Congetturare in un mondo pieno di segni L’attualità della distinzione tra semeîon (segno debole) e tekmḗrion (segno necessario) e del “congetturare” di Alcmeone per una teoria inferenziale della semiotica e della medicina contemporanee

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyze the interplay between medicine and semiotics in the ancient age and the deep relationship of the distinction between semeîon and tekmḗrion, formalized in Aristotle’s theory of syllogism, with the Peirce and Eco’s theory of the sign as abductive inference. In that framework I propose a new interpretation of Alcmaeon’s “conjecturing” (tekmairesthai) as holistic inference open to the interconnectedness of the signs and to the different degrees of probative strength that they assume according to the narrative text which links the different types of modes of sign production and the four types of abduction classified by Eco. From that perspective I will provide some basis for a possible integration of the inferential theory of the sign and the contemporary medical diagnostics.