{"id":9849,"date":"2025-12-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9849"},"modified":"2025-10-09T14:51:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:51:00","slug":"looking-at-igor-pilshchikov-and-mikhail-trunins-article-2016-the-tartu-moscow-school-of-semiotics-part-5-of-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9849","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Igor Pilshchikov and Mikhail Trunin’s Article (2016) “The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics” (Part 5 of 27)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0040 The authors mention two Russian scholars working in language studies<\/em> at this time.  One is Jan Mukarovsky (1891-1975).  The other is Roman Jacobson (1896-1982).  Both start as literature scholars.  Both turn towards structuralism and semiology during the second wave of paradigms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timeframe includes the First (1914-1918), Second (1939-1945) and the start of the Third (1945-1989) Battles among the Enlightenment gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0041 Here is a picture of the three transits, tailored to this specific timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0042 The question bears asking, “What moves Soviet academics in literature<\/em> towards semiology and away from formalist analysis? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

0043 During the first half of the twentieth century, science appears triumphant.  The new government of the Soviet Union<\/em> advertises itself as a scientific style of governance<\/em>.  And, Europe does not need to advertise, having fought the First Battle Among The Enlightenment Gods<\/em> with mechanized infantry, chemical gas warfare, and other technical novelties.  Technology and science<\/em> embody the Zeitgeist<\/em>.  Even propaganda<\/em> acquires its own technology and empirio-schematics<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saussure is not the only science-minded luminary<\/em>.  The discipline of quantum mechanics<\/em> catches the imagination of many.  So does psychoanalysis<\/em>.  Niels Bohr (1885-1962) runs a physics circle in Copenhagen.  The first celebrity psychoanalyst,<\/em> Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) operates out of Vienna.  Carl Jung (1875-1961) applies psychoanalytic concepts<\/em> to cultural domains<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0044 Russian and Polish formalists<\/em> are already reacting to the civilizational conditions of the first Battle among the Enlightenment gods<\/em>.  Science catches the eye of both Mukarovsky and Jakobson.  They move towards integrating semiology into the study of literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0045 Or rather, they move towards the use semiology as matter<\/em> in order to substantiate a modern form of aesthetics<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, as soon as they do so, aesthetics as form<\/em> gets entangled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Didn’t I warn about the word, “confounding”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0046 Yes, there is a hidden problem that does not appear with formalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saussure’s paradigm<\/em> models speech-alone talk<\/em> as two contiguous real elements,<\/em> parole<\/em> (the speech act) and langue<\/em> (the associated mental act).  The contiguity<\/em> is a purely arbitrary relation<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, what is a purely arbitrary relation?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a purely conventional habit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culture<\/em> consists of purely conventional habits<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0047 Suddenly, aesthetics as form [entangles] culture as matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once aesthetics is conceptualized as a scientific form in {semiological matter […] aesthetic form}, the dyadic reality of {aesthetics [entangles] culture} becomes more and more apparent as a noumenon (a thing itself).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0048 The problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Marxist dialectics already lays claim to an understanding of culture<\/em> as the dyadic actuality of {material arrangements [account for] human conditions}.  Plus, the Soviet regime<\/em> considers that causality to be both foundational and<\/em> scientific<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a picture of the dilemma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0049 What does that imply?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the dog of Marxist materialism<\/em> wagging the tail of the academic discipline of aesthetics?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the USSR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professors in literature in Soviet academies<\/em> want to become more scientific in order to comport with the socialist program<\/em> and they entangle cultural studies as matter, and, in doing so, they confront a possibility that the confounding will resolve in favor of the entanglement<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0050 How curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors tell a story of the adoption of semiology<\/em> by formalists within the Soviet Empire,<\/em> where Marxism is the state ideology.  The authors do not mention that their story<\/em> comports with a very interesting proposition<\/em> presented in Sign System Studies<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History itself is semiotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0051 Nor do the authors consider the nature of science itself<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the hell is “science”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this time, some western philosophers are trying to figure science out.   Others are certain that they know what it is,<\/em>even though they cannot clearly define what it is<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0052 Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) participates in the debate.  So do the members of the so-called “Vienna Circle” (meeting in the 1920s and 1930s).  Husserl invents “phenomenology”.  The Vienna Circle promotes the doctrine of “logical positivism”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are not the only philosophers wrestling with the issue.  In Paris, the French Catholic, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), and (at the same time, in the same city) the Russian Orthodox, Nicolay Berdyayev (1874-1948), struggle to address the question, “What is science?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0053 Razie Mah writes two reviews on books by these authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One is Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural Philosophy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other is Comments on<\/em> Nicholas Berdyaev’s Book (1939) Spirit and Reality<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both are available at smashwords and other e-book venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0040 The authors mention two Russian scholars working in language studies at this time.  One is Jan Mukarovsky (1891-1975).  The other is Roman Jacobson (1896-1982).  Both start as literature scholars.  Both turn towards structuralism and semiology during the second wave of paradigms. The timeframe includes the First (1914-1918), Second (1939-1945) and the start of the Third (1945-1989) Battles among the Enlightenment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Igor Pilshchikov and Mikhail Trunin's Article (2016) "The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics" (Part 5 of 27) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9849\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Igor Pilshchikov and Mikhail Trunin's Article (2016) "The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics" (Part 5 of 27) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0040 The authors mention two Russian scholars working in language studies at this time.  One is Jan Mukarovsky (1891-1975).  The other is Roman Jacobson (1896-1982).  Both start as literature scholars.  Both turn towards structuralism and semiology during the second wave of paradigms. 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