Review by Choice Review
In this collection of essays, one of the most erudite contemporary philosophers confronts the problem of knowledge creation and organization in a historically bound whirlwind of perspectives on Western critical theory and art. Eco constructs a history of the philosophies of language to assert that "we do not have to start from the supposition that the universe must always be seen according to a single organizational model." He argues that the medieval "tree of knowledge" and its product, the dictionary, are too restrictive to account for the labyrinth of never-ending pathways embodied in a more encyclopedic approach to knowledge organization. The prose is lucid, the translation superb; but the volume is not for the faint of heart. It creates its own labyrinth as it celebrates the encyclopedic network. Readers are well advised to enter the labyrinth only if they are familiar with a few of its signposts. Since the critical corpora are not treated encyclopedically, i.e., comprehensively, the collection symbolizes its own assertion that a "text (in addition to being a tool for inventing and remembering) is also a tool for forgetting, or at least for rendering something latent." --Kornelia Tancheva, Cornell University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Do dogs have "voices" or do they merely make sounds? What language did Adam speak in the Garden of Eden? Eco, the celebrated novelist and semiotician (Kant and the Platypus), muses on these and other thorny interpretive questions in this collection of essays on the history of semiotics and philosophy of language. Beginning with a historical survey of models of semantic representation, Eco develops the idea of the "encyclopedia," a labyrinthian system of interconnected relationships that he sees in opposition to the flawed Neo-Platonic "dictionary" system, one whose rigid absolutism and hierarchy creates a closed system that Eco finds untenable. Seeking to interpret the Middle Ages within such an encyclopedic model, Eco then explores a miscellany of medieval topics in the essays that follow, making the occasional foray into classical or modern thought. Though no modern writer has proved more adept than Eco at translating medieval ephemera to a popular audience, this is not the semiotician at his most accessible. Eco's erudition will make this text a challenge for all but the most determined nonprofessional-a working knowledge of medieval thought and a functional grasp of Latin are practically prerequisites for keeping up with Eco as he moves through centuries of history in search of new connection and meaning. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The acclaimed author of The Name of the Rose (1980) and Foucault's Pendulum (1988) returns with a deeply academic collection of previously published essays, speeches and a book review, all examining issues in semiotics, linguistics and medieval history. Not for the faint of heart--or for those who neglected their homework in Latin or world history--this anthology is for scholars, philosophers, historians, linguists and semioticians. Novelist and literary critic Eco (Emeritus, Semiotics/Univ. of Bologna; The Prague Cemetery, 2011, etc.) has revised each of the pieces, and they retain their full academic regalia: parenthetical citations, long block quotations and dense footnotes. He begins with a discussion of the semantic differences between dictionaries and encyclopedias and then proceeds to a historical analysis of metaphor and a tracing of the philosophical use of the dog--and the barking dog--in the thinking of some heavyweights like Augustine, Abelard, Aquinas and Roger Bacon. Among the more interesting selections is one about how people in the Middle Ages viewed fakes and copies. Since they had few ways to determine authenticity, they were more accepting of them. Dante figures prominently in a number of the pieces. We learn that he accepted the biblical account of the variety of Earth's languages, and Eco explains the notion that God perhaps gave Adam a sort of Chomsky-an universal grammar rather than an actual language--though he also acknowledges the long attempt to demonstrate that Hebrew was the language of Adam. Eco is generally generous to other scholars, but he does go after Benedetto Croce for a "lack of precision" and an "extremely limited familiarity with the arts." Another engaging essay deals with what he calls "natural semiosis," and he revisits and reaffirms some thoughts about Kant and the platypus. Lush, comprehensive scholarship aimed at a very limited academic readership.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
