DOCSLIB.ORG

TOWARDS a SEMIOTIC BIOLOGY Life Is the Action of Signs

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
TOWARDS a SEMIOTIC BIOLOGY Life Is the Action of Signs • TOWARDS [ ASEMIOTIC ' BIOLOGY Life is the Action of Signs Imperial College Press TOWARDS A SEMIOTIC BIOLOGY Life is the Action of Signs P771tp.indd 1 5/3/11 5:22 PM TOWARDS A SEMIOTIC BIOLOGY Life is the Action of Signs Sense world s si interpretant io m e s Receptor Sense net Carrier of a feature sign Internal world Object Opposite structure Effect net Carrier of an effect representamen object Effector Effect world Editors Claus Emmeche University of Copenhagen, Denmark Kalevi Kull University of Tartu, Estonia Imperial College Press ICP P771tp.indd 2 5/3/11 5:22 PM This page is intentionally left blank Published by Imperial College Press 57 Shelton Street Covent Garden London WC2H 9HE Distributed by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. TOWARDS A SEMIOTIC BIOLOGY Life is the Action of Signs Copyright © 2011 by Imperial College Press All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN-13 978-1-84816-687-5 ISBN-10 1-84816-687-7 Typeset by Stallion Press Email: [email protected] Printed in Singapore. XiaoLing - Towards a Semiotic Biology.pmd 1 4/27/2011, 3:19 PM May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm Contents Preface ix List of Contributors xi Chapter 1: Why Biosemiotics? An Introduction to Our View on the Biology of Life Itself 1 Kalevi Kull, Claus Emmeche and Jesper Hoffmeyer Part I: Biosemiotic Approach: General Principles Chapter 2: Theses on Biosemiotics: Prolegomena to a Theoretical Biology 25 Kalevi Kull, Terrence Deacon, Claus Emmeche, Jesper Hoffmeyer and Frederik Stjernfelt Chapter 3: Biology Is Immature Biosemiotics 43 Jesper Hoffmeyer Chapter 4: Biosemiotic Research Questions 67 Kalevi Kull, Claus Emmeche and Donald Favareau Chapter 5: Organism and Body: The Semiotics of Emergent Levels of Life 91 Claus Emmeche v May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm vi Contents Chapter 6: Life Is Many, and Sign Is Essentially Plural: On the Methodology of Biosemiotics 113 Kalevi Kull Part II: Applications Chapter 7: The Need for Impression in the Semiotics of Animal Freedom: A Zoologist’s Attempt to Perceive the Semiotic Aim of H. Hediger 133 Aleksei Turovski Chapter 8: The Multitrophic Plant–Herbivore– Parasitoid–Pathogen System: A Biosemiotic Perspective 143 Luis Emilio Bruni Chapter 9: Structure and Semiosis in Biological Mimicry 167 Timo Maran Chapter 10: Semiosphere Is the Relational Biosphere 179 Kaie Kotov and Kalevi Kull Chapter 11: Why Do We Need Signs in Biology? 195 Yair Neuman Part III: Conversations Chapter 12: Between Physics and Semiotics 213 Howard H. Pattee and Kalevi Kull May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm Contents vii Chapter 13: A Roundtable on (Mis)Understanding of Biosemiotics 235 Claus Emmeche, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Kalevi Kull, Anton Markoš, Frederik Stjernfelt, Donald Favareau Chapter 14: Theories of Signs and Meaning: Views from Copenhagen and Tartu 263 Jesper Hoffmeyer and Kalevi Kull Acknowledgements 287 Name Index 289 Subject Index 297 This page is intentionally left blank May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm Preface Understanding life will never be an easy task. But it is always a fascinating exercise. Our path in this search to understand the life processes has led us, as biologists, to a semiotic view. Life processes are not only significant for the organisms they involve. Signification, meaning, interpretation and information are not just concepts used and con- structed by humans for describing such processes. We conclude that life processes themselves, by their very nature, are meaning-making, informational processes, that is, sign processes (semioses), and thus can be fruitfully understood within a semiotic perspective. This book presents a series of essays written collectively or under a mutual influence by biosemioticians who have gathered at seminars and meetings held in Copenhagen and Tartu, as well as in some other corners of the world. The selection of texts here does not cover the entire scope of views that have been developed in the last couple of decades under the name of biosemiotics or semiotic biology.As in general semiotics, in biosemiotics we can find several theoretical