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does not represent a case of vox vocalis. It seems that for him signum is every utterance endowed with meaning, whether it is vocal or non-vocal. But he does not take into account the signa naturalia (the semeia), even though natural signs will play an important role both in the theory of sacraments and in the theory of analogy. |
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However, let me try to summarize his views (see figure 7.2). For Aquinas, the main difference between human and animal sounds does not, however, consist in the opposition "intentional vs. unintentional" but rather in another one, as he stresses in an interesting passage of the commentary on Politics: both men and animals have modes of signifying according to some intention (dogs bark and lions roar to tell to their interspecific mates their feelings) in the same way as men emit interjections. An infirm person can wail (unintentionally) and can utter intentionally interjections signifying his or her pain. But the real opposition is that between interjections (which cannot express concepts) and linguistic sounds, able to convey abstractions, and this is why only by language men are able to establish social institutions ("donum et civitatem"). |
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5. The Stoic Legacy: Augustine |
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The embarrassment we have found in the interpreters of De interpretatione is absent from thinkers who, as happened to Augustine, were not exposed to such an influence and were more directly dominated by the Stoic tradition. |
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In De doctrina christiana, Augustine (after having given his celebrated definition "signum est enim res praetor speciem, quam ingerit sensibus, aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire") works out the distinction between signa naturalia and signa data. Natural signs are those that "sine voluntate atque ullo appetitu significandi praeter se aliquid aliud ex se cognoscere faciunt" (such as the smoke which reveals the fire and the face of the enraged which reveals anger without any intention). Signa data are those exchanged by living beings in order to convey "motus animi" (which are not necessarily concepts and can be sensations or psychological states). |
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With a stroke of genius Augustine places, among the signa data, without a tremor of doubt, both the words of the Holy Scriptures and the signs produced by animals (see figure 7.3): "Habent enim bestiae inter se signa, quibus produnt appetitus animi sui. Nam et gallo gallinaceus reperto cibo dat signum vocis gallinae, ut accurrat; et columba |
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