In English by Kalevi Kull
24th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics Bloemfontein, South Africa, 2024
The abstract book of the 24th annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics (University of Free State, Bloemf... more The abstract book of the 24th annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics (University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, June 2024).
XXIII Gatherings in Biosemiotics, 2023
The abstract book of the 23rd annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics (University of Copenhagen, Denmark).
Gatherings in Biosemiotics 2022, 2022
The abstract book of the 22nd annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics, taking place in Olomouc, Czechia... more The abstract book of the 22nd annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics, taking place in Olomouc, Czechia and organized by Palacký University in Olomouc.
Gatherings in Biosemiotics 2021 , 2021
Biosemiotics comprises any professional research on pre-linguistic meaning-making, regardless of ... more Biosemiotics comprises any professional research on pre-linguistic meaning-making, regardless of its method (e.g., qualitative or quantitative), aspect (e.g., semantic, syntactic, or pragmatic), school (e.g., Peircean, Saussurean, Gadamerian), focus (e.g., codes, hermeneutics, interpretation), or terms used. The proper understanding of semiosis and of meaningful communication in all their forms, together with their role in the phenomena of life, is what biosemiotics is aiming at, with necessary consequences for both biology and semiotics.
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The booklet includes abstracts of the talks held at the 21st Gatherings in Biosemiotics, in Stockholm, 26–29 July 2021.
Gatherings in Biosemiotics XX., 2020
Biosemiotics is the study of semiosis in the biological realm. Or, as it was written in the intro... more Biosemiotics is the study of semiosis in the biological realm. Or, as it was written in the introduction to the 17th Gatherings in Biosemiotics in Lausanne, “biosemiotics is [...] the study of meaning-making and its consequences in living systems, and much of its focus is on investigating and understanding pre-linguistic sign processes in both humans and other organisms”.
Biology, on the one hand, has an important and impressive history of studying the systematicity of nature, as it is exhibited in the analyses of the genetic, physiological and morphogenetic processes of living systems. Yet biology, at the same time, must also certainly recognize that it is likewise the study of the systematicity of freedom, in as much as its object of study is the phenomenon of life itself. And so biology, understood as biosemiotics, studies life’s capacity for aboutness, for establishing mediated and arbitrary relationships that result in the creation of novelty, for making choices, and for the ongoing exploration of possibility.
The world meetings on biosemiotics – Gatherings in Biosemiotics – have been taking place annually since 2001. The first twelve years of these conferences was described in a volume of 2012, while the current volume covers the meetings from 2012 to 2020. In addition to the accounts and programs of these events, and including over sixty contributions to the twentieth meeting, the current volume includes review articles, evaluating the work done thus far, and predicting future developments. The history and philosophy of Czech biosemiotics, in particular, receives a detailed account, and many other new ideas in biosemiotics are also discussed in this book.
Semiotica, 1999
A review about the studies of semiotic processes (semiosis) in living systems, or semiotic approa... more A review about the studies of semiotic processes (semiosis) in living systems, or semiotic approaches in the biology of the 20th century.
Sign Systems Studies, 2022
Tracing the emergence of biosemiotics, attention can be drawn to the very early usage of the term... more Tracing the emergence of biosemiotics, attention can be drawn to the very early usage of the term ‘biosemiotics’ (Biosemiotik) in the writings of Austrian chemist Vincenz Kletzinsky (1826–1882) that dates back to the 1850s. In the same decade, Kletzinsky also proved to be among the first to use the terms ‘biochemistry’ and ‘biophysics’.
The paper gives a brief history of theoretical biology and examines the main trends in the search... more The paper gives a brief history of theoretical biology and examines the main trends in the search for a theory of general biology throughout the 20th century — the physicalisation on one hand, and the semiotisation on the other. These two approaches had their predecessors and were formed already in the 19th century biology, as Darwinian and Baerian biology. In theoretical biology, there are co-existing (however, asymmetrical) trends toward specifying solutions and generalising axioms. The inclusion of the biological organism as a subject into biological theory requires an analysis of the concept of scientific fact. The main periods of development of theoretical biology are briefly characterised, and the trend towards the theory of biological communication and meaning outlined.