preferences repre- sented by different scholars. The Copenhagen and Tartu groups are close to each other and share many of their theoretical views. For several of the texts presented here, earlier versions have been published in different places. In these cases they are re-edited, with some sections appearing for the first time. The introductory article is written especially for the current volume. The rest of the book is organised into three parts. Part I focuses on the main con- ceptual issues. Part II provides examples of more data-driven and ix May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm x Preface applied research. Part III includes discussions presented in dialogic format, providing self-reflections of the field. The whole of this book seems to us to be a small step forward in a long process, in which different groups of biologists work to develop a more adequate paradigm for a scientific grasp of life. To this process belong the meetings of the Theoretical Biology Club of the 1930s in Cambridge, the Towards a Theoretical Biology symposia at Lake Como in 1968–1972, and the Gatherings in Biosemiotics in Copenhagen, Tartu, and several other places, since 2001. The lat- ter could not happen without the earlier efforts of Thomas Sebeok, Thure von Uexküll, and Jesper Hoffmeyer. There have been, of course, similar events before, and we look forward to the ones in the future. Understanding life is a life’s delight. Helpful, too. Claus Emmeche Kalevi Kull Spring 2010, Copenhagen and Tartu May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm Contributors Luis Emilio Bruni Department of Media Technology and Engineering Science, Faculty of Engineering, Science and Medicine, Aalborg University, Lautrupvang 15, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] Terrence Deacon Department of Anthropology, University of California, USA e-mail: [email protected] Claus Emmeche Center for the Philosophy of Nature and Science Studies, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] Donald Favareau University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore e-mail: [email protected] Jesper Hoffmeyer Department of Molecular Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] xi May 3, 2011 16:59 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-fm xii Contributors Kaie Kotov Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Tiigi 78, 50410 Tartu, Estonia e-mail: [email protected] Kalevi Kull Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Tiigi 78, 50410 Tartu, Estonia e-mail: [email protected] Timo Maran Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Tiigi 78, 50410 Tartu, Estonia e-mail: [email protected] Anton Markoš Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Sciences, Vinicna 7, Charles University, CZ 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] Yair Neuman Ben Gurion University, Israel e-mail: [email protected] Howard H. Pattee 1611 Cold Spring Road, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA e-mail: [email protected] Frederik Stjernfelt Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] Aleksei Turovski Tallinn Zoo, Tallinn, Estonia e-mail: [email protected] May 3, 2011 16:56 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-ch01 Chapter 1 Why Biosemiotics? An Introduction to Our View on the Biology of Life Itself Kalevi Kull, Claus Emmeche and Jesper Hoffmeyer Summary. This chapter introduces the very idea of a semiotic biology. Here, one needs to know what semiosis, the action of sign, is, and why semiotics, the study of signs processes, provides a strong conceptual toolbox to approach a more complete theo- retical biology. Sebeok’s thesis that living systems are constituted as sign systems is a key point of departure for the emergent sci- ence of biosemiotics. The history of semiotics in the 20th century has been influenced deeply by structuralism in linguistics, and this “semiology” is related to a similar structuralist movement in the- oretical biology. This, together with a variety of approaches that emphasize the properties of relation, signification, wholeness and contextuality, can be seen as forerunners to a more fully developed semiotic biology,that sees living creatures not just as passively sub- jected to universal laws of nature, but also as active systems of sign production, sign mediation and sign interpretation, that harness the physical laws in order to live and sometimes to make a more complex living. Such a biology is not in conflict with present-day biological research, but it promises to be a good guide towards a theoretical biology that does not turn the emergence of life — and with it, meaning and intentionality — into an incomprehensible mystery. Thus, biosemiotics would provide the basis for linking general biology with general linguistics. 1 May 3, 2011 16:56 9in x 6in Towards a Semiotic Biology b1086-ch01 2 K.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Evidence of Lingual-Luring by an Aquatic Snake
