[bcbrown]

>After having read a little Wittgenstein and the late Umberto Eco's works on semiotics

Do you have any suggestions on good starting points? I found Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to be a rough introduction to Wittgenstein. I'm also curious what Eco you'd recommend; I've only read his novels and essays.

[eggy]

I've only read two of Eco's fictional works: The Name of the Rose, and Foucault's Pendulum. I loved them both, but then I picked up The Island of the Day Before, and didn't finish it. I have also read his essays.

The book I was referring to was Theory of Semiotics by Eco. I picked it up in 1982 or 83, after having read The Name of the Rose, and I honestly didn't know what Semiotics meant until I spent 20 minutes reading it in the bookstore (no Googling then!).

I had read Tractatus Logico-Philosphicus around the same time, 1983 or so. I read most of it, some pages multiple times, but I didn't finish it. I only grasped enough to know I wasn't going to change my major to Linguistics. I was hopping off of references in the bookstores the way I now follow links down rabbit holes.

I should revisit these works now that I have some more years on me!

[msutherl]

Wittgenstein only really published two works: The Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations, in which he completely revises his approach. Read the latter.