Perspective sémiotique de la méthodologie des sciences humaines chez G. Chpet

Gustav Shpet’s Methodology of Humanities: the semiotic Perspective

One peculiarity of XIX-XX cent. Russian philosophy consists in its treating communication as a self-value. Shpet projects this attitude onto the methodology of humanities, thus opening its new dimension - that of “historical semasiology”. While reconstructing methodological programs of science, he rejects the alternative of both experience and pure logic as possible supports in order to reveal, by means of phenomenological procedure, the real domain where logic and experience correspond to each other in performing the main function of cognition. This is the domain of “expression” or “presentation” (“communicative aspect of cognition”). Shpet’s intent “to distinguish nominative function of the word, resp. its nominal object-relatedness, from its semasiological function, resp. its object-relatedness to meaning ” is of vital importance for humanities today.