ABSTRACT
Charles Sanders Peirce’s analysis of signs offers, in fact, many elements to treat the theme of gestures in human cultures, although he rarely directly dealt with the subject. Gestures are to be considered as pure tones, but tones that are highly qualified: “A tone or gesture is often the most definite part of what is said”. Gestures do not presuppose consciousness. Rather, consciousness is the product of the acts becoming more and more symbolical, complex and reciprocal, a real product of con-science. The iconic ground of gestures points us in the direction of a truth that does not necessarily rely on discourse but coincides with the practices of truth-making that people exercise in our being-in-the-world, as the Cynics taught. Gestures are the visible theater of truth, and the philosopher must be, in his form of life, a living statue of that truth. Socrates is mousikos aner, a musician who makes the harmony between bios and logos resonate.
