Dalla parte di Cerbero. Peirce e la comunicazione

The aim of this paper is both to focus on the role of the notion of ‘communication’ in Ch. S. Peirce’s thought, and to search for hints and contributions that Peirce’s theory can offer to the study of ordinary, interpersonal languagemediated communication. A sketchy outlook to Peirce’s texts and general statements can show that he seems not to be particularly interested in empirical communication and natural languages. He considers the application of his broad conception to everyday communication nothing more than a ‘sop to Cerberus’, and considers natural languages as a rather defective tool for thinking, which must be emendated, and possibly substituted (with a must better efficacy) by graphical systems of logic. Nonetheless, an accurate analysis of one of the few passages in which Peirce is concerned with communication shows how he considers the dialogic and communicative nature of thinking as a necessity for inquiry, allowing for the attainment of a form of social truth which gains everyday a better degree of detail and generality.