    Journal of Herpetology, Vol. 34 No. 1 pp 67-74, 2000 Copyright 2000 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Evidence of Lingual-luring by an Aquatic Snake HARTWELL H. WELSH, JR. AND AMY J. LIND Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 1700 Bayview Dr., Arcata, California 95521, USA. E-mail: hwelsh/[email protected] ABSTRACT.-We describe and quantify the components of an unusual snake behavior used to attract fish prey: lingual-luring. Our earlier research on the foraging behavior of the Pacific Coast aquatic garter snake (Thamnophis atratus) indicated that adults are active foragers, feeding primarily on aquatic Pacific giant salamanders (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) in streambed substrates. Juvenile snakes, however, use primarily ambush tactics to capture larval anurans and juvenile salmonids along stream margins, behaviors that include the lingual-luring described here. We found that lingual-luring differed from typical chemosensory tongue-flicking by the position of the snake, contact of the tongue with the water surface, and the length of time the tongue was extended. Luring snakes are in ambush position and extend and hold their tongues out rigid, with the tongue-tips quivering on the water surface, apparently mimicking insects in order to draw young fish within striking range. This behavior is a novel adaptation of the tongue-vomeronasal system by a visually-oriented predator. The luring of prey by snakes has been asso- luring function (Mushinsky, 1987; Ford and ciated primarily with the use of the tail, a be- Burghardt, 1993). However, Lillywhite and Hen- havior termed caudal luring (e.g., Neill, 1960; derson (1993) noted the occurrence of a pro- Greene and Campbell, 1972; Heatwole and Dav- longed extension of the tongue observed in vine ison, 1976; Jackson and Martin, 1980; Schuett et snakes (e.g., Kennedy, 1965; Henderson and al., 1984; Chizar et al., 1990).
    [Show full text]
  • Biosemiotic Medicine: from an Effect-Based Medicine to a Process-Based Medicine
    Special article Arch Argent Pediatr 2020;118(5):e449-e453 / e449 Biosemiotic medicine: From an effect-based medicine to a process-based medicine Carlos G. Musso, M.D., Ph.D.a,b ABSTRACT Such knowledge evidences the Contemporary medicine is characterized by an existence of a large and intricate increasing subspecialization and the acquisition of a greater knowledge about the interaction among interconnected network among the the different body structures (biosemiotics), different body structures, which both in health and disease. This article proposes accounts for a sort of “communication a new conceptualization of the body based on channel” among its elements, a true considering it as a biological space (cells, tissues, and organs) and a biosemiotic space (exchange of “dialogic or semiotic space” that is signs among them). Its development would lead conceptually abstract but experientially to a new subspecialty focused on the study and real, through which normal and interference of disease biosemiotics (biosemiotic pathological intra- and inter- medicine), which would trigger a process- based medicine centered on early diagnosis and parenchymal dialogs (sign exchange) management of disease. occur. Such dialogs determine a Key words: medicine, biosemiotics, diagnosis, balanced functioning of organ systems therapy. or the onset and establishment of http://dx.doi.org/10.5546/aap.2020.eng.e449 disease, respectively. The investigation and analysis of such phenomenon is the subject of a relative new discipline: To cite: Musso CG. Biosemiotic medicine: From an biosemiotics, which deals with the effect-based medicine to a process-based medicine. 1 Arch Argent Pediatr 2020;118(5):e449-e453. study of the natural world’s language.
