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Charles W. Morris (1901-1979) was an American semiotician and philosopher.
Career
Morris did his first degree in engineering, at Northwestern University, then a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Chicago under George Herbert Mead., a pragmatist and founding figure in social psychology. Morris taught at Rice University 1925-31, Chicago 1931-58, and the University of Florida thereafter. During the 1930s, he helped a number of German and Austrian philosophers immigrate to the United States. In particular, Rudolf Carnap was his colleague from 1936 to 1952. Morris presided over the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Morris's approach to semiotics divided the subject into syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. He proposed a threefold division of a sign into a sign vehicle, designatum, and interpreter; this trichotomy first appeared in his book Foundations of the Theory of Signs. Although it would seem that a semiotics structured in this manner owes much to Charles Peirce, some Peirceans have accused Morris of reading Peirce superficially, through the distorting lens of Morris's behaviorism.
But while Peirce envisioned a semiotic philosophy based on universal categories of perception and the assumption that "every thought is a sign", Morris wanted to develop a science of signs "on a biological basis and specifically with the framework of the science of behavior".
Morris was involved in the Unity of Science movement, and was Associate Editor of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. He was close to the Vienna Circle and its logical positivism, and developed an original form of pragmatism. He wrote poetry and called for new forms of religious belief.
Thomas Sebeok was a student of his.
Publications
Semiotics:
- Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938)
- Signs, Language, and Behavior (1946)
- Signification and Significance (1964)
- Writings on the General Theory of Signs (1971)
- Mind, Self, and Society]] (1934), a collection of G.H. Mead's lectures.
- Paths of Life: Preface to a World Religion (1942)
- The Open Self (1948)
- Varieties of Human Value (1956)
- The Pragmatic Movement in American Philosophy (1970)
- Six Theories of Mind
- Logical Positivism, Pragmatism, and Scientific Empiricism.
External links
- Pragmatism cybrary. Includes bibliographies of the primary & secondary literatures.
- Charles Morris: A Brief Outline of His Philosophy by Eugene Halton.
"Charles W. Morris"