OF IAN R.
NETTON
THE ''SEMIOTIC'' ENTERPRTSE
A Deconstructionist Approach of Islamic Thought ?l Roxanne Marcotte Abstrak Tulisan ini mengkajipenerapanpendekatansemiotik terhadappemikiran Islam yang dilakukan oleh Ian RichardNetton dalambukunya NEh Transcendent .
Sepertihalnya Arkoun.
Netton mengusulkan suatu ancanganbaru untuk melihatpemikiranIslam, khususnyapemaknaan filosofis terhadapkonsep-konsepteologinya melalui penggunaansuatu metode yang merupakancampurandari teori-teori strukturalis dan semiotik moderen guna menyibak beberapastruktur filsafat dan teologi Islam Zaman Tengah.
Karena keterbatasanruang,tulisan ini tidak menjajakisemuapengarang Muslim yang pemikirannyadikaji oleh Netton melalui pendekatan semiotik.
Tinjauan tulisan ini terfokuspadaanalisissemiotik Netton terhadap tradisi illuminasionisSuhrawardi.
Dalam tulisan ini ditunjukkan beberapakesulitan pendekatansemiotik Netton.
Misalnya ia meminjam secara amat tidak kritis konsep-konsepdan idea-ideadari sumberyang luas sejak dari pendekatan Levi-Strauss dalam antropologi, pendekatan Saussure dalam linguistik hingga pendekatanBarthes dan Eco dalam Konsep-konseppinjaman ini tersebardalam berbagaibagian karya Netton tanpa adanya perhatian untuk melakukansuatu elaborasi terpadu mengenai konsep-konsepini padabagian pendahuluankarya tersebut.
Tidak adasuatuanalisistajam mengenaiapayang membentuksemiotik itu.
Ketika berhadapandengantenna "tanda" .
Netton mengusulkan suatu pengertiancukup longgaryang mencakupbeberapadefinisi yang dikemukakan oleh tokoh-tokoh mulai dari Aristoteles,St.
Thomas Aquinas sampai kepada Saussure,Peirce.
Eco dan lain-lain.
Akibatnya pembaca tidak memperoleh kesan mengenaiadanyapengolahanteoritis mengenai batasan"tanda" .
yang ia terima atau mengenaipenyelidi- Al-lami'ah.
No.
@/1997
RoxanneMarcotte kan analitis tentang fungsinya.
Secaraumum orang bisa terkejut atas sedikitnya kontribusi yang ditawarkan Netton dalam kajian semiotiknya terhadap pemikiran Suhrawardi.
Ia tidak membawakansuatu informasi baru mengenaipengaruhZoroasteriandalam karya-karya Suhrawardi dan tidak monyumbangkan suatu pandanganberbeda dari kajian-kajian tradisional tentangtokoh illuminasionisini yang telah dikemukakanoleh tokoh-tokoh seperti Henri Corbin dan Seyyid HosseinNasr.
Dari sini orang dapat mempertanyakan apakah studi Netton telah mencapai harapanharapanyang diusulkannyasendiri dalam projek semiotiknya? UfiL O gg !-iir.
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The "Semiotic'Enterpri* of lan R.
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i i*,1-,1rCrilS ',Jrt ^*''ll LANGUAGE is the essenceof humancommunicationto which linguistic analysesare to be appliedin order to uncoverits hidden structures.
Language is, all at once,formatorof thought, instrumentof social interaction, and propagator of meaning.
Linguistic analyses,however complex they might be, havebecomea quite sophisticatedacademicdiscipline.
It is within this broadperspectivethat semioticsfinds its place.
Semiotics, broadly defined, e.
, by Umberto Eco, would be the general theory ableto explain every caseof "sign-function"in terms of the underlying systemsof elementsmutually correlatedby one, or more codes.
furthermore, semioticsshouldtake into account,on the one hand,a theory of codes, and, on the other, a theory of "sign-production".
