La realtà come discorso tra semiotica ed ermeneutica: un’eredità critica problematica

This paper addresses some problematic anti􀀃realist implications associated with the common idea of reality as a discursive construction. First, it introduces the ambiguity of the expression “construed reality” which can be applied to different ontological domains such as physical and virtual worlds. Then, it presents an overview of the modern notion of dis-course in human and social sciences to highlight the epistemological con-flict, within semiotics, between its critical and philosophical interpreta-tions. In the former case, discourses create ideological realities from arbi-trariness of meaning. In the latter one, discourse is the very way through which humans can construct truths which are not necessarily arbitrary. To reflect further on this, we examine Vattimo’s hermeneutic perspective on the construed nature of reality and meaning which do not rely on the no-tion of discourse. This brings us to argue that the notion of discourse is both risky and essential for semiotics. As a solution, we propose a ten􀀃point argument considering discourse within a perspective based on a dis-tinction between real and reality.