    [Show full text]
  • Where to Find 6 Million Minds
    Research Fortnight, 11 February 2015 view 23 roger highfield Where to find 6 million minds Over the decades, a disturbing image has often entered 2012-13. The sexes were nearly equally represented. my mind as I have whiled away the hours in meetings Slightly more than half of the museum’s visitors come about PUS and PES, aka the public understanding of, or from family groups, 36 per cent come from adult groups engagement with, science. This reverie involves a group and 13 per cent come from educational groups. In 2013- of beggars briefly materialising around a campfire to 14, more than half of the schools in London visited the squabble about how to spend a million pounds. museum; our aim is to make that two-thirds by 2018. Of course, the question is: how are they going to make Public engagement is enshrined in the research coun- all that money in the first place? By the same token, why cils’ royal charters—as it should be, because science, are researchers assuming that they have oodles of ‘sci- through technology, is the greatest force shaping cul- ence capital’ to spend, rather than wondering how they ture today. Paul Nurse’s review of the councils will no are going to engage with the big audiences that yield doubt consider how well they are fulfilling this aspect of such capital in the first place? their mission and whether they can do even more to use Around the PES campfire, many issues burn bright- museums to showcase their work. ly. The idea of a single public has given way to a The good news is that research councils are starting to heterogeneous mishmash of audiences.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cultural Ecology of Elisabeth Mann Borgese
    NARRATIVES OF NATURE AND CULTURE: THE CULTURAL ECOLOGY OF ELISABETH MANN BORGESE by Julia Poertner Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia March 2020 © Copyright by Julia Poertner, 2020 TO MY PARENTS. MEINEN ELTERN. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………………... v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED ………………………………………………………….. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………….. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………… 1 1.1 Thesis ………………………………………………………………... 1 1.2 Methodology and Outline ………………………………………….. 27 1.3 State of Research ……....…………………………………………... 32 1.4 Background ……………………………………………………….... 36 CHAPTER 2: NARRATIVES OF NATURE AND CULTURE …………………………………... 54 2.1 Between a Mythological Past and a Scientific Future ……………………. 54 2.1.1 Biographical Background ………………………………………... 54 2.1.2 “Culture is Part of Nature in Any Case”: Cultural Evolution ……. 63 2.1.3 Ascent of Woman ………………………………….……………… 81 2.1.4 The Language Barrier: Beasts and Men …….…………………… 97 2.2 Dark Fiction: Futuristic Pessimism …………………………………….. 111 2.2.1 “To Whom It May Concern” ………………….………………… 121 2.2.2 “The Immortal Fish” ………………………………………….…. 123 2.2.3 “Delphi Revisited” ……………………………………….……… 127 2.2.4 “Birdpeople” …………………………………………….………. 130 CHAPTER 3: UTOPIAN OPTIMISM: THE OCEAN AS A LABORATORY FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER ……………………………………………….…………….……… 135 3.1 Historical Background …………………………………………………. 135 3.1.1 Competing Narratives: The Common Heritage of Mankind and Sustainable Development ……………………………………….. 135 3.1.2 Ocean Frontiers and Chairworm & Supershark ………………... 175 3.1.3 Arvid Pardo’s Tale of the Deep Sea …………………………….. 184 3.2 Elisabeth Mann Borgese’s Cultural Ecology ………………………….. 207 iii 3.2.1 Law: From the Deep Seabed via Ocean Space towards World Communities ……………………………………………………. 207 3.2.2 Economics ………………………………………………………. 244 3.2.3 Science and Education: The Need for Interdisciplinarity ……….