One of the problems for semiotic analysesis the elaboration of typology of signs that could apply to all types of signiffing elements, and, correlatively, the elaboration of a typology of models of "sign-production,"?Meaning within this processoccursundercertainconditions,i.
, when "on the basis of an underlying rule-somethingactually presentedto the perception of AI-lanti'ah.
No.
RoxanneMarcotte the addresseestands^lbrsomethingelse,there is sigzification.
"3 The most simple example one could provideis that of medical"semiosis,'or of the interpretation ofthe "signs" undertakenduring the diagnosisofaparticular disease.
Semioticists.
like Eco, in addition to see"signification" almost eve$ vhereand in everything,havetried to makethe "sign" the center of humaninteraction,suchthat "every act of communicationto or between human beings 1.
presupposesa signification system as its nrcessary condition.
A mention must be madeof the founders,not of modernsemiotics to whom the credit would naturally have to be attributed to Ferdinandde Saussureand charles s.
Peirce,shaveto their Greekancestors,the stoics who were the first to distinguish between the signifier, the signified .
, and the real object.
uThe term semiotics is, indeed,derived from the Greek semeiotikos,i.
, signs.
Nowadays,plans for a generaltheory of semiotics are proposd, e.
,by semioticistslike Eco who considersthat its object is, " everythingthat,on the groundsof a previouslyestablished social convention, can be taken as something standing for something else.
] the interpretationby an interpreter,which would seemto characterize a sign, must be understoodas the possibleinterpretationby a possibleinterpreter.
? Consequently, the object of such a generaltheory of semiotics would cover a very vast "semiotic" field.
How relevant could such an approachbe for the study of Islamic culture and its literary production and, more specifically.
Islamic thought? It will suffice to mentionherethe Qur'an- the veneratedtext.
Its inimitable character- as the work of God - makesit the ultimate object of interpretation.
its untranslatabilityopensvenuesforits re-interpretation.
Furthermore, a text which has beenrecited for almost fourteen centuries - the foremost example is the compulsory recitation of the Fatihah,i.
, the opening Surah of the Qur'an, during the five daily prayersof Muslims, offers infinite venuesof interpretations.
However,the samevenuesof interpretation are also opened by the entire literary productions ofthe Islamic world, well beyond the latter text.
The purposeof this paper is not to elaboratea semiotic theory .
s this would be a task well beyond our abilities and pretension.
,but, rather, its purpose is more modest and consists in an appraisalof Ian Richard Netton's application of such a "semiotic" approachto Islamic Al-lami'ah,No.
The 'Semiotic'Enterpix of lan R.
Nettan I - Netton : The Structure of Semiosis In a work entitled Allah Transcendent.
Netton -like Arkounproposesa new way to look at Islamic thought and,in this particular work, at the philosophical renderingof its theologicalconcepts.
On the whole, he states that he will usea methodwhich is a mixtuie of modern structuralist and semiotic theories in order to "illuminate" someof the structures of medieval Islamic philosophy and theology.
roThis is an ambitious program.
In fact, an in-depthstudy of the role of semiotics.
long with structuralis.
would presumablycontainan accountofthe essential principles at the heart of this method.
However,we will limit ourselvesto some of the difliculties that can be raised with what Netton calls his "semiotic" approach.
From the outset of his worlg he asserts that he will use "structuralist insights," first, to "highlight abasic themeof alienation.
but more important, for our purpose,to ultimately "leadto a theory of "" First.
it must be mentionedthat the basicfeaturesof his "structurallist insights," i.
, their different conceptsand ideas,aretrorrowed in a very uncritical mannerfrom structuralisttheories,and these range from Levi-Strauss's approach in anthropology, to Saussure'sapproach in linguistics, and Barthes and Eco's approachesin semiotics.