Bloomsbury Semiotics, 2022
This chapter provides a brief review on how the processes of life have been seen from the semioti... more This chapter provides a brief review on how the processes of life have been seen from the semiotic point of view in general biology thus far, and indicates the ways in which the application of a more explicitly semiotic understanding of life may aid in the development of general biology in the future. It argues that since the processes of meaning-making, i.e. semiosis, cannot be eliminated in the study of living beings, general biology will benefit greatly by drawing from and building upon the work that has already been done in investigating meaning-making in the discipline of semiotics. In the process, certain important changes in, and of benefit to, the general model of semiosis will accrue, as an important part of this more unified perspective will include more foundational definitions and analyses of interpretation, choice, categorization, meaning, habit, representation, learning, evolution, and translation. Finally, some of the outstanding problems, lacunae, and research priorities for the development of a more semiotic general biology will be addressed.
Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems. Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology, 2023
This essay provides an outline of biological approaches to the phenomenon of meaning. It includes... more This essay provides an outline of biological approaches to the phenomenon of meaning. It includes descriptions of meaning-construction based on function, purpose, survival, reproductive success, evolutionary history, code, signalling, communication, anticipation, or choice. It is argued that most of these approaches are not sufficient in demonstrating the meaning-making from organism's own perspective. As concluded, the capacity of meaning-making is equivalent to the existence of umwelt.
Gatherings in Biosemiotics XX, 2020
Three questions about biosemiotics are answered, comparing the years 1995 and 2020:
(1) What are... more Three questions about biosemiotics are answered, comparing the years 1995 and 2020:
(1) What are the scientific results achieved during this time
that you consider the most significant?
(2) What areas of research do you consider the most promising in the future?
(3) What are the scientific hopes that were pinned on biosemiotics in the 1990s that, in your opinion, did not materialize?
Sharov & Mikhailovsky, 2024
Increasingly, the examination of the phenomena of signs and meanings in the biosphere is becoming... more Increasingly, the examination of the phenomena of signs and meanings in the biosphere is becoming recognized as an important area of inquiry for biology and ecology. In the current chapter, we both look back to some of the earliest history of such inquiry, as well as look ahead to how we think that these ideas are developing. The chapter is then divided into two main parts, accordingly. Part 1 presents a selectively abbreviated history of some of the more influential ways that the phenomena of signs and meanings have been conceptualized in the natural sciences from antiquity to the present, while Part 2 presents some of the key insights and concepts now being developed within the field of biosemiotics for furthering our understanding of the role of signs and meanings in the organization and interaction of living systems.
The Oxford Handbook of Charles S. Peirce., 2024
What Peirce brings to biology? This chapter examines Peirce’s views on biology, especially in his... more What Peirce brings to biology? This chapter examines Peirce’s views on biology, especially in his "Guess at the Riddle" and in his Monist papers of the early 1890s. When we look purely at Peirce’s biological statements, we see a more emergentist take on biology than we get from canonical readings of Peirce. We further look at how semiotic biologists have used Peirce, both before and after 1990, and at various criticisms of the application of some of Peirce’s concepts in biosemiotics.
Semiotic space for native biota in the city, 2024
During the last centuries, there has been a clear trend towards the replacement of native, with a... more During the last centuries, there has been a clear trend towards the replacement of native, with alien biota almost everywhere close to human habitation, while this trend has been especially remarkable in the cities. This colonisation is not limited to people – cities also have a high abundance of other species that are introduced from remote geographical areas.The reasons for this are mainly of a semiotic nature. In our paper, we investigate, how the use of native plants in urban landscaping can be reconciled with cultural ideals expressed in the city, and how a semiotic space within the city can be created for humans and nonhumans alike. In our case studies, we focus on the experience of the restoration attempts of native biota in four Estonian towns, making use of a combination of an eco- and sociosemiotic approach (with semiotic space, semiotic freedom, and semiotic fitting as some of the central concepts).
