Medieval Semiotics (meier-oeser, Stephan) / quote 14 of 30
Changing the perspective of Augustine
Whereas according to Augustine the sign, being an external entity by definition, was precluded from the sphere of the mind, it is now the mental sign, i.e., the mental concept or mental term (terminus mentalis), that is seen as the primary and most principal sign (signum mentale est primum et principalissimum signum, sine quo voces et scripta significare non possunt) (Florentius Diel, Modernorum summulae log., 1489, fol. a5v) as well as the ultimate ground of all signification.[58] Without such an ultimate and immediate signification instantiated in the formal signification of the mental concept, there would be, as John Raulin remarks, an infinite regress (processus in infinitum) in any signification, something like a Peircean ‘infinite semeiosis’.[