«“Materia signata quantitate”. Una ri-cognizione»

Structuralism has mostly set aside the question of matter, with the exception of Louis Hjelmslev. It is necessary, however, to go into the heart of glossematic epistemology in order to grasp all its theoretical depth. Where matter is defined as a «Class of Variables», or class of substances. That means a «class of many and different» and not a «class of many and equal», or a homogeneous class. A “substance-concept” becomes a “function-concept”. The first derived ex post through an abstraction process, which traces lines of separation and subdivisions and whose final result cannot be cognitively wider than the starting point. The second one expresses, instead, the relations of a plurality of elements, artifacts or materials, or even perceptions, sensitive qualities, interpretants. They affect in various measures or in various quantities the constitution of the concrete and visible ways (materials) of matter and condition their subsequent signatures. A materia signata quantitate (Thomas Aquinas) that today continues in elemental semiotics. Hjelmslev’s semiotic project does not stand behind us and guides us from afar.