Most of these borrowed conceptsandideasarescatteredthroughouthis work, and thereis a lack of concernto set all his principlesin the opening chapter of his work.
r2 Although it is beyondthe scopeof this paperto tackle the structuralistconceptshe uses,it shouldbe notedthat theseare important elements of his "semiotic" re-interpretationsof Islamic The first major difficulty Netton's"semiotic" approachencounters is the absenceof a well-thoughtout definition of what constitutessemiotics.
Without such a conceptualframework it is difficult to seehow his project to "leadto a theoryof semiotics"could effectivelybe undertaken.
Tackling the world of the "sign," he hasto elaboratea definition of what should constitute,while avoidingthe pitfalls which he himself raises,i.
that signsmay indeedbe "hopelesslyplural.
"r3Thus,he proposesthat the term "sign" be used loosely enoughso as to embraceseveraldefinitions ranging from those of Aristotle.
St.
ThomasAquinas,to thoseof Saussure,Peirce,Eco, and so on.
toIn his reviewof the respectivedefinitionsof a sign given by each of these thinkers,one doesnot get a senseofany theoretical elaborationregardingthe definition of a sign he will adopt,or.
AI -| ami' ah.
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Roxorne Marcotte more , importantly, of on analytical investigation of of its functions.
Hence, this collection of definitions appearsto be offered as some sort of proof for the existenceof a semiotic tradition.
However, for an account of landmark of the semiotic development,his is conspicuouslysilent of the foremost semioticistsof ancientGreece,i.
Stoic, who, contrary to Arisfotle mentioned by Netton, actually developeda theory of signs.
Furthermore, he rejects intricate distinction's such as thosemadeby peirce although they are at the heart of studiesin modernsemiotic - in order to adopt a more comprehensivetype of definition of what constitutesa rs Then, he introduces a single unit word, a "theologeme.
"Briefly, this neologism is comprised of a basic semq i.
, a basic elementwhich carries meaning or possessesa "signification.
" and of atheological element to be highlighted.
the theologemeis to refer to a signi$ing unit to be isolated.
r6 In modern philosophical works, one often talks of "philosophemes"to refer to philosophicalnotionsor concepts.
Does this, however, transform them into "sings," reducingnotions and conceptsto mere indicators standing for what they actually reirresent? tr - A Semiotic Analysis of IshraqiTheosophy It is not possible to survey all the authorsto whom Netton applies his semiotic approach.
For the purposeof this paper,one examplewill be ample: his analysisand interpretationof the works of Suhrawardi.
It is in the section entitled "SuhrawardianSemiosisand the Structureof Reality According to Ibn al-'Arabi" that he proposeshis semioticinterpretationof the khraqi tradition.
rT we are told that semioticwill, along with structuralism, be usedas a tool to "illuminate" the "intentions" of Suhraward.
Henca, his approachwill consistof finding out what the text "betrays"of the hidden meanings of the "signs.
"rtFor this pulpose,he calls upon two types of theologemeswhich he seeks to isolate and identify within the works of Suhrawardi:.
,the negativetheologemes,such as the apophatic, or " via negativd' type of approachto god's nature.
these negative theologemesare outweighed by .
positive theologemes,suchas "the motif of Light.
"rn In the works of suhrawardi, these are found to be "signs" expressing a concentrationof Light and Darkness,as two contrasting opposites.
Pure Light correspondsto God, while the presenceof an adulterated Light correspondsto the level of humanbeings.
This opposition of Light and Darkness,while it is interpreted by Netton as "signs" of suhrawardi's attitude toward god's existence,it does not offer AI-lami'ah.
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The "Semiotic" Enterpix of lan R.
Netton any insight into the philosophical implicationsof this type of ontology and especiallyinto the whole philosophicaldebatethat was generatedbecauseof this primacy of Light with regardsto its ontologicalstatus.
2rIt is not clear why the "positive" aspect of the "motif of Light" as a theologeme could not, rather, be a "negative"one in orderto expressthe aspect of Darknessor, for that matter,be a "neutral"theologemecapableof encompassingthe spectrum that is delimited by the Light / Darknessapposition.
