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.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 10
- Self-Boundary Dissolution in Meditation: A Phenomenological Investigation. Brain Sciences June 21, 2021
- An Anthropological Outline of the Sutta Nipāta: The Contemplative Experience in Early Buddhist Poetry Religions January 29, 2023
- Experimental Phenomenology as an Approach to the Study of Contemplative Practices Frontiers in Psychology January 10, 2022
- Beyond semiosis: early Buddhist phenomenology and theory of consciousness Cogent Arts and Humanities July 16, 2025
- Who Identifies with the Aggregates? Philosophical Implications of the Selected Khandha Passages in the Nikāyas Journal of Indian Philosophy September 9, 2023
and 5 more in the library