The Consequences of Things. The Semiotics and the Pragmatistic Route to Designing

The starting point of this contribution is the concept of “sense”, which derives from the Charles S. Peirce’s semiotic view: “Our idea of anything is our idea of its sensible effects” (Peirce, CP 5.401). For Peirce, the meaning – or sense – of any sign (text, artifact, system) comes surrounded with all the conceivable effects and the “practical consequences” that the sign produces or could produce. However, among the practical consequences, could be also included the formation of beliefs and the definition of individual or social behaviour through habits, and furthermore – in the long run – the very organization of political life. From this derives the responsibility of design, which stimulates an improvement of the consumer goods production (sort of an extension of the design, widening its application in more areas: communication, services, ecology etc.) in the cultural context where part of the social and the planet lives are decided. In this perspective, the sense is no longer just a semantic value within a system, such as the structuralist tradition has taught us, but is open and attempts to a pragmatic dimension. That is, the sense is not found only in texts and artifacts, but above all in the living scene of use: in the context where the objects are found and used.