Abstract

The article analyzes the third in status (along with the material and spiritual) sphere of culture, called the “semiosphere”. This sphere is formed by special activity - sign activity (otherwise - semiosis). The authors analyze some basic interpretations of the essence of a sign and especially a symbol. The article offers the author’s understanding of these concepts.
It is noted that it is possible to adequately determine the essence of a sign only by relying on the dialectics of the ideal (in German Ideelle) and the real. Many researchers do not take this dialectic into account, as a result of which they make various kinds of  mistakes. The article notes that a symbol is, firstly, a sign-artifact, and secondly, a sign endowed with an increased value meaning. In conclusion, the authors criticize the position that reduces all culture to the
semiosphere.
Keywords: culture, sign, symbol, semiosis, semiosphere, ideal (Ideelle) and real