Publisher's Synopsis
Lotman attempts to define intelligence through the use of semiotics and, thereby, to arrive at a universal theory of human culture. The book is divided into three sections which deal with text, culture and the semiotics of history. Each section aims to show how the world of society interacts with the individual intellectual world of the human beings within it. The book draws on a wide range of examples from classical rhetoric and Pushkin's poetry to the pre-literate cultures of South America.
