Pansemioticism and Cognition: On the Semiotic Anthropology of Early Buddhism Meditation
Humans January 14, 2026 DOI: 10.3390/humans6010004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Keywords | Semiotics Parallels Phenomenology philosophy Contemplation Cognition Impermanence Dialectic Epistemology Cognitive science Buddhist philosophy Dialogic Aesthetics Perspective graphical Human science Subjectivity |
| Key points | Argues that early Buddhist cognitive theory, interpreted through a psychosemiotic framework, conceptualizes cognition as a stratified process of sign-constituted events that contemplative practice can modulate. |
Abstract
This article examines the cognitive theory expressed in early Buddhist Pāli sources by situating their analyses of perception, language, and meditative experience within a psychosemiotic framework. It argues that Buddhist thinkers conceived cognition as a stratified process emerging from the dynamic interaction between sensory and effectual domains, culminating in the semiotic determinations of nāmarūpa and the proliferative activity of conceptual constructs. Drawing on parallels with Peircean pansemioticism, the study highlights how both traditions interpret phenomena as sign-constituted events and how contemplative practice can intervene in the habitual chains of semiosis that ordinarily shape human experience. By bridging Buddhist phenomenology with contemporary cognitive science and semiotics, this work proposes that the Buddhist model—precise in its technical vocabulary and rich in its analyses of attention, perception, and conceptualization—offers valuable tools for understanding and modulating cognitive processes in both theoretical and practical domains.