This review argues that The Human Use of Signs (Deely, 1994) is both pivotal and exceptional in the oeuvre of John Deely. It argues that the volume is exceptional because of its unusual explicatory structure and that it is pivotal because of its extended focus on issues arising from the distinction of ‘sign’, ‘object’, and ‘thing’. Among these issues are the idea of the postmodern, objectivity, relation, and the semiotic animal