Netton explainsthat the funcBut what are these theologemes? tion of a theologeme is to be a "sign" that tries to indicatethe reality of God, adding that they constituteelementsof the Plotinian,the Christian.
A list of what Netton considers or the Qur'anic models, or paradigms.
theolegemescontains such things as "divine unity.
" "unknowability of of God," "knowableaspectof God," "God's God," absolutetranscendence Glory'i the "Light vocabulary" i.
God vieled in Light.
"God's Knowledge" "resurrection,"and "Alleh as wajib al-wuiud.
"Others are said to be as "immutability, theologemesof "simplicity," or of "transcendence,"such individuality, indenfinability,immateriality.
"t' Besides,he considerssuch thing as "God as Light of Lights," among the "basictheologicalconcepts.
"2aIn addition,he assertsthat the term theologemesigzification.
"zs It would seem that these theologemesare,in fact, theologicalconcepts such as those already mentioned.
Ultimately, his theologemeswould be reducible to their theologicalcomponents.
This would seemto be one of the shortcomings of the definition of a theologemewhich, he states,is intendedto cover "far more than simply a doctrine,dogma,or concepts.
"26
He then goes on to apply his semioticallyinspiredapproachto by the foreign elements uncover the meanings of the "signs" represented in Suhrawardi's thought.
He discoversin the presenceof the Zoroastrian names which Suhrawardi, ascribesto the Light elementsof his ontology "such names signal to the world at largethat al-Suhrawardiintends to link his angelology.
his theory of angel.
both to a broad cultural past, beyondthe purely Islamic, as well as of a contemporary mystical tradition which, again,clearly transcendsthe rigidly Islamic.
"2?
However innovative his reformulation of the existenceof such foreign elementsmay be, the results are far from being novel or enlighten- AI-Jami'ah.
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RoxanneMarcotte More than fifty yearsago, in a work entitled Les motifs zoroastriens dans la pltilosophie de sohrawardi.
Henry corbin devoted a whole section to the question of suhrawardi'sangelologyand its Zoroastrianinfluence .
Mazdean angelolog.
" Netton who usuailydoesa greatjob at collecting and gathering tremendousrelevantstudieson the subjectsabout which he writes, is conspicuouslysilent about this particularwork of .
addition to other studiesby Henry corbin regardingthe mystical and gnostic elementsfound in suhrawardi'sworks.
SayyedHossein Nashr has also devotedsomestudieson the sametopic.
2eNotwithstanding this fact, it is not clearwhat Netton'ssemioticallyinspiredinterpretation adds to our knowledgeof the introductionof foreignelementsinto the thought of suhrawardi.
It doeshoweverprovide a more en vogue account, using ideasfrom differentsocialsciences.
More interestingly, thereis anotherarticreby Netton in which he analysesthe philosophyof Suhrawardiin semioticterms.
This is a short text entitled "The Neoplatonic substrateof suhrawardi,sphilosophyof Illumination.
Falsafa as Tasawwuf in which he, again,proclaimsto use the same structuralist and semiotic analyses.
First, he beginswith a structuralist approachreferring to Levi-strauss to study the "myth" of martyrdom in the life of suhrawardi', side by sidewith the "myth" of Neoplatonism.
It is noteworthythat this is an interpretationnot found in his "suhrawardian semiosis" alreadymentioned.
More importantly,this is followed by a semiotic approachwhich, he notes,is a methodmore than anything else, but which can apply to anythingand everything!3r This is an unfortunate assertion,because,if it doesindeedapptyto anything and everything without having proper theoretical foundations, which seems to be the caseof Neeton'ssemioticenterprise,then, it can quite easily lead to anything and everything in terms of the resultsit could yield.
