Pansemioticism and Cognition: On the Semiotic Anthropology of Early Buddhism Meditation

Early Buddhist Pāli sources present cognition as a layered process arising from the interplay of sensory and affective domains, culminating in semiotic determinations (nāmarūpa) and the proliferation of conceptual constructs. Drawing parallels with Peircean pansemioticism, the article argues that both traditions treat phenomena as sign-constituted events, and that contemplative practice can interrupt habitual chains of semiosis. By bridging Buddhist phenomenology with cognitive science and semiotics, the Buddhist model—with its precise technical vocabulary and analyses of attention, perception, and conceptualization—offers tools for understanding and modulating cognitive processes in theory and practice.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article examines the cognitive theory expressed in early Buddhist Pāli sources by situating their analyses of perception, language, and meditative experience within a psychosemiotic framework. It argues that Buddhist thinkers conceived cognition as a stratified process emerging from the dynamic interaction between sensory and effectual domains, culminating in the semiotic determinations of nāmarūpa and the proliferative activity of conceptual constructs. Drawing on parallels with Peircean pansemioticism, the study highlights how both traditions interpret phenomena as sign-constituted events and how contemplative practice can intervene in the habitual chains of semiosis that ordinarily shape human experience. By bridging Buddhist phenomenology with contemporary cognitive science and semiotics, this work proposes that the Buddhist model—precise in its technical vocabulary and rich in its analyses of attention, perception, and conceptualization—offers valuable tools for understanding and modulating cognitive processes in both theoretical and practical domains.