization of the humanities and the social sciences. This naturalization has triggered harsh criticism: its arguments are supposed to be circular; these are secretly founded on a postulate of innateness; it is at the service of an individualistic ideology in tune with a neoliberal society…. The paper will examine these pieces of criticism, which lead us to oppose and challenge both neural autonomism and the culturalist autonomism inherent in classical European semiotics. The conclusion is a plea for a continuum between nature and culture.