Sign Systems Studies , 2023
This essay attempts to combine some recent theoretical results in (bio)semiotics on arbitrariness... more This essay attempts to combine some recent theoretical results in (bio)semiotics on arbitrariness, semiotic fitting, umwelt, choice, and extended theory of evolution into a more coherent whole. The proposed model describes a living being through its subjectivity and the ability to create meaning, which are often overlooked in models based on replicability The concept of the umwelt is divided into two – the synchronic umwelt and the distributed or diachronic umwelt. For the latter, a new term 'umweb' is introduced. A mechanism of evolution is described in which arbitrary relating followed by semiotic fitting is somewhat analogous to the neo-Darwinian mechanism of random mutations followed by natural selection. The paper proceeds to discuss the alternativity and coexistence of these two radically different ways of evolution and learning.
Theoretical Biology Forum, 2022
Contents: 1. Major steps towards the extension: Four women who changed the evolutionary scene. 2.... more Contents: 1. Major steps towards the extension: Four women who changed the evolutionary scene. 2. The model of extended synthesis adds the independent role of plasticity. 3. Plasticity and interpretation. 4. Adaptive and neutral modifications. 5. Innovation and test. 6. Selection, adjustment and choice – illusionary and real meaning-making. 7. Inheritance of knowing. 8. Completely extended synthesis tends to be the semiotic theory of evolution. 9. Conclusion.
Abstract: The theory of organic evolution is incomplete until it can explain life’s meaning-making capacity and its role in the evolutionary processes, i.e. until semiosis is included. The extended synthesis theory of evolution has made a decisive step towards such an integrative theory, yet the explicit inclusion of semiotics of life is still to come. Here, we describe the steps made towards the semiotics-based theory of evolution, as the next stage after evo-devo and eco-evo-devo approaches. This includes demonstration of independent roles that natural selection, plastic adjustment, and interpretative choice have in adaptive evolution, and the distinction between adaptive and neutral modifications in genetic, plastic and interpretative mechanisms. Real meaning-making takes place only due to organism’s interpretative processes. It should be complemented with a description of the ways by which knowledge (defined as products of semiotic learning), or rather the constraints of semiosis, can be inherited. This will complete the inclusion of semiosis into the extended mechanism of evolution.
Biosemiotics, 2023
The topics discussed in the interview cover the development and activities of the Konrad Lorenz I... more The topics discussed in the interview cover the development and activities of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research as one of the most important theoretical biology centers in the world, the reasons for its inspiring atmosphere, as well as the development of the interests and research work of its longtime president Gerd B. Müller. An important part of this is the work on a revised theoretical framework of evolution, the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. We also talk about the place of biosemiotics in biology and about the situation and future perspectives of theoretical biology in general. With this interview we celebrate Gerd Müller's 70th birthday.
Open Semiotics, 2023
In this study about semiotic freedom in living beings, the author analyses the concept of arbitra... more In this study about semiotic freedom in living beings, the author analyses the concept of arbitrariness and provides its naturalised definition, specifying the related concepts of 'indeterminacy', 'motivatedness' and 'choice'. Arbitrariness implies choice, being a relation that only agents can create. The chapter provides a fourfold typology of the levels of indeterminacy and semiotic freedom. This helps to clarify the basic mechanisms of semiosis, in both its Saussurean and Peircean formulations.
Approaches to Biosemiotics, 2023
Kull, Kalevi 2023. Necessary conditions for semiosis: A study of vegetative subjectivity, or phyt... more Kull, Kalevi 2023. Necessary conditions for semiosis: A study of vegetative subjectivity, or phytosemiotics. In: Coca, Juan R.; Rodríguez, Claudio J. (eds.), Approaches to Biosemiotics. Valladolid: Ediciones Universidad Valladolid, 59–74.
We provide a critical analysis of minimal conditions for the semiotic triad, to be identifiable in organisms. Semiosis is the process of meaning-making, which means that it creates relations unusual for physical and chemical descriptions. Since the semiosic relations emerge in complex organic systems of certain kind, we require a list of necessary and sufficient conditions for identification of the features of semiosis (triadicity, irreducibility, umwelt, double description, codes, arbitrariness, learning, relation-process duality, etc.), we suggest a core structure for minimal model of semiosis which is necessary for the relation of difference. We also review some earlier work on the topic.
