Four Theories of Things: Aristotle, Marx, Heidegger, and Peirce

This essay is about the relation between meaning and materiality. It offers careful and coherent, albeit noncanonical, readings of particular themes in Aristotle, Marx, Heidegger, and Peirce. And it does this in order to draw together some classic understandings of value: use value, in particular, but also exchange value, truth value, and moral value ðand much else besidesÞ. Originating as a series of lecture notes offered to students interested in theoretical archeology, it culminates in a theory of embedded interpretants ðas opposed to enminded, embodied, or entextualized interpretantsÞ, with an emphasis on semiotic grounds ðas opposed to semiotic processesÞ. It is meant to offer a relatively accessible summary, synthesis, and extension of four seemingly disparate, and often quite difficult, theorists. What is our stereotype of an object? What is our exemplar of a thing? We might begin by enumerating some examples: hammers, chairs, and tables; houses, bridges, and bicycles; maybe even rocks, flowers, and chickens. Such entities have many properties we could consider “objective.” Following Whitehead ð1920Þ, they are continuously present to the senses. Borrowing some terms from Gibson ð1986Þ, they consist of a substance enclosed by a surface that is surrounded by a medium. They are relatively detachable from context and transportable across contexts—spatially, temporally, and personally. And they are suitably scaled to the size, strength, shape, and senses of people. In short, they are whats that can be sensed and moved by whos. Contact Paul Kockelman at Department of Anthropology, Yale University, 10 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT 06511-3707 ð[email protected]Þ. Much of this essay was first presented in 2008 at the Theoretical Archeology Group conference in New York City. I want to thank Severin Fowles for inviting me to participate in a panel titled “Thing Theory” that he organized for that conference. I especially thank Richard Parmentier—this is a much better article because of his questions, comments, and criticisms. Signs and Society, vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 2015). © 2015 Semiosis Research Center at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. All rights reserved. 2326-4489/2015/0301-0007$10.00