Umberto Eco's theory of possible worlds to define reasonableness in the textual and institutional interpretation of law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21527/2176-6622.2026.65.18255Keywords:
Legal Semiotics, Theory of Possible Worlds, Umberto Eco, Legal Interpretation, ReasonablenessAbstract
This paper investigates the contribution of Umberto Eco's theory of possible worlds to the delimitation of criteria of reasonableness in legal interpretation, both textual and institutional. The central research question is: how can this theory, articulated with the foundations of Peircean semiotics, offer objective limits to interpretation without falling into naïve formalism or hermeneutic relativism? The general objective is to establish the aforementioned theory as an analytical tool for defining such criteria. The methodology is qualitative, theoretical-analytical in nature, based on a systematic bibliographic review in the fields of semiotics, legal interpretation theory, and philosophy of language. The results indicate that the distinction between semiotic, metassemiotic, and factual assertions, combined with the notion of the text as a lazy machine and with the theory of possible worlds, provides a conceptual framework capable of distinguishing between cooperative interpretation and arbitrary use of the legal text. It is concluded that legal semiotics, far from being a theoretical ornament, reveals the alteritary nature of law and provides criteria for the intersubjective control of interpretation.
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