The Routledge Handbook of Translation Theory and Concepts, 2023
Translation is a process that is not limited to human languages or human species. There is a prac... more Translation is a process that is not limited to human languages or human species. There is a practical problem of how to properly translate expressions of other species. The inclusion of other life forms and analysis of translatability between species leads to an extended theory of translation that is based on the science of biosemiotics. In this chapter, we (a) introduce some general semiotic concepts that are related to translation, among them elementary semiosis and enfolded semiosis, (b) discuss the conditions for lower and upper thresholds of semiotic translation, (c) provide some examples of usage in the concept of translation in non-human life as related to semiotics and (d) give a brief account of earlier work on biosemiotics of translation.
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In English by Kalevi Kull
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The booklet includes abstracts of the talks held at the 21st Gatherings in Biosemiotics, in Stockholm, 26–29 July 2021.
Biology, on the one hand, has an important and impressive history of studying the systematicity of nature, as it is exhibited in the analyses of the genetic, physiological and morphogenetic processes of living systems. Yet biology, at the same time, must also certainly recognize that it is likewise the study of the systematicity of freedom, in as much as its object of study is the phenomenon of life itself. And so biology, understood as biosemiotics, studies life’s capacity for aboutness, for establishing mediated and arbitrary relationships that result in the creation of novelty, for making choices, and for the ongoing exploration of possibility.
The world meetings on biosemiotics – Gatherings in Biosemiotics – have been taking place annually since 2001. The first twelve years of these conferences was described in a volume of 2012, while the current volume covers the meetings from 2012 to 2020. In addition to the accounts and programs of these events, and including over sixty contributions to the twentieth meeting, the current volume includes review articles, evaluating the work done thus far, and predicting future developments. The history and philosophy of Czech biosemiotics, in particular, receives a detailed account, and many other new ideas in biosemiotics are also discussed in this book.
(1) What are the scientific results achieved during this time
that you consider the most significant?
(2) What areas of research do you consider the most promising in the future?
(3) What are the scientific hopes that were pinned on biosemiotics in the 1990s that, in your opinion, did not materialize?
Abstract: The theory of organic evolution is incomplete until it can explain life’s meaning-making capacity and its role in the evolutionary processes, i.e. until semiosis is included. The extended synthesis theory of evolution has made a decisive step towards such an integrative theory, yet the explicit inclusion of semiotics of life is still to come. Here, we describe the steps made towards the semiotics-based theory of evolution, as the next stage after evo-devo and eco-evo-devo approaches. This includes demonstration of independent roles that natural selection, plastic adjustment, and interpretative choice have in adaptive evolution, and the distinction between adaptive and neutral modifications in genetic, plastic and interpretative mechanisms. Real meaning-making takes place only due to organism’s interpretative processes. It should be complemented with a description of the ways by which knowledge (defined as products of semiotic learning), or rather the constraints of semiosis, can be inherited. This will complete the inclusion of semiosis into the extended mechanism of evolution.
We provide a critical analysis of minimal conditions for the semiotic triad, to be identifiable in organisms. Semiosis is the process of meaning-making, which means that it creates relations unusual for physical and chemical descriptions. Since the semiosic relations emerge in complex organic systems of certain kind, we require a list of necessary and sufficient conditions for identification of the features of semiosis (triadicity, irreducibility, umwelt, double description, codes, arbitrariness, learning, relation-process duality, etc.), we suggest a core structure for minimal model of semiosis which is necessary for the relation of difference. We also review some earlier work on the topic.
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The booklet includes abstracts of the talks held at the 21st Gatherings in Biosemiotics, in Stockholm, 26–29 July 2021.
Biology, on the one hand, has an important and impressive history of studying the systematicity of nature, as it is exhibited in the analyses of the genetic, physiological and morphogenetic processes of living systems. Yet biology, at the same time, must also certainly recognize that it is likewise the study of the systematicity of freedom, in as much as its object of study is the phenomenon of life itself. And so biology, understood as biosemiotics, studies life’s capacity for aboutness, for establishing mediated and arbitrary relationships that result in the creation of novelty, for making choices, and for the ongoing exploration of possibility.
