Żywiąca semiotyka
Living semiotics

Summary/Abstract: “Living semiotics” is a term used by Susan Petrilli in her book "The Self as a Sign, the World, and the Other. Living Semiotics" to describe a biosemiotic theory for opening up to the foreign based on the logic of otherness. The logic of otherness, with the logic of the gift-giving at the fore, opposes a patriarchal logic of identity – in this respect, it seeks to build a semi-matriarchal system. The essence of this system is selflessness, refusing to give in to the demands of functionality or its benefits, dialogicality, materiality, coexistence, and the blurring of sharp boundaries, and thus goes beyond the Cartesian “I”. A living semiotics thus reformulates an oppressive capitalist model of equal exchange, self-interest, or healthy selfishness, and creates the basis for initiating a new, semiotically aligned sign structure. Such a semiotics exerts a powerful influence on the ontological, epistemological and axiological system which governs the present day – and builds a new model of contact with others and with the world, resting on the principle of responding responsibly.

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