For Netton, in the Islamic context, the exampleof a signiffing text par excellenceis the Qur'an for which thereexists a realpossibility for a "semiotic of the Qur'an," He mentionsthat it is a text that makes multiple allusions to "signs," or " ayat,"leavingthe readerunderthe impression that this is all thereis to it.
This is, in our view, a ratherweak argument for semioticity of the Qur'an and seemto indicatehow serious Netton is committed to the semioticapproachhe proposesin his book.
The semantic exploitationof sucha rich text was, in fact, previouslyundertaken with very interesting results by Toshihiko Izutsu.
He is, we Al-lami'ah,N o.
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The "Semiotic " Enterpix of fun R.
Netton thinlg the first scholarwho has attempteda seriousimplementationof the insights of linguistics and its analytical tools to the study oflslamic thought from the perspectiveof semantics.
lthoughnot form the perspective of semiotic.
This was donein two of his most notoriousstudies on the Qur'anic Weltanschauwg.
orld-vie.
, entitld God and Man in the Koran .
andEthico-Religiousconceptsin the Koran .
more ambitious project regarding the useof the linguistic approachapplied to the Qur'an is, in our view, the one announcedby Mu hammad Arkoun, in his Lectwes du Coran.
He proposesto integrate all the tools developedby the social sciencesin orderto study the Islamic culture, and to incorporatethem into his proposedsynchronic,diachronic,as well as his anthropologicaland philosophicalperspective.
A semiotic analysisof Suhrawar.
's l.
hnat al-Ishraq[The Oriental Wisdo.
34 is possiblefor Netton because"signs" can be found in such mystico-philosophicalworks, just as they can be found in the Qur'an.
The guiding question of his inquiry is what "are the 'signs'of falsafa and tasawwuf in this work of Suhrawardi?"tu For the purposeof analysis,he goes on to try to pin point the characteristic"signs" belongingto the development of philosophy and Sufismwithin Islam.
At this point, he proposes this new opposition betweenfalsafa and tasawwuf It is noteworthy, that the intricate developmentsaboutthe theologeme,or evenof the' "Qur'anic Creator Paradigm" whieh he had developedat length in his book for the purposeof his semioticanalysisareheredisregardedand replaced by these two new opposite"signs.
"Referring,onthe one hand,to Roger Arnaldez's article on falsafa,3?and, on the other hand, to Annemarie Schimmel's Mystical Dimensions of Islan,38he adopts an opposition between "reason"and "love.
" He assertsthat what hasbeenisolatedare two distinct "motifs," i.
, "the signof reasonin falsafaand the sign of /ovein tasawwuf!3e Signs, which were understood in the light of their theological perspective,such as was the casewith his neologismof theologeme,now reach such a state of generalityin their comprehensiveness that they can encompassthesetwo "motifs.
" however,this opposition reasonand love - is not unknownwithin more traditional analysisof Islamic thought.
Netton takes this simplified oppositionbetweenreasonand love - which we are to understandsas an oppositionbetweenphilosophyand mysticism to have existedin medievalIslam, as a debatequite similar to the debate between reason and revelation.
Furthennore, this opposition is to be AI-lami'ah.
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RoxneMarcotte found in Suhrawardi'swork in which, he asserts,"the key technicalphilosophiial terminology of reason actsas a vehicleforthe'signs'of tasaww'uf'ao Hence, he interpretsSuhrawardi'swork as representinga replacement of the philosophicalstructure by a mysticalstructure.
Obviously, this replacementhasbeenuncoveredthrough the useof this pair of opposites, i.
, reasonandlove, as somesort of semioticindicators,i.
, signs.
This opposition, however, can not, by itself, explainthe place,the role, and the function of the philosophicaland the mysticalstructurein the works of Suhrawardi, and these are, it seems,the more fundamental problems to be resolved.
The adoptionof sucha self-evidentdistinction does not offer any solutionto thesemoreessential,albeit neglectedmatters.