The world meetings on biosemiotics – Gatherings in Biosemiotics – have been taking place annually since 2001. The first twelve years of these conferences was described in a volume of 2012, while the current volume covers the meetings from 2012 to 2020. In addition to the accounts and programs of these events, and including over sixty contributions to the twentieth meeting, the current volume includes review articles, evaluating the work done thus far, and predicting future developments. The history and philosophy of Czech biosemiotics, in particular, receives a detailed account, and many other new ideas in biosemiotics are also discussed in this book.
(1) What are the scientific results achieved during this time
that you consider the most significant?
(2) What areas of research do you consider the most promising in the future?
(3) What are the scientific hopes that were pinned on biosemiotics in the 1990s that, in your opinion, did not materialize?
Abstract: The theory of organic evolution is incomplete until it can explain life’s meaning-making capacity and its role in the evolutionary processes, i.e. until semiosis is included. The extended synthesis theory of evolution has made a decisive step towards such an integrative theory, yet the explicit inclusion of semiotics of life is still to come. Here, we describe the steps made towards the semiotics-based theory of evolution, as the next stage after evo-devo and eco-evo-devo approaches. This includes demonstration of independent roles that natural selection, plastic adjustment, and interpretative choice have in adaptive evolution, and the distinction between adaptive and neutral modifications in genetic, plastic and interpretative mechanisms. Real meaning-making takes place only due to organism’s interpretative processes. It should be complemented with a description of the ways by which knowledge (defined as products of semiotic learning), or rather the constraints of semiosis, can be inherited. This will complete the inclusion of semiosis into the extended mechanism of evolution.
We provide a critical analysis of minimal conditions for the semiotic triad, to be identifiable in organisms. Semiosis is the process of meaning-making, which means that it creates relations unusual for physical and chemical descriptions. Since the semiosic relations emerge in complex organic systems of certain kind, we require a list of necessary and sufficient conditions for identification of the features of semiosis (triadicity, irreducibility, umwelt, double description, codes, arbitrariness, learning, relation-process duality, etc.), we suggest a core structure for minimal model of semiosis which is necessary for the relation of difference. We also review some earlier work on the topic.
According to the central thesis of biosemiotics, sign processes characterise all living systems and the very nature of life, and their diverse phenomena can be best explained via the dynamics and typology of sign relations. The authors are therefore presenting a deeper view on biological evolution, intentionality of organisms, the role of communication in the living world and the nature of sign systems — all topics which are described in this volume. This has important consequences on the methodology and epistemology of biology and study of life phenomena in general, which the authors aim to help the reader better understand."
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«De animal a humano», de Jesper Hoffmeyer
«Ecosemiótica», de Winfried Nöth
«Un apunte sobre biorretórica», de Kalevi Kull
«Un signo no está vivo; el texto, sí», de Kalevi Kull
«De la biorretórica a la zoorretórica», de Stephen Pain
«Tratado hoffmeyerense. La biosemiótica en 22 hipótesis básicas», de Frederik Stjernfelt
«Hacia una terminología estándar para la (bio)semiótica», de Marcel Danesi
«Hacia una biosemiótica con Iuri Lotman», de Kalevi Kull
«Umwelt y semiosfera», de Mijail Lotman
Many social scientists have sought to show that nature is not an eternal constant but an intrinsically unstable concept - a historical, cultural and social construct with powerful emotional, moral and political connotations. "Imagining Nature" sets out to explore some of the implications of and lacunae in this recent push to "denaturalise nature". But rather than asking, What is nature? As many academic writers have been doing, the contributors here ask: How is nature established as an entity? Through what processes and practices does nature achieve reality? The first section of the book, "Cosmologies", focuses on ways the practices of nature are embedded in overarching conceptual worldviews (Ingold; Kaarhus; Kull, Kukk, and Lotman; Hornborg; Roepstorff; Randviir and Kalland). Chapters in the second section illustrate some of the means by which identity unfolds and becomes established in interacting with and imagining nature. The chapters examine nature and identity in the national mythologies of Scandinavia and Germany; two Fulani status groups in Burkina Faso; the confrontational Sami community of Manndalen, Norway; the spatial world of the Tsaatang nomads in Mongolia; and two neoclassic houses by Le Corbusier and Wright. While the individual contributions here will certainly interest specialists in the particular fields they represent, "Imagining Nature" is broadly interdisciplinary in appeal, and it is especially recommended to anyone intrigued by recent constructivist debate and the multiplying conceptions of nature in the social sciences."
