Grice ed Ardigò

 

In Italian philosopher 

Roberto Ardigò's body of work, the most relevant texts on signs, communication, and language—including their moral aspects—are his 1870 treatise La psicologia come scienza positiva and his 1879 work La morale dei positivisti. Ardigò did not write a single, focused essay on these topics but addressed them through his broader positivist framework. 

Here's how these works address the different aspects of your query:

Signs and language

Ardigò's understanding of signs and language is developed within his psychological and epistemological theories.

• In La psicologia come scienza positiva, he writes about the "indistinto" (indistinct) and the "distinto" (distinct) phases of consciousness. Language, and signs more generally, are understood as a key mechanism through which human consciousness progresses from the indistinct to the distinct, or from simple sensations to complex concepts.
• He argues that individuals can benefit from the cumulative cultural knowledge of previous generations through symbols that summarize past wisdom, which is central to his pedagogical thought.
• Ardigò's work suggests that language allows for the "abbreviated labor" of learning, enabling individuals to quickly access the results of past cultural activity.
• In some texts, he directly mentions the role of words as signs, noting that a word allows for the virtual possession of concepts without having to re-experience them one by one. 

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Communication

For Ardigò, communication is a mechanism of social evolution and a way for collective intelligence to be passed down.

• His theories suggest that the evolution of consciousness happens not just individually but also collectively, with language and communication serving as the vehicles for this process.
• Communication is fundamentally social and allows individuals to internalize social norms, leading to the development of morality.

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Moral aspects of language and communication

The moral dimension of signs and communication is a central theme in Ardigò's La morale dei positivisti (The Morality of the Positivists).

• The origin of morality: Ardigò posits that the source of morality lies not in a transcendental value but in a psychological principle: the internalization of social norms. This happens through communication and the collective social process.
• The "social ideal": He argues that the highest human action is one determined by a "social ideal," which is constructed and conveyed through communication and shared cultural activity. This social ideal is the "reason for morality" itself.
• A new civil religion: The work was part of a larger project to create a secular "civil religion" for Italy, one based on reason and scientific observation rather than religious dogma. For Ardigò, the ethics taught through social communication would form the basis for a new, unifying national morality