Signs of History – Semiotics and the Philosophy of History
Subsequent to my Master’s (Magister) thesis on the topic “Signs of History and History of Signs. Semiotics of History in Kant and Peirce“ I now try to develop a sign-theoretical approach to history. In particular that means to follow Kant in his insight, that historical events possess the quality of signs which function in a remorative, demonstrative and prognostic way if interpreted specifically. Kant already analysed the interpretation of these signs as a process in which supposable causes are derived from effects that are present – surprisingly similar to what Peirce calls abductive reasoning. In conjunction with a series of other elements of the Peirceian Semiotics that is my starting point for further analyses of history. For the Philosophy of History that sign-theoretical approach might lead to an integrative grasp on history, which is not limited to the semantic dimension of reference to an object, but also includes the pragmatic dimension of how to deal with such signs.