Symbiosis of signs and events: Illustrated by the convergence of semiotics and humanities

The article suggests a solution to the important problem of humanities and semiotics (the author proceeds from an interesting report made by Alexandra Volodina at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences). The fact is that traditional semiotics explains well only a relatively small class of signs, for example, natural language, transport, communication, etc. Attempts to bring works of art, icons, schemes, and projects under the classical concept of a sign (F. de Saussure, L. Hjelmslev, U. Eco) do not appear effective. The author suggests a hypothesis about the connection (symbiosis) of signs and events of psychic reality, allowing, in his opinion, to solve this problem. He attempts to demonstrate that while the first class of signs satisfactorily described in traditional semiotics serves primarily the processes of communication, the second class (works of art, icons, schemes, projects, etc.) supports two processes simultaneously – communication and going through the experiences of some individual reality. To clarify and prove this hypothesis, the article analyzes three cases (understanding eclipse by indigenous peoples; children experiencing fairy tales and discovering images). In these cases, the concepts of diagram, mental reality, event, and sign are used. The author also interprets the relationship between signs and events through a biological analogy with the symbiosis of two organisms (signs provide reality events, and events form the basis for meaning). At this, referring to his previous research, he claims that a similar symbiosis is characteristic of many processes (for example, the process of realization of personality and the process of dreams, as well as the processes of communication, game and some forms of reflection).