Wild Signs and Sign-Mastery: John Durham Peters’s Creative Appropriation of Classical Pragmatism

In a deep-cutting, far-ranging exploration of the idea of communication John Durham Peters sets dialogue and dissemination in stark contrast. He invokes at critical junctures in his complex argument the classical pragmatists (above all, James, Dewey, and especially Peirce). While Peters in doing so not only illuminates his topic but also shows the salience of the pragmatists to his inquiry, he fails to deploy one of the most important resources in this tradition—the Peircean concept of semiosis (or sign-process). This article addresses that lacuna.