    [Show full text]
  • Semiowild.Pdf
    SEMIOTICS IN THE WILD ESYS A S IN HONOUR OF KALEVI KULL ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY Semiotics in the Wild Essays in Honour of Kalevi Kull on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday Edited by Timo Maran, Kati Lindström, Riin Magnus and Morten Tønnessen Illustrations: Aleksei Turovski Cover: Kalle Paalits Layout: Kairi Kullasepp ISBN 978–9949–32–041–7 © Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu © Tartu University Press © authors Tartu 2012 CONTENTS 7 Kalevi Kull and the rewilding of biosemiotics. Introduction Kati Lindström, Riin Magnus, Timo Maran and Morten Tønnessen 15 Introducing a new scientific term for the study of biosemiosis Donald Favareau 25 Are we cryptos? Anton Markoš 31 Trolling and strolling through ecosemiotic realms Myrdene Anderson 39 Long live the homunculus! Some thoughts on knowing Yair Neuman 47 Introducing semetics Morten Tønnessen 55 Peirce’s ten classes of signs: Modeling biosemiotic processes and systems João Queiroz 36 The origin of mind Alexei A. Sharov 71 Is semiosis one of Darwin’s “several powers”? Terrence W. Deacon 79 Dicent symbols in mimicry João Queiroz, Frederik Stjernfelt and Charbel Niño El-Hani 87 A contribution to theoretical ecology: The biosemiotic perspective Almo Farina 95 Ecological anthropology, Actor Network Theory and the concepts of nature in a biosemiotics based on Jakob von Uexküll’s Umweltlehre Søren Brier 103 Life, lives: Mikhail Bakhtin, Ivan Kanaev, Hans Driesch, Jakob von Uexküll Susan Petrilli and Augusto Ponzio 117 Smiling snails: on semiotics and poetics of academic
    [Show full text]
  • A Biosemiotic Framework for Artificial Autonomous Sign Users
    A Biosemiotic Framework for Artificial Autonomous Sign Users Erich Prem Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence Freyung 6/2/2 A-1010 Vienna, Austria [email protected] Abstract It is all the more surprising that recent publications in this In this paper we critically analyse fundamental assumptions area rarely address foundational is-sues concerning the underlying approaches to symbol anchoring and symbol semantics of system-environment interactions or other grounding. A conceptual framework inspired by problems related to biosemiotics (a notable exception is biosemiotics is developed for the study of signs in (Cangelosi 01)). As we will discuss below, the approaches autonomous artificial sign users. Our theory of reference make little or no reference to specifically life-like or even uses an ethological analysis of animal-environment robotic characteristics such as goal-directedness, interaction. We first discuss semiotics with respect to the purposiveness, or the dynamics of system-environment meaning of signals taken up from the environment of an interaction. These features are, however, central to much autonomous agent. We then show how semantic issues arise of robotics and ALife. It is highly questionable, however, in a similar way in the study of adaptive artificial sign us- ers. Anticipation and adaptation play the important role of whether technical approaches to symbol anchoring should defining purpose which is a neces-sary concept in the be developed devoid of any sound theoretical foundation semiotics of learning robots. The proposed focus on sign for concepts such as “meaning” or “reference”. Until now, acts leads to a se-mantics in which meaning and reference simplistic versions of Fregean or Peircean semiotics seem are based on the anticipated outcome of sign-based in- to have motivated existing technical symbol anchoring and teraction.
    [Show full text]
  • Augusto Ponzio: a Brief Note on the “Italian Bakhtin”
    Marcel Danesi AUGUSTO PONZIO: A BRIEF NOTE ON THE “ITALIAN BAKHTIN” 1. Introduction The link between dialogue and knowledge was established in the ancient world by the great teachers and philosophers of that world, from China to the Middle East, from north to south, east to west. It is probably the oldest implicit principle in history of how we gain understanding, and its validity is evidenced by the fact that it is still part of education and most forms of philosophical inquiry in all parts of the world today. Studying what dialogue is, therefore, is no trivial matter, if indeed it constitutes a powerful format for the construction, discovery, and acquisition of knowledge. It was used by Socrates, after all, in the form of a question-and-answer exchange as a means for achieving self-knowledge. Socrates believed in the superiority of dialectic argument over writing, spending hours in the public places of Athens, and engaging in dialogue and argument with anyone who would listen. The so-called “Socratic method” is still as valid today as it was then, betraying the implicit view that it is only through the humility that comes through dialogue that it becomes possible to grasp truths about the world. Through dialogue, in fact, we come to understand our own ignorance, which entices us forward to investigate something further. There really is no other path to understanding than the dialogic one – so it would seem. The modern-day intellectual who certainly understood this like very few others of his era was the late Russian philosopher and literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975).
