Semiotic understanding of the "sign" category in the context of early medieval discourse

Abstract

The purpose of the work. This study is related to semiotic understanding of the category "sign" in the context of early medieval discourse. Despite the fundamental body of academic research of the work of a prominent Christian philosopher St. Aurelius Augustine the blessed, the iconic doctrine of the thinker, dispersed in various treatises, remains poorly understood. The methodology of research involves the application of an analytical method, which resulted in the identified basic concepts of symbolic theory. This method allowed us to analyze and summarize the profound reasoning of the theologian, which contributed to the formation of a structured knowledge of signs, which still has not lost its relevance. Scientific novelty lies in the selection of a semiotic understanding of the category "sign" in the context of landmark doctrine Augustine the blessed. Analysis and comparison of the different provisions of the thinker showed that the sign was conceived not only as a tool of interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, but also acquired the meaning of a universal essence, which was the knowledge of the world. Conclusions. Understanding of the main provisions of the landmark theory of Augustine the blessed suggests that it is in the treatises of the thinker for the first time in the history of Western medieval thought stated semiotic understanding of the category of "sign" that was practically the only almost to the end of the XVII century. The distinction between things natural and the data allowed the thinker to carry out the distribution of Existence on cultural and natural, to indicate that anything functioning as a sign, if in the process of perception the awareness of something else, but herself.