PHILOSOPHY, TEACHING AND SEMIOTICS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS IN THE WORK THE NAME OF THE ROSE

Abstract

This communication intends to discuss the teaching of philosophy in relation to literary text through the semiotic pedagogy presented by the character Guilherme de Baskerville in the plot The Name of the Rose, in which Friar Guilherme teaches his disciple Adso de Melk to interpret the world and life through signs. To achieve this, firstly, there will be an exposition of the emblematic episode of the Brunello horse at the beginning of the work where Guilherme presents his semiotic method of discovering enigmas that seemed to have no solution. This semiotic methodology is gradually being taught to his disciple Adso, who absorbs it as an instrument in the process of philosophizing to solve practical problems in life. In a second stage we will discuss the drama of the mysterious deaths in the monastery presenting the philosophical meaning in relation to the symbols of the apocalypse and the places in the physical space of the monastery such as: stables, pigsties, library, garden, chapel. Parallel to this, the path and evolution of teaching and learning carried out between master and disciple through readings of hyper-coded signs and meta-abduction will be presented. In this sense, the literary text presents a contact with philosophy considering that what cannot be grasped through pure theory is more accessible through the narrative and its figures. The closed space of the monastery will be reinterpreted in this study in comparison with closed environments of postmodern society such as luxury condominiums where total independence is sought from those outside the walls, consolidating a harsh social division between poor and rich. Therefore, the semiotic pedagogy present in Eco's narrative presents not only a reinterpretation of the medieval cultural encyclopedia, but a semiotic instrument that can teach the student of contemporary society to better interpret the signs and meanings of the current world, especially those of the digital world of artificial intelligences. Finally, we will consider that the enlightened subject of the late Middle Ages harbors perceptions that are contrary to his conservative dogmatic reality and that coincide with aspects of the postmodern subject of the 'pensiero debole', who disbelieves in grand narratives.