Intensional man vs extensional man

a difficult dialogue

Umberto Eco

pp. 335-350

in: Lucia Vaina, Jaakko Hintikka (eds), Cognitive constraints on communication, Berlin, Springer, 1984

Abstract

Any semiotic approach (cf. Eco. 1976)¹ should distinguish between a theory of codes and a theory of sign production, that is between a theory of signification and a theory of communication. In other words it is indispensable to distinguish between the criteria of organization of the cultural encyclopedia (a merely intensional system of meaning postulates) and the various phenomena of communicational interaction (among which there is the extensional use of languages, that is, the use of languages in order to designate actual or possible states of the world).