In this paper I propose to describe, in brief, a semiotic paradigm which results from the redefinition of the linguistic sign as a molecular sememe. Borrowing a tactic from Wittgenstein, I wish to use the game of chess as an analogy for the sake of describing what a molecular sememe is. Then I hope to use it further to sketch several implications of this semiotic paradigm for literary criticism and critical theory.

How, as Caldwell puts it, does one choose between rival systems all of which claim to rest on a priori foundations? On the nonfallibilistic conception it is difficult to make sense even of the possibility of rival systems of this sort. On the conception here defended, in contrast, the existence of such rival systems can be seen to be a perfectly natural and acceptable consequence of the just-mentioned difficulties we will often fact in coming to know even the intelligible (...) traits of reality: one adjudicates between such systems in the same way in which one adjudicates between all rival scientific hypotheses, namely via a complex mixture of empirical and a priori considerations. (shrink)