Semiosis without Consciousness? An ontogenetic perspective

The article aims to show that the existence of semiosic process does not always imply the presence of consciousness. If consciousness always includes a semiotic function, the opposite is not necessarily true. Such an argument is based on empirical data from the earliest phases of neonate ontogenesis. In order to fully understand how semiosis develops in very early interactions between adults and neonates, we need to abandon the traditional internalist cognitivist view of mind and representations, and adopt an alternative, externalist, semiotic perspective, that draws on the work of both Vygotsky and Peirce. The external mind is not entirely in the intentional subject, nor in the object, but in the intersubjective space of their interaction, the analysis of which must take into account emotion, affect, perception and bodily sensation.