This dichotomy does not succeedin uncoveringwhat the semiotic approach seeksto uncoverwhich is, accordingto Netton, the "underlying set of assumptions, beliefs,prejudices,and feelings"that Suhrawardiarwithin a particulartextual ticulated, either"consciouslyor unconsciously, structure or framework of words.
"arHere,we areprovidedwith an almost hermeneuticaldefinition of semiotics.
Itr - The Semiotic Project of Netton As way of conclusion,we may saythat it is undeniablethat Netton has nourishedhis thought with the writings of many of the central figures of Modernwesternthought.
Unfortunately,his attemptat rethinking Islamic philosophy and theology in termsof a semioticapproachis hindered by a lack of focus in his attemptto elaboratea structuraland task to try to incorposemantic methodology.
is alreadya tremendous rate insightscomingfrom structuralism.
however, task becomealmost impossiblewhen one seeks,in addition, to incorporateelementsof linthat, in guistics and semiotics.
Unfortunately,it is our under-standing spite of all foundations of a fruitful semiotic theory which would be appliedto Islamic thought and, in particular, to its philosophyandits theology.
Instead.
Netton is satisfiedwith borrowingmost of his conceptsand ideasas ill-assorted elements - from linguistics and semiotics,and incorporating them in what was announcedas a semiotics In addition, if we look at the results to which his semiotic approach - and this is ultimately the crucial test - leadswhen appliedto the thought of Suhrawardi,then, we aresurprisedto discoverhow little it has to offer.
First, it does not advanceany novel information regardingthe Al-lami'ah,No.
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The "Semiotic" Enterpix of lan R.
Nettrlt Zoroastrian influencespresentin Suhrawardi'sworks.
Second,it doesnot add anything different from the more traditional accountsof Suhrawardi's philosophy such as those of Henry Corbin and SeyyedHossein Nashr.
No new information seemsto be uncoveredwith his "semiotic" interpretation of the Suhrawardiantexts.
Accordingly,one hasto ask if Netton's approachhas fulfilled the expectationsthat his own semiotic programwas supposeto accomplish? It should be addedthat Netton'sproposedsemioticapproachcan, as a method, be intrinsically polemical when appliedto religioustexts, .
Islamic texts - whether they be strictly religiousor philosophical.
There are some who would like to questionthe useof the semiotic- as well as the structuralist - approachfor the study of Islamicculture as a whole, and its intellectualproduction.
Their critics view the predicament facing those who attempt to usethesemethodsas a possibledisassociation of Islamic thought from the "truth" andthe "sacred,"andof a reduction of Islamic culture to texts in perpetualneed of reinterpretations.
Hence, the fearsof the critics is the adventof a lost of transcendence the ensuingplagueof moderntimes,i.
,nihilism.
Lost of religiousvalues and of religiosityas a wholeis what is at stake.
A comfortingnote for the critics is the fact that, maybe, semiotics,just like structuralism,poststructuralism,anddeconstructionism.
is but a fad of our times.
Another objectionthat can be addressed to the semioticapproach, and linguistics in general,is the seeminglack of historicalperspective which it seemsto be committed.
It is truethat, e.
,in the caseof a linguistic analysisof the Qur'antherewould not be any greatconsiderarion for context, e.
, the asbabal-nwulofthe differentversesof the Qur'an, or the ashab al-wurud of the differentHadith, now part of the Sunnah.
However.
some surprisinglinguisticphenomena, in light of its historical can be uncovered,not in termsof events,but in termsof its structural developments,as testified by the analysis of certain terms found in this Holy Book.
This was,it seems.
one of the interestingresults provided by Toshihiko Izutsu'slinguistic analysesof the Qur'an.
He was able to identify ethicaltermsthat existedin pre-IslamicArabian society and which found their way into the Qur'an in which their meaningswere In addition,it seemsalmostsuperfluousto note that onceIslam was adopted by Muslims, the meaning of many existing tems en vogue in pre-Islamic times were redefinedandincorporatedinto the new emergingIslamicworld-view.