The critique of culture and the plurality of nature / Andreas Roepstorff and Nils Bubandt -- Section I. Cosmologies -- Three in one: how an ecological approach can obviate the distinction between body, mind and culture / Tim Ingold -- Conceptions of diversity in biology and anthropology: problems of translation and conditions for dialogue / Randi Kaarhus -- When culture supports diversity: the case of the wooded meadow / Kalevi Kull, Toomas Kukk & Aleksei Lotman -- From animal masters to ecosystem services: exchange, personhood and human ecology / Alf Hornborg -- Clashing cosmologies: contrasting knowledge in the Greenlandic fishery / Andreas Roepstorff -- Semiosis: significative dynamics between nature and culture / Anti Randviir -- Anthropology and the concept of 'sustainability': some reflections / Arne Kalland --
"This book makes an innovative exploration into some of the implications and lacunae associated with the recent push by many social scientists to "denaturalise nature". The contributors to this volume describe the diverse forms which the dialectic between nature as 'fact' and nature as 'imagined' may take, and they show how this seeming dichotomy is a constantly shifting whole".
Halvastimõeldes, armastamata, teed loogikavea. (Kalevi Kull)
Kuidas jõuda tahte ja kujutluseni, mis võimendavad nende ühist juurt? (Mart Kangur)
Isiklik vastutus on vabatahtlik kohustus, millest ei saa ega soovita vabaneda. (Rita Niineste)
Osadusvahekorrad on hingelistes vahekordades – armastuses, samastumistundes kosmosega. (Andres Luure)
Ülevuses me tunneme, et ilmneva taga on veel esitamatu. (Leo Luks)
Kuidas ära tunda ja genereerida eri tasandi kavalusi? (Riho Viik)
Lumivalgekese ja Kuningapoja pulmapeol pühitseti kõige ilusamat – inimeste elu ennast. (Margus Mägi)
Loomingu tuum on näha läbi kõikide objektide ja minade puhast taotlemist, puhast muundumist. (Margus Ott)
Kui süda asub õigel rajal / siis mõte tema kajaks taltub. (Kaia Otstak)
The parts 1, 2 and 3 represent the review and analysis of existing models, beginning with simple growth formulas and then concentrating in contemporary dynamic (ecophysiological) models which contain many state variables and tens of parameters. The analysis of these models is given by the main components of growth process.
Part 4 deals with the most important problem of causal tree growth analysis – the reason of growth cessation (self-inhibition) of too big tree. The arguments are given, showing the inadequacy of explanations which are based on Pütter-Bertalanffy equation. In the fig. 4.5 the numerical scheme of carbon balance for whole tree is represented, based on the experimental results of Estonian researchers.
In part 5 the description of our model PUU-1 is given. It contains 9 state variables (see List of symbols), 6 driving variables (table 6.1) and 43 parameters (table 6.3). The model enables to analyze both seasonal and ontogenetic dynamics of evergreen tree growth. The summary of all equations of the model is represented in ch. 5.9.
Part 6 deals with identification of the model: getting initial values of state variables and values of parameters and driving variables. More than half of them are based on the measurements made by Estonian researchers in Picea abies, others are taken from literature.
Part 7 gives the results of numerical experiments with our model – analysis of sensitivity of model variables and parameters, examples of growth dynamics, including numerical experiments with fertilization. The model fits satisfactorily with measured data. The comparison of calculated tree ring dynamics with dendrochronological data shows great perspectives in applying dynamical growth models of whole tree in dendrochronology, as well as in growth analysis and prediction, including situations
and problems which arise in agroforestry.
