How much do our perceptions of things depend on our cognitive ability, and how m
uch on our linguistic resources? Where, and how, do these two questions meet? Um
berto Eco undertakes a series of idiosyncratic and typically brilliant explorati
ons, starting from the perceived data of common sense, from which flow an abunda
nce of 'stories' or fables, often with animals as protagonists, to expound a cle
ar critique of Kant, Heidegger and Peirce. And as a beast designed specifically
to throw spanners in the works of cognitive theory, the duckbilled platypus natu
rally takes centre stage.