The sameholdstrue, for that matter.
of any Al-lami'ah,No.
Roxanne Marcotte writer who seeks to integrate various sources,or ideasas was the case with Suhrawardi.
Finally, it should be emphasizedthat the purposeof this paper was not to criticize the useof semioticsor, for that matter,structuralism, or any other method developedin the fields of socialsciences,for the study of Islamic culture,in general,and Islamicthought -i.
,philosophy, theology or, for that matter, sufism- in particular.
It is believed,just as Netton.
Arkoun, andothershaveproposed,thal scholarsshouldand must be free to use any methodthey deemableto illuminate,in someway or another, the subjectunderdiscussion,whetherit be philosophy,sexuality.
It is only as a resultof suchefforts that or modern Islamic ideologies.
life will partially be broughtback to the infinite "voices" hiddenbehind and beyond the texts - written and spoken.
However,simple and random borrowings of analytical tools, methods,constructions,and structure without propercritical perspectivesregardingall the latter, can neverbe a substitutefor soundtheoreticalelaboration.
End Nates A shotter version of this paperwas presentedto the lnternational Conferenceon "The MethodologicalProblemsin the Study of Religion" organizedby I.
(Muslim lntellectuals Society of lndonesi.
of America, held in Montreal,Quebec(Feb.
2l-3' Umb"rto Eco.
A Theoty of Semiotics (Bloomington: lndiana University Press, 1.
,4,33-4.
,8.
lbid'9.
Ch"rl"t Sanders Peirce.
Textes fondanentaux de seniotique (Paris: MeridiensKlincksieck, 1987.
ldem, hrit swle signe(Paris: Seuil, 1.
Collected Papn, 8 vols.
, (Cambridge,Mass: Harvard University Press,l93l-.
Ferdinand de Saussure,Coun de linguistiquegenerale,sthed.
6:Payot, 1.
u Alain Rey.
Theories du signe et du seas.
I*cturcs l(Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1.
, 2944.
Rist.
Stoic Philosophy (Iondon: cambridge university Press, 1.
,133-72.
Fro.
A Theory of Semiotics,16.
such diverse phenomenaas zoosemiotics,olfactory signs, tactile commuIt "on"tr nication, codes of taste, paralinguistics, medical semiotics, kinesics and proxemics .
, musical codes,fomralized languages,written languages,unknown alphabets, secret codes,natural languages,visual communication,systemsof objects, plot structure, text theory, cultural codes,aesthetictexts, and masscommurication,seeIbid.
'g-I4.
Al-l ami' ah.
N o.
60/199 7
The 'Semiotic " Enterpix of lan R.
Netton 9 lan Richard Netton.
NIah Tnncendenl.
Studies ia the Stnrctue and Semiotics of Islamic Phitonphy.
Theology and Cosinology.
Richmond.
Surrey.
Curzou Press, 1.
, t7.
,zs.
Ibid.
, 17.
For e.
, three key ideas which are taken from Piaget'sgeneralwork on structuralism - the ideas of the wholeness, of transformation,end of self-regulation - are introduced in the section dealing with asemiotic redefinitionofal-Kindi's philosophy,see Netton.
AIIah Transcendent,T24.
JeanPiaget.
Structuralism, trans.
and ed.
Chaninah Maschler,(Frenched.
I968.
Inndon: Routledge& KeganPaul, l97.
, 7-16.
Netton.
Altah Tnasceadent,28l.
,7B-9.
Umb"rto Eco takes the Saussuriandistinction between signi-fier .
ign-vehicl.
and signified (Sign-firnctio.
, in addition to the Peircian tripartite distinction .
etween the symbols, the indices and the icon.
, in order to proposehis own definition of the sign, see Eco, .
4 Theory of Seniotics, 4-16.
H".
" is how he defines it: "A theologeure[.
] is to be defined briefly as a basic uait of theological discouse which can also fimctioa as a sign according to any of the above mentioned definifi615 of sign .
