Semantics, Semiotics, And Medicine: Unpacking “Semantic Depth” In The Practical Reasoning Of Healthcare

Date: 23 October, Friday | Time: 13:00 - 14:00 | Venue: Academia Auditorium

Speaker: Prof Ronald Schleifer

Programme Description: 

This plenary lecture – in a manner that complements the Schleifer/Vannatta Keynote Presentation – examines the notions of paralysis and well-being in the stories of James Joyce’s Dubliners.  More specifically, the presentation demonstrates how the semiotic notion of “the elementary structure of signification” – the basic forms and elements out of which “signification,” as both a cognitive and an experiential phenomenon, is organized – can help us more fully comprehend the “practical reasoning” of healthcare.  To this end, it examines the concept of “semantic depth” – discovered in procedures of analysis – that can work to help healthcare workers and their patients discover together the meaning of “health” in the particular situation of an ailing patient.