plaques & signs
descartes & poinsot the crossroad of signs and ideas
rene descartes 1596 1650 and john poinsot 1589 1644 were contemporaries who stood unbeknownst to them at a crossroads in the history of philosophy . while poinsots work on semiotics became unfashionable after his death descartes theory of ideas carried modern philosophy down a different path that proved to be a dead end . in descartes & poinsot john deely contends that semiotics can lead us beyond the rationalist trap of modernity . this innovative volume reveals that poinsots forgotten philosophies provide the missing link between the ancients and the postmodern .