Radical indeterminacy, idealism, realism: Benedetto Croce vs. Roy Harris

The present article compares the semiological theories of idealist Benedetto Croce and 'realist' Roy Harris. The two were among few thinkers in Western intellectual thought who championed the idea that sign-making is radically indeterminate. They argued respectively that language and communication cannot constitute objects of study of an empirical science because the external world cannot be detached from the individual mind that experiences it. This article takes as its point of departure Croce's 'Estetica' (1902) and discusses Crocean thought from the critical vantage point of Harrisian integrationist theory in order to establish where the points of convergence and divergence lie. It will be argued that Crocean idealism and integrationism are ultimately incompatible philosophies, in spite of vast semiological common ground.