IMPERTINENZA E TEORIA Osservazioni sulla nozione di ‘realtà materiale’ nella semiotica di L. J. Prieto

Luís J. Prieto is one of the few structural semiologists who has taken the problem of reference seriously, starting from a materi- alist ontological stance. His notion of “material reality”, therefore, is interesting both from the point of view of its fitting within structural tradition (well exemplified by Hjelmslev), where “matter” is nothing but the residue of semiotization, and from that of the dialogue with the (post-)pragmatist tradition (starting from Peircean idealism, and continuing with Eco’s work). The arising question, then, should be: is it possible to (somehow) positively describe matter and its role before semiotization and pertinentization? If it is not possible to describe it, indeed, it is still possible (and necessary) to recreate each time the conditions by which the object is “extracted” from undifferentiation by recalling the conditions of the the ontogenesis of the knowing subject.