    [Show full text]
  • The Semiosphere, Between Informational Modernity and Ecological Postmodernity Pierre-Louis Patoine Et Jonathan Hope
    Document généré le 28 sept. 2021 03:48 Recherches sémiotiques Semiotic Inquiry The Semiosphere, Between Informational Modernity and Ecological Postmodernity Pierre-Louis Patoine et Jonathan Hope J. M. Lotman Résumé de l'article Volume 35, numéro 1, 2015 Parmi les notions développées par Lotman, celle de sémiopshère est certainement celle qui a été la plus commentée. Dans cet article, nous URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050984ar explorons ses dimensions écologiques et biologiques, en remontant au concept DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1050984ar de biosphère proposé par Vernadsky et à la vision environnementale de l’art qui apparaît chez Lotman dès La Structure du texte artistique. Notre enquête Aller au sommaire du numéro expose les aspects biosémiotiques de la pensée lotmanienne, aspects qui permettent l’émergence, en son sein, d’un modèle cyclique, homéostatique de la culture, contrebalançant ainsi une vision moderniste où l’art participe à un progrès naïvement linéaire. Éditeur(s) Association canadienne de sémiotique / Canadian Semiotic Association ISSN 0229-8651 (imprimé) 1923-9920 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Patoine, P.-L. & Hope, J. (2015). The Semiosphere, Between Informational Modernity and Ecological Postmodernity. Recherches sémiotiques / Semiotic Inquiry, 35(1), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050984ar Tous droits réservés © Association canadienne de sémiotique / Canadian Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des Semiotic Association, 2018 services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit.
    [Show full text]
  • Problems of Language in Welby's Significs
    Problems of Language in Welby's Significs Introduction The term "significs" was coined by Victoria Lady Welby (1837-1912) toward the end of the last century to designate the particular bend she wished to confer on her studies on signs and meaning. Significs trascends pure descriptivism and emerges as a method for the analysis of sign activity, beyond logico-gnoseological boundaries, and, therefore, for the evaluation of signs in their ethical, esthetic and pragmatic dimensions. To carry out her work Welby was convinced that the instrument at her disposal, verbal language, should be in perfect working order. Consequently, the problem of reflecting on language and meaning in general immediately took on a double aspect as it also surfaced in her mind as the problem of the condition of the specific language through which she was thinking. After her death Welby was very quickly forgotten as an intellectual and until recent times, if she was ever remembered it was as Charles S. Peirces correspondent and not necessarily in her own right as the ideator of significs. Her influence has gone largely unnoticed having been most often than not unrecognized. In addition to her publications, Welby was in the habit of discussing her ideas in her letters and to this end corresponded with numerous intellectuals, many of whom she knew personally, including a part from Peirce, M. Bréal, B. Russell, H. and W. James, H. Bergson, R. Carnap, A. Lalande, F. Pollock, G.F. Stout, F.C.S. Schiller and C.K. Ogden, G. Vailati, M. Calderoni and many others. Ogden promoted significs as a university student during the years 1910- 1911, and contrihuted to spreading Welby's ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Journals from University of Tartu 452 Kalevi Kull Sign Systems Studies 46(4), 2018, 452–466 Choosing and learning: Semiosis means choice Kalevi Kull Department of Semiotics University of Tartu, Jakobi 2, 51005 Tartu, Estonia e-mail: [email protected] Abstract. We examine the possibility of shift ing the concept of choice to the centre of the semiotic theory of learning. Th us, we defi ne sign process (meaning-making) through the concept of choice: semiosis is the process of making choices between simultaneously provided options. We defi ne semiotic learning as leaving traces by choices, while these traces infl uence further choices. We term such traces of choices memory. Further modifi cation of these traces (constraints) will be called habituation. Organic needs are homeostatic mechanisms coupled with choice-making. Needs