The most important theoretical result of our modelling is connected with self-inhibition of growth in tree ontogeny. It is shown, that self-inhibition of growth is taking place even without any aging factor, only because of size effects, which are mostly connected with changes in tree water exchange and trans port of assimilates (supplying of roots with assimilates becoming worse according to monotonous growth of cambium area). In the last chapter (7.6) the perspectives of tree growth modelling are discussed.
18 - 19 April 2023, University of Tartu, Estonia
Call for Papers
Umwelt analysis, initially proposed by Jakob von Uexküll, revolutionised studies on animal behaviour and perception by targeting them as semiotic phenomena, that is, as based on meanings and signs. In the Institute of Umwelt Research in Hamburg, of which Uexküll was the director, umwelt theory served as a shared theoretical ground for research on topics as diverse as the umwelten of fighting fish to the training methods of guide dogs. In the 21st century, the scope of umwelt theory has vastly expanded, both in terms of disciplines – ranging from anthropology to ecology – and the phenomena that are addressed with the help of the theory. Novel theoretical connections and disciplinary embeddings, as well as new changes in the lifeworld itself, bring along new challenges and questions: how to fit umwelt theory with existing methodologies and theoretical backgrounds of various other disciplines, how to make it a working analytical tool in the context of human-induced environmental change, and what are the methodologies that have been developed since the times of Uexküll that would help to conduct empirical analyses of animal umwelten today.
To scrutinise these questions, the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu will organise a conference Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations on 18 – 19 April 2023. We will especially look for contributions on the following topics:
- umwelt analysis across disciplines (ecology, anthropology, literary studies, economics, etc.);
- umwelt analysis in different applications, methods, and fieldwork;
- human and animal umwelten in the era of anthropogenic environmental change;
- contemporary developments in umwelt thinking.
Keynote speakers:
Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, University of Erfurt, Germany
Morten Tønnessen, University of Stavanger, Norway
Kalevi Kull, University of Tartu, Estonia
Martin Avila, Konstfack, Sweden
Interested parties are welcome to submit their abstracts of max. 300 words by 31 January 2023 to [email protected] for a 15-20 min. presentation. Notification of acceptance will be given by 27 February 2023. Abstracts should be sent as Word .doc or .docx files, with the e-mail subject line “Umwelt analysis”. Each abstract should contain:
the title of the paper;
the name of the author(s) (surname, given name);
affiliation and country of residence;
email address;
an abstract of max. 300 words;
a short bionote of max. 50 words.
Organised by the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu: Kalevi Kull, Riin Magnus, Timo Maran, Nelly Mäekivi, Lona Päll, Silver Rattasepp, Siiri Tarrikas.
The conference is funded by the European Union (Horizon Europe project 101084220: “Coevolutionary approach to unlock the transformative potential of nature-based solutions for more inclusive and resilient communities”) and by the Estonian Research Council (project PRG1504: “Meanings of endangered species in culture: ecology, semiotic modelling and reception”).
La esfera de la comprensión está basada en un sistema adecuado de conceptos y la semiótica lotmaniana nos provee un núcleo adecuado para esto. Ella ha inspirado a académicos de muchas culturas y América Latina se destaca como la región en donde la investigación semiótica ha sido particularmente activa.
In a series of interviews given in the early 1990s, Juri Lotman contemplated the boundary between the human and the animal. Keenly interested in animals, the scholar stressed in his later work the need to include animal communication in the semiosphere. Lotman’s model holds that semiosis requires at least two languages between which instances of untranslatability occur. However, he did not extend this model to animal communication. This is the apparent paradox of Lotman’s later work. Although researchers have emphasised that Lotman might not have had enough time to think these problems through, these issues had been addressed earlier by other authors. We argue that the problem of the relationship between cyclicality and openness, the old and the new, repetitions and novelty, the applicability and non-applicability of algorithms as aspects of semiosis and of each act of interpretations has not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, Lotman’s later work deserves attention today.
An effective self-regulation of the size of organisms or their parts is surprisingly rare, especially considering ther great adaptive value of this quality. We have analysed the class of growth models which may be described as a system of differential equations (5) or (2), assuming (1). We have proved that these systems cannot have any asymptotically stable equilibrium point or limit cycle, if their volumes Vj for the growth hormone of type j, Vj>0, and some of the constants aij or bijk differ from zero for every i. It is concluded that a homogeneous system cannot have homesostasis of size (or metrostasis, by Burch). Any mechanism of metrostasis must contain the processes which depend on the form or the spatial heterogeneity of the growing system.