Aristotle.
St.
ThomasAquinas,and so onl.
] It is a single unit, and may be positive or negative.
] that can convey and embracewhen necessary far more than simple doctrine, dogma, or concept, though it will fiequently be used for all three at various times," seeNettou.
NIah Tnnscendeal,T9-80.
Hossein Ziu.
Knowledge and luminarlra (Atlanta.
Georyia: Scholars Press, and Mehdi Amin Razavi.
Suhrawardiand the School of luminalroa .
Surrey.
CurzouPress,1.
N"ttoo.
AIIah Transcendeat,Tg-$}.
Ibid.
'o lbid.
,3oo-r.
Although he does stressthat Light iu the work of Suhrawardi must be conceived ontologically, he does not discuss the problems it raisesfor later commentators,e.
Mulla Sadra who critized his primacy on esserce,i.
, of Light, opposing it to his own primacy on existence.
For a more philosophically stimulating discussionregarding the primacy of existence versus the primacy of essence,seeZiai.
Knowledge and luninalion, 166-71.
N"tton.
AllCh Transceadeat,80,l32,t35.
"'o rbid.
,r3z,237,z4o,z4r,izg, 331.
,3oz.
"'uIbid.
,r33.
,Bo.
"T Ibid.
,3or.
H"nty Corbin.
I*s notifs zorcastriens daas Ia philosophie de Sohrawatd.
Shaykhol-Ishnq, prefaceM.
Poure.
Davoud.
(Teheran:Editions du Courrier, 1.
, 14-36.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 7lree Muslim Stges Aricea Suhnwatdi Ibn 'Anbi (Delrnar.
NY: Caraven Books, 1.
, 52-82.
Henry Corbin.
Sohnwardi et les pla- Al-Jami'ah,No.
60/1997
RoxonneMarcotte toniciens de Pene, vol.
II, in Henry Corbin.
En Islun iraden,4 vols.
, (Paris: Gallimard, r- 97r - 'id'.
N"ttoo, "The Neoplatonic Substrateof Suhrawardi'sPhilosopyof lumination.
Falsafa as Tasawwuf, chap.
iu idem.
Seek KtovledgeThought and Travel in the House of Islam(Richmond,Surrey:CurzouPress,1.
,43-58.
Netton affections Barthes statemeutthat "everything siguifies," seeNetton, .
4,1/af Transcendenl,l35.
Idem, nTbeNeoplatonic Substrate,"46.
Toshihiko lzutsu.
God and Maa in lhe Koraa.
Senantic oftheKoraaic Weltanschauuag (Tokyo: Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1.
,and ldem' Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Koran (Montreal: lustitute of Islamic Studies,Mc Gill University Press,I .
Mohammad Arkoun.
Lectues du Coraa (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1.
XVI.
XXD(.
Thir translation is preferedto what has been known through some translations as the Philosophy of lumiaation, we adopt the same title offered by Henry Corbin's translation of this work, see Sohravardi.
Le livrc de Ia sagesseorintale (Kitab I.
Iihnat aIIshra.
, trans.
and notes Henry Corbin, ed.
and intro.
Christianjambet, (Paris: Verdier.
N"ttoo, "The Neoplatouic Substrate,"46.
,47.
Rog"t Amaldez's article on falsafa.
ntbe Encyclopediaof Isla.
, new ed.
, ed.
Cb.
Pellat,J.
Schacht,.
riden: E.
Brill, 1960-),vol.
, il .
Annemarie Schimmel's Mystical Dimensionsof Islam(Chapel Hill: Uuiversity of North Camlina Press,1.
Netton, "The Neoplatonic Substrate,"49.
ar lbid.
,26.
See Izutsu.
Ethico-Religious Conceptsin lhe Konn.
Netton.
AIIah Transcetdent, l7.
Arkoun.
I*ctues du Coran,Yl.
AI-lami'ah,No.