Charles Morris and the behavioral foundations of semiotics

Roland Posner

pp. 23-57

in: Martin Krampen, Klaus Oehler, Roland Posner, Thomas Sebeok (eds), Classics of semiotics, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

Charles W. Morris¹ studied psychology at the University of Chicago in the early 1920s and originally planned on a career in psychiatry. He wanted to learn why and how human beings act so that he would later be able to help them. These goals went through his mind when he was sitting in a car one evening, waiting for his good friend, Bauhaus artist Lászò Moholy-Nagy. Suddenly it became clear to Morris that human action is unthinkable without sign processes and evaluations. How could he become a good psychiatrist without acquiring a theoretical understanding of signs and values himself?

Cited authors

Morris Charles