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Because of the reduction of his theory to The Origin of Species (1859) and its slogan "descent with modification by means of natural selection", Darwin's contribution to the study of language is largely overlooked. However, in later works, such as The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), Darwin develops his theory of language and of signs in general. These considerations are contained within Darwin's ethology, which is different from the theory of instinct of The Origin based on natural selection. Respecting the idea of continuity between non-human animals and human beings, the Darwinian animal appears as a hermeneutical subject that constructs its own world and behaves accordingly by taking into account both its structure and the surrounding conditions. Moreover, the Darwinian animal is able to emit both voluntary and involuntary signs that can be recognised as such by the animal or an observer (human or non-human). The Expression of the Emotions is dedicated to the study of sign emission, which has to be understood in the context of Darwinian ethology. In this article, I argue that both Darwinian ethology and biosemiotics (represented by the theory of the expression of the emotions) correspond to Saussure's definition of historical sciences. Darwin's ethology and biosemiotics are composed of contingent facts that have to be studied historically.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_13

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