and habits result in motivatedness. Semiosis as choice-making can be seen as a complementary description of the Peircean triadic model of semiosis; however, this can fi t also the models of meaning-making worked out in other shools of semiotics. We also provide a sketch for a joint typology of semiosis and learning. Keywords: biosemiotics; decision-making; free choice; general semiotics; homeostasis; need; non-algorithmicity; nowness; post-Darwinism; semiotic quanta; sign typology; types of learning Der Lebensvorgang ist nicht eine Sukzession von Ursache und Wirkung, sondern eine Entscheidung.1 Viktor von Weizsäcker (1940: 126) It would be foolish to claim that one can tackle this topic and expect to be satisfi ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Review: Marcello Barbieri (Ed) (2007) Introduction to Biosemiotics. the New Biological Synthesis
    tripleC 5(3): 104-109, 2007 ISSN 1726-670X http://tripleC.uti.at Review: Marcello Barbieri (Ed) (2007) Introduction to Biosemiotics. The new biological synthesis. Dordrecht: Springer Günther Witzany telos – Philosophische Praxis Vogelsangstr. 18c A-5111-Buermoos/Salzburg Austria E-mail: [email protected] 1 Thematic background without utterances we act as non-uttering indi- viduals being dependent on the discourse de- Maybe it is no chance that the discovery of the rived meaning processes of a linguistic (e.g. sci- genetic code occurred during the hot phase of entific) community. philosophy of science discourse about the role of This position marks the primary difference to language in generating models of scientific ex- the subject of knowledge of Kantian knowledge planation. The code-metaphor was introduced theories wherein one subject alone in principle parallel to other linguistic terms to denote lan- could be able to generate sentences in which it guage like features of the nucleic acid sequence generates knowledge. This abstractive fallacy molecules such as “code without commas” was ruled out in the early 50s of the last century (Francis Crick). At the same time the 30 years of being replaced by the “community of investiga- trying to establish an exact scientific language to tors” (Peirce) represented by the scientific com- delimit objective sentences from non-objective munity in which every single scientist is able the ones derived one of his peaks in the linguistic place his utterance looking for being integrated turn. in the discourse community in which his utter- ances will be proven whether they are good ar- 1.1 Changing subjects of knowledge guments or not.
    [Show full text]
  • John Benjamins Publishing Company
    John Benjamins Publishing Company This is a contribution from Emotion in Language. Theory – research – application. Edited by Ulrike M. Lüdtke. © 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company This electronic file may not be altered in any way. The author(s) of this article is/are permitted to use this PDF file to generate printed copies to be used by way of offprints, for their personal use only. Permission is granted by the publishers to post this file on a closed server which is accessible to members (students and staff) only of the author’s/s’ institute, it is not permitted to post this PDF on the open internet. For any other use of this material prior written permission should be obtained from the publishers or through the Copyright Clearance Center (for USA: www.copyright.com). Please contact [email protected] or consult our website: www.benjamins.com Tables of Contents, abstracts and guidelines are available at www.benjamins.com Introduction From logos to dialogue Ulrike M. Lüdtke Leibniz University Hannover This book is inspired by many years of pedagogic and therapeutic work with children and adults in preschool, school and clinical settings. The miracle of language devel- opment and the joy of expressive language on the one hand and the vulnerability of language and the sorrow and grief caused by its distortion or even loss on the other opened my eyes to the inseparability of emotion and language. Even though I had just been part of the editing team for Moving Ourselves, Moving Others: Motion and Emotion in Intersubjectivity, Consciousness and Language (2012), I felt there was a strong need for an interdisciplinary volume focusing exclusively on the enormous importance of emotion in language.
    [Show full text]