ABSTRACT
Integrationism is anti-foundational, in that it denies that meaning-making is carried out on the basis of independently established values or givens, whether biological, cognitive, or social. The founding tenet of integrationism is that the sign is indeterminate, both in form and meaning. At the centre of integrationism’s vision is the creative individual as active agent, as communicator, and as interpreter. Integrationism places great emphasis on communication as a moral activity; models of language and communication that exclude its moral dimension are rejected. The semiotic freedom evoked by integrationism comes at the price of ceaseless labour, the self that makes meaning is also the Sisyphus that must endlessly seek the order that has been eroded by the simple passage of time. Integrationism posits agency without system; radical systems theory proposes system without agency. Integrationism is anthropocentric, whereas systems theory challenges anthropocentric understandings of agency, self, cognition, communication, and language.
