Identity, freedom and answerability in the global world: A semiotic approach

We propose to analyze identity, freedom, and answerability in a semiotic key; that is, from the perspective of the science of signs. Individual and community identity alike may be governed by a mono-logic or by a dialogic. The difference is profound and pervasive. Global semiotics in particular (a trend that in modern times extends from Charles S. Peirce and Victoria Welby to Charles Morris and Thomas A. Sebeok) may contribute to a critique of monologism. However, the assumptions and implications of this new approach to semiotics are external to traditional philosophy. This leads to the need for a new philosophical founding of semiotics. From this point of view, a contribution may come from those contemporary French authors who have contributed to a critique of Western thought such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas. The focus of the present essay is on Levinas in relation to the semiotic perspective delineated with developments in the direction of the problem of identity, freedom, and answerability.