Reflections about the concept of immanence in semiotics Aiming at a discursive epistemology

Abstract

The concept of immanence has a privileged place in the European Semiotics. L. Hjelmslev worked with this concept more incisively, and proposed immanence to be a that internally understands its concepts, and avoids applying external reasons and arguments (from sociology, physiology, psychology, philosophy) - attitude that he considered transcendent. With this first impulse, this concept became more extensive, especially with Greimas and the birth and evolution of Semiotics. In this paper, we closely examine this extension - its conveniences and inconveniences, advantages and limitations -, so we can explore another facet that has been in deficit since Hjelmslev: the hypothesis of a "superior" immanence that governs the two previously discussed attitudes. Further, we critically confront this hypothesis with a transcendental philosophy: does the reasoning (transcendental) govern the language, or does the language (immanent) govern the reasoning, that is, every possible form of human reasoning? Keywords: linguistics, semiotics, immanence, transcendence.