Dr. John Deely, professor of philosophy in UST’s Center for Thomistic Studies, has been recognized for his book “The Four Ages of Understanding,” by Semiotica, journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. The scholarly publication is devoting an entire special issue to reviews and essays based on Deely’s 2001 tome.

Deely, who has been at UST since 1999 and currently holds the Rudman Chair in Philosophy, has focused much of his philosophical work on semiotics, the study of the action of signs. “The Four Ages of Understanding” is an examination of semiotics throughout the history of philosophy, from its late seventh century B.C. beginnings to the present.

“The book interweaves the theory of signs with the entire history of philosophy,” Deely said.

The issue of Semiotica, now in the copyediting stage, will include essays from 27 authors from around the world, including the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Bulgaria, Greece, Colombia and Sweden. Dr. John Hittinger, vice president for academic affairs, wrote the introduction.

Hittinger writes that in Deely’s book, “Not only is the place of semiotics for the first time set in the full perspective of philosophy’s history, but that history itself is for the first time made sense of in terms of exactly what—for philosophy as a distinctive discipline of the mind—constitutes post-modernity.”

Deely has been writing since 1965 and many of his books and articles have been published worldwide. In 2007 he published his 22nd book, titled “Intentionality and Semiotics: A Story of Mutual Fecundation.”

Pictured above is the manuscript of the journal's special issue.