The development of semiotics is described in three chapters.
(I) The period from the 1960s to the 1980s, which can be characterised as the burst into bloom, the efflorescence of semiotics. In the 1960s, semiotics was often referred to as a new science, its earlier period defined as the pre-history of the field. The main period of the Tartu-Moscow School confines itself to ten years, 1964–1974. It was followed by Juri Lotman’s work on general concepts of semiotics — the model of communication, the concept of the semiosphere, and unpredictability of semiotic dynamics. The early 1980s also mark notable changes internationally — against the background of post-structuralism, interest in Charles Peirce’s work grew considerably.
(II) The period since the 1990s, which marks the rise of biosemiotics and cognitive semiotics. While biosemiotics studies the processes of meaning-making in the whole realm of non-linguistic communication, including all types of living organisms, the approaches in cognitive semiotics serve as a bridge between biosemiotics and semiotics of culture. These developments have contributed much to general semiotics, which deals with modelling of semiosis.
(III) A brief account of the work done in the field of semiotics in Estonia, particularly since the 1990s. This includes the introduction of a full-scale curriculum in semiotics in the University of Tartu, in both Estonian and in English; a wide range of international academic relationships with major semiotics centres of the world and the co-development and integration between semiotics of culture, sociosemiotics, and biosemiotics. The results include a textbook of semiotics published by a team of authors in 2018.
The role of semiotic approach and importance of semiotic processes in ecosystem is described. Ecological fitting which includes the choices made by organisms is a semiotic process. It is also a key process in formation and persistence of ecosystem's structure.
Basic distinction between the main types of nature management runs between reversible and irreversible impacts on ecosystems. Restoration of the nature means removal of factors that make changes irreversible, e.g., removal of cumulative or homogenizing processes.
The classical type of nature protection as a protection of exceptionally beautiful or rare natural communities against human influence has developed during Modernism, an era of irreversible development. The postmodern period began with emphasis on environmental protection, i.e. management of a “poisoned” nature. Classical nature protection and new environmental protection are getting linked and generalised under the concept of biodiversity protection and restoration.
What has to be restored is not any particular former state but the ability for self-restoration, for reversibility. The latter is a basic feature of health; thus the concept of health can be applied to almost any living system, and ecological restoration appears to be a task analogous to the task of a physician, or even to that of a nurse. It should make use (as much as possible) of the natural ways of healing. The goal should not be a progressive change or improvement of an organism or ecosystem (e.g., via introduction of alien genes into an organism or alien species into a community) but rather its continuing health and diversity.
All this should be applicable to the ecosystems that contain human cultures. Humans are not necessarily the destructive factor in the nature, they can find ways to live in their ecosystems with all biodiversity included, aiming at health and reversibility of everything. Green restoration means recovery of autonomy, individuality, and self.
Comments on the concept of habit and a review of Donna E. West and Myrdene Anderson book "Consensus on Peirce’s Concept of Habit: Before and Beyond Consciousness" (2016).
The article also provides an overview of the status of biosemitics in the recent decades, tracing its beginnings and the efforts that were accomplished in it, and how biology and semiotics met together, and the areas of this convergence, as each of them (semiotics and biology) moves towards each other to the same degree. Through the presentation, Kalvi Kull showed the goals and tools of biosemitics, explaining the problems that can be solved with the help of biosemitics, and to what extent will it be able to do so, and what principles it is based on, and what tools does it have?
Introduction: Entereing a semiotic landscape
A biosemiotic building: 13 theses
A brief biosemiotic glossary
Proprioception [by J. Hoffmeyer]
On biography
Invisible worlds
Publications by Jesper Hoffmeyer
References
Name index
The article brings into dialogue Peircean semiotics and the most recent literature in biosemiotics in a demonstration of how interdisciplinary communication can enrich both fields of study under the rubric of intersemiotic translation.
Key words: translation, semiotics, biosemiotics, semio-translation, Peirce