Signs of life: a process philosophy of audible semiotics

Abstract This essay advances an audible semiotics (hearing and listening) by challenging James Williams’ concept of signs in his book A Process Philosophy of Signs (2016). In it, Williams proposes that a sign’s relationality exists as its own intensive life. He decouples consciousness from the semiotic relation to move outside of the limits of visual and linguistic thinking. In doing so, however, he has conflated two distinct activities – life and signs. This positions the sign on material grounds and strips away the creative and interpretive element of ambiguity. An audible process philosophy of signs, by contrast, retains the sensory and returns semiotics to its processes of gathering and interpretation. It thereby affirms two propositions: (1) that “life” and “sign” are not the same; and (2) that semiotics should return to lived experiences – human, animal, or otherwise. More than review or criticism, the essay offers a positive account of the possibilities of an audible semiotics for a wide range of new thought. The essay draws classic semiotics philosophy into conversation with new research in psychology, biosemiotics, neurocognition, and animal cognition. It offers a starting point for considering the possibilities of creative hearing and listening in epistemology, ecological studies, and cinematic arts.