We are happy to have Dr. Floarea VÎbran at the seminar, preseting her work on the phenomenology of language (and knowledge) integrating ideas from Vico, Husserl and Coseriu, as the title states, and the abstract explains. We met in Cjuj at the conference on Coseriu two months ago, and discovered much in common, and relevant for cognitive semiotics! So welcome to this talk, which will be given from Italy - or wherever Floarea is at that moment in her international carrier: see the bionote at the end of the abstract. Welcome to H402 or at the link with cameras on, from 15:00, for the usual warm up.

This talk makes topical an issue that I have touched upon on many occasions (e.g. Vîrban 2003, 2015, 2022, 2025): the foundations of meaning and knowledge. This presentation develops, deepens, and nuances some points addressed by highlighting a peculiar aspect: the double foundation of meaning/knowledge. In his Scienza nuova (2000[1744]) Vico defines a new type of science (objective knowledge) – more precisely, a new kind of foundation of knowledge, as different from those of the natural and exact sciences; an idea introduced already in De Antiquissima Italorum Sapentia (1710), “Le Risposte” (1711, 1712), Il Diritto Universale (1720–22), besides the first versions of Scienza nuova itself (1725, 1739). The problem of a rigorous (re-)foundation of knowledge is central for Husserl (1911, 1939[1936) as well, though an idea present in Husserl’s entire work. 

Positioning himself within the thinking tradition shaped by Vico and Husserl, but also by others, Coseriu (1997[1958], cf. 1996) poses similar questions about a particular object and the related field of knowledge language and linguistics. I argue that Coseriu offers more than a re-foundation of linguistics; he provides a model for the re-foundation of knowledge. I therefore place these three thinking paradigms: Vico’s new science, Husserl’s phenomenology and Coseriu’s integral linguistics, in dialogue. Ultimately, my talk is also an attempt to open a dialogue between my broad linguistic-philosophical analysis and semiotics. Thus, with your help, to question the possibility of consolidating the dialogue with a fourth paradigm: cognitive semantics (Bloomberg 2019; Diodato 2021, 2022; Zlatev 2011, in press; Zlatev & Mouratidou 2024). 

Blomberg, J. 2019. “Interpreting the Concept of Sedimentation in Husserl’s Origin of Geometry”. Public Journal of Semiotics 9(1), 78–94.

Coșeriu, E. 1996. Lingvistica integrală, Interviu cu Eugeniu Coșeriu, realizat de N. Saramandu, Ed. Fundației Culturale Române. 

Coseriu, E. 1997. Sincronie, diacronie și istorie. Problema schimbării lingvistice. Trad. de N. Saramandu, Ed. Enciclopedică.

Diodato, F. 2021. “Why Semantics Cannot Be but Cognitive. Coseriu’s Criticism of Cognitive Semantics.” In Id, Il linguaggio e le lingue: tra teoria e storia. Atti del I Convegno Cispels, Roma 17–19 Sett. 2018, 387–408. 

Diodato, F. 2022. “The Botanist and the Gardner.” In M. de Palo & S. Gensini (eds). With Saussure, beyond Saussure. Between Linguistics and Philosophy of Language. Nodus. 114–131.

Husserl, E. 1911. Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft. Logos. I, (1910/11), 289–341.

Husserl, E. (1939[1936]), Die Frage nach dem Ursprung der Geometrie als intentional-historisches Problem. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 2, 203–225. Eng. version in Derrida, J. 1989. Edmund Husserl’s Origin of Geometry. An Introduction. J. P. Leavey, Jr. (tr., preface & afterward). University of Nebraska Press, 157–180.

Vico, G. 2000. Autobiografia. Poesie. Scienza Nuova, a cura di P. Soccio. Garzanti.

Vîrban, F. 2003. O fenomenologie a spiritului în limbaj. Cu o aplicație pe baza operei lui Nichita Stănescu. PhD Thesis, Universitatea București. 

Vîrban, F. 2015. “Origini dell’integralismo coseriano: indagando su una possibile matrice fenomenologica.” In V. Orioles/R. Bombi. (eds) Oltre Saussure. L’eredità scientifica di Eugenio Coseriu // Beyond Saussure. Eugenio Coseriu’s Scientific Legacy. Cesati, 397–410.

Vîrban, F. 2022a:“Language Change versus Language Non-change in Coseriu: The Peculiar Issue of Language Identity. Questioning an Eventual Resemblance to Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity.” In J.M. García Martín et al. La historia de la lengua, la dialectología y el concepto de cambio lingüístico en el pensamiento de Eugenio Coseriu, Peter Lang. 177–204.

Vîrban, F. 2022b. “Lingvistica [integrală] – știință eidetică?”. In E. Faur, D. Feurdean și I. Pop (eds), „La izvoarele imaginației creatoare”. Studii și cercetări în onoarea profesorului Mircea Borcilă, Cluj-Napoca: Argonaut, București: Eikon, 206–226.

Vîrban, F. 2025. “The Poetic Foundation of Meaning and Knowledge in Vico and Coseriu.” Linguistica Coseriana IX: Linguistic and Poetic Creativity, Cluj-Napoca, Feb 21^st–22^nd, 2025.

Zlatev, J. 2011. “From cognitive to Integral Linguistics and back again.” Intellectica, 56, 2, 125–148.

Zlatev, J. 2025. (in press) “Five Pillars of Cognitive Semiotics.” In A. Bilgari (ed.) Open Semiotics Vol 5. Editions L'Harmattan.

Zlatev, J. & Mouratidou, A. 2024. “Extending the Life World: Phenomenological triangulation Along Two Plans.” Biosemiotics.

 

Biographical Note

A promoter of the transdisciplinary approach in humanities and social sciences, Floarea Vîrban has worked as an adjunct professor since 2006, currently teaching at CEA CAPA [New Haven University], Accademia Europea di Firenze, CET [Vanderbilt and Cornell] and Authentica in Florence, Italy. She has been a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence (2000-07), the Institute of Linguistics of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest (1991-2000), and (collaborated with) the Centro Studi sulla Storia dell’Europa Orientale (Trento). She studied Letters (BA 1991) and Philosophy (BA 1995, MA 1996) at the University of Bucharest, and holds a PhD in Philology (University of Bucharest, 2003) and one in History and Civilization (European University Institute, 2007). She met Coseriu in 1997 and was lucky to have him as an “informal” supervisor when writing her first PhD on a phenomenological approach to language. She is particularly interested in the philosophical dimension of Coseriu’s work, with a focus on: connections between Coseriu and the two phenomenological paradigms (Hegelian and Husserlian); origin of integral linguistics; continuity/discontinuity between Coseriu and other thinking traditions; language identity [language non-change]. She has expertise in Old Romanian language and philology, Russian literary and figurative Avant-gardes, and European history. Some relevant works include “Bahtin și Coșeriu despre ‘afacerile umane’ și esențialitatea limbajului” (2024), “Language Change versus Language Non-change in Coseriu: The Peculiar Issue of Language Identity. Questioning an Eventual Resemblance to Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity” (2022a), Lingvistica [integrală] – știință eidetică? (2022b), “The Coseriu – Chomsky ‘Debate’ Revisited: Integrating Wittgenstein. Ways in Understanding Linguistic Knowledge/Competence” (2017), ”Origini dell’integralismo coseriano: indagando su una possibile matrice fenomenologica” (2015), The Guardians of Beauty (2011), O fenomenologie a Spiritului în limbaj [manuscript](2003).