Un punto di vista semiotico e prassico su linguaggio e denaro. Il modello di Bühler rivisitato ed esteso

Abstract

Karl Bühler devoted a number of papers, both published and unedited, to a schematic comparison between verbal exchange and the exchange of goods. «The counterpart to significative contact is the exchange of goods», he writes in 1934. He then moves on to elucidate the nature of the formalisation of three things used in social intercourse (Verkehrsdinge): brand-named goods, coins, and words. In 2002, new work was published regarding the semiotic status of Zeichengeld, i.e. of token money. After a brief contextualization of the author’s education and of the environment in Vienna in the twenties and thirties of the last century, the article aims to illustrate some possible structural similarities between his Organonmodell and the marginalist framework developed in the Austrian School of Economics. The two theories share a pragmatic/praxeological turn with respect to the two main paradigms dominating the respective settings, i.e. linguistic structuralism and classical economics. Furthermore, they focus upon intersubjective intercourse. The article conclusively highlights the importance of the regular mutual attendance between philosophy and particular sciences in order to allow researchers to identify areas of possible common enquiry and make their (often tacit) assumptions, premises, methods, conclusions and final aims mutually comprehensible and fruitful.