Le présent article a pour but d’expliciter le caractère d’existence de la signification du point de vue de la sémantique. Il est ici prouvé que la signification ne peut être en tant que telle ni psychique, ni physique, ni même métaphysique, ce qui nous pousse à nous opposer à toutes les vues qui ont eu cours sur la signification. Car la signification consiste, en soi et pour soi, dans le rapport quadripartite...

This book is a major early work of Japanese philosopher Wataru Hiromatsu (1933-1994). Originally published in 1972, the primary theme is overcoming the subject-object schema of modern philosophy. Hiromatsu seeks to replace this subject-object schema with what he calls the intersubjective fourfold structure, in which "the given is valid as something more to someone as someone more." This fourfold structure is not a sum of four independent elements, but exists only as a functional relationship. From this relationist point of view, (...) Hiromatsu develops his philosophical theory as a systematic critique of "reification," defined as the hypostatizing misconception of a functional relation. (shrink)

Placing the concept of reification at the centre of Marx’s thought, Hiromatsu demonstrates across a number of areas — history, the understanding of society, and the understanding of philosophy — the philosophical and practical change in worldview which this concept brings about.