WALKER PERCY'S SEMIOTIC

On the Convergence of Modern Science and Post-Modernism, or the Singularity and Plurality of Language


During these last few years of this last decade of what is undeniably the most explosive century known to humanity both in terms of its gains in knowledge and technology, two prime forces vie to define the human intellectual worldview: MODERN SCIENCE and POST-MODERNISM. Though one might argue that these are largely Western in origin, to the extent that the forthcoming "digital revolution" will continue bring a greater sense of "globality" to the developed world, it can only be anticipated that the influence of these two monoliths will spread as human culture becomes less divided and more interconnected. In fact, as an initial example, the Internet itself can be interpreted as a form of convergence between these two paradigms: the technology certainly has its origins in the scientific community, while, similarly, its functionality is distinctly "post-modern" in quality. Indeed, the whole notion of a WorldWideWeb system of inter-relational, overlapping "data fields" is post-modernistic in and of itself, not to mention the non-linearity implicit in reading "hypertext."[1]

And so humanity, with the current Internet being but a modest reflection of forthcoming technology to come, is on the verge of yet another revolution of such vast and unimaginable possibilities as not to have seen since before the modern era began with the use of the scientific method over 300 years ago. Moreover, not only will this revolution entail a further knowledge explosion (i.e., the accumulation of systematic information) from the new collaboration that will be possible among individuals, but also it will entail a whole new way of envisioning our "knowledge" through the plethora of avenues that is multimedia communication. The confluence of sound, image, and text racing around the earth at the speed of light in the form of "dynamic, interactive documentation" will present humanity with an unprecedented ability to communicate and share knowledge at a level and degree that is daunting to speculate upon.

These changes present us with an interesting consideration as we stand on the threshold of a new era. Namely, who is to say what directions human thought will turn as "knowledge content" come increasingly influenced by and dependent upon "knowledge form" in the future? Certainly, the invention of the Gutenburg press played a definitive role in the pathways modern science had available at its beginnings, and so must we admit that what might be called the "digital press," that is the globally-interfaced computer, might also have a considerable effect on our scientific vision of the future.

At this time, therefore, it may be more important than ever to examine humanity's intellectual venue, not simply because it is near the end of century (which is a rather arbitrary reason), but because there are real and on-going events in the world that signal a monumental shift in the way we are soon going to process our understanding of the world and our relationships to others in it. More to the issue at hand, though, we further need to explore the ways in which the implicit assumptions of both modern scientific and post-modern thought that underlie this shift have prepared us for such a change. Of course, there is also the interesting facet that the two worldviews are scarcely compatible. To wit, for all the precision and certainty by which scientists tell us we can define the world, there is a parallel amount of suspicion and uncertainty that postmodern theorists point toward about our attempts to represent the world (e.g.., the "indeterminate" nature of language).

How shall such an examination as this essay proposes be pursued? It is here that the work of Walker Percy may provide some help in our search for answers and for common ground between the two worldviews, particularly his semiotic. Semiotics is the scientific study of symbols and their meaning, and the discipline readily lends itself as a common denominator between science and post-modernism. In particular, we will seek to uncover what might be called the "delta point" of the two; that is, the point at which both science and post-modernism begin. And it is Percy who provides us with the singular vision to perceive it.

This essay's goal is therefore twofold: one, to provide a step-by-step overview of Percy's semiotic;[2] and two, to demonstrate some of the initial ways his unique perspective on language may force us to reevaluate our definitions of ourselves in the face of Modern Science and Post-Modernism even as they are so deeply inscribed upon the human edifice of knowledge at the close of the 20th century. In the end, the reader should have a clear sense of just how Percy's model of language is fully "scientific" as it is "post-modern," if not actually something more, given how he enables us to see human language as the enigmatic phenomenon that it is.

Before entering into an analysis of what Percy has to contribute toward these issues, it is appropriate to preface it with a few remarks about how he, as a thinker and writer, came to be interested in language....

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