Walker Percy, Philosopher (6)

Forthcoming: Walker Percy, Philosopher.

Diamonds in the Rough: The Peirce-Percy Semiotic in The Second Coming

Karey Perkins

Karey Perkins makes the case for the view that Percy is more than a novelist with occasional random existential musings or themes. Although Percy begins in existentialism, his coming across semiotics sparked Percy’s interest in language as the uniquely human symbolic activity. Moreover, Percy attempts a systematic philosophy based in Peirce’s semiotic, by applying semiotic principles not just in his philosophical essays, but also in his novels—something rarely mentioned, even by Percy himself.

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