Thomas Sebeok and Biosemiotics
Source: Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics
“Culture,” so-called, is implanted in nature; the environment, or Umwelt, is a model generated by the organism. Semiosis links them.
T. A. Sebeok (2001c, p. vii)
Key Terms
- Charles S. Peirce
- Charles Morris
- Roman Jakobson
- Jakob von Uexküll
- Heini Hediger
- Giorgio Prodi
- Juri Lotman
- Thomas Sebeok
- Semiotics
- Biosemiotics
- Sign
- Meaning
- Meaning of Meaning
- Forms of Meaning
- Communication
- Cognition
- Cybernetics
- Semiotic biology
- Zoosemiotics
- Endosemiotics
- Biosemiotic paradigm
- Semiosphere
- Biocommunication
- Theoretical biology
- Composers Vs Decomposers
- Integration Vs Differentiation
- Networks Vs Boundaries
- Subjectivity Vs Objectivity
- Non Duality Vs Duality
- Ascent Vs Descent
- I. A. Richards
- C. K. Ogden
- Umwelt
- Mental Model
- Perceptual Model
- Consciousness
Thomas Sebeok
Source: Thomas Sebeok: Mister (Bio)semiotics. An obituary for Thomas A. Sebeok
Thomas A. Sebeok was born on November 9, 1920, in Budapest, Hungary, and died peacefully in his home in Bloomington, Indiana, on December 21, 2001. He was a pioneer in semiotics and the creator of the field of biosemiotics. He belongs to the most renowned exponents of semiotics in the second half of the 20th century. By means of his scientific, institutional, and editorial efforts he exerted steady influence on the development of semiotics as a transdisciplinary field of inquiry; the doctrine of semiotics he called it. He produced numerous books and even more essays and other writings on general semiotics, zoosemiotics and biosemiotics, as well as linguistics, psycholinguistics, mythology, folklore, ethology, stylistics, and theory of art. In 1991 he was awarded the title of distinguished professor emeritus of linguistics, semiotics, anthropology and Central Asian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. When the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS-AIS) was founded in Paris on January 21, 1969, Sebeok was elected editor-in-chief of the newly created journal Semiotica, and he fulfilled this duty with unflagging devotion until the end of his life. In this function he was also a member and important promoter of the Board of the (IASS-AIS) since its foundation. For decades he was Series Editor, responsible for a number of leading book series Advances in Semiotics, Approaches to Semiotics, Approaches to Applied Semiotics, and Topics in Contemporary Semiotics, and he was the General Editor of the standard reference work Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (1986; recently published in a revised and enlarged version.) Sebeok also served as chairman of the Indiana University Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, was a professor of anthropology and of Uralic and Altaic Studies and a fellow of the Folklore Institute. In the semiotic study of human communication, for instance, he would examine not only spoken conversation but also nonverbal paralinguistic signs such as facial expressions and body movements which carry information along with the spoken words sometimes in a manner that contradictory the words.
The core statements of biosemiotics
Source: Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics
It will be fascinating to try to formulate briefly, in a thesis-like form, the main statements of Sebeok on biological semiotics.14 The version of these ‘theses on biosemiotics’ that follows below is compiled from his various writings on the issue. Among his own papers, the article ‘Signs, bridges, origins’ includes some of these statements, formulated in terms of ‘theorems’ and ‘lemmas’ (Sebeok, 1996b, also published in a slightly edited version in Sebeok, 2001c, pp. 59–73).
- (1) Life is semiosis. Semiosis, or a triadic cooperative production involving a sign, its object, and its interpretant , is as much a criterial attribute of all life as is the ability to metabolize (Umiker-Sebeok & Sebeok, 1980, p. 1).
- (2) Umwelt is a model. The recalcitrant term Umwelt had best be rendered in English by the word model (Sebeok, 1988, p. 72). All, and only, living entities incorporate a species-specific model (Umwelt) of their universe (Sebeok 1996b: 102).
- (3) There exists a global communicative network in the biosphere, formed in its lowest level by bacteria. The earliest, smallest known biospheric module with semiosic potential is a single bacterial cell. The largest, most complex living entity may be Gaia. Both units at the polar ends display general properties of autopoietic entities, but it is now bacteria that merit, in my opinion, special consideration on the part of all who would work at semiotics professionally (Sebeok, 2001c, p. 12).
- (4) Protists, plants, fungi, and animals represent different basic communication strategies, and accordingly, correspondent branches of biosemiotics are relevant. Just as there are different sorts of strategies for metabolic activity, there are also various kinds of communication devices (Umiker-Sebeok & Sebeok, 1980, p. 1).
- (5) Endosemiosis occurs in organism — with multiple (genetic, immune, metabolic, neural) codes. These four codes (with references to relevant literature) are mentioned, e.g., in Sebeok (1996b, pp. 107—108).
- (6) Symbiosis is a token of semiosis. The biologist s notion of symbiosis is equivalent to the philosopher s notion of semiosis (Sebeok, 1988, p. 72). Inasmuch as processes of sign transmission outside and inside organisms are at play, it appears not unreasonable to suppose symbiosis to be a token of semiosis and endosymbiosis to be a token of endosemiosis (Sebeok, 1996b, p. 102).
- (7) Language appears with syntax. There are no syntactic structures in animal sign systems. What we know of zoosemiotic processes furnishes no evidence of syntactic structures, not even in any of the alloprimates (Sebeok, 1996b, p. 108).
These and a couple of other statements of the same kind form some important knots in the network of Sebeok’s ideas, which are also illustrated by him through a large number of examples, references and citations from a big variety of sources he has used in compiling his texts.
Semiotic Self
Source: Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics
Since 1977, Sebeok became interested in the concept of “the semiotic self” (Sebeok, 1986a, p. xi, 1992, p. 335). This includes a problem of “how are self-images established, maintained, and transmuted into performances” (Sebeok, 1992, p. 334). He pointed out that “bodily sensations and the like, most saliently among them those connected with illness, are not amenable to verbal expression because they lack external referents” (Sebeok, 1992, p. 336). He proposed “to discriminate between two apprehensions of the self, (a) the immunologic or biochemical self, with, however, semiotic overtones, and (b) the semiotic or social self, with, however, biological anchoring,” thus showing that “the self is a joint product of both natural and cultural processes” (Sebeok, 1986a, p. xi).
The problem of semiotic self is inherently related to the notion of endosemiosis — a field introduced very much due to Sebeok (in Sebeok 1976, this concept has been proposed; see also Sebeok, 2001c, p. 20).
Systematists’ P-A-F [plant-animal-fungus] model and the classic Semioticians’ O-S-I [object-sign-interpretant] model
Source: Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics
He also notes, but does not explore, “the remarkable parallelism between this systematists’ P-A-F [plant-animal-fungus] model and the classic semioticians’ O-S-I [object-sign-interpretant] model” (Sebeok, 1997a, p. 441). This is because “on this macroscopic scale animals can be catalogued as intermediate transforming agents between two polar opposite lifeforms: the composers, or organisms that ‘build up’, and the decomposers, or organisms that ‘break down’” (Sebeok, 1988, p. 65; see also note 1 in Sebeok, 1988, p. 72). “According to this, in general, a fungus/interpretant is mediately determined by an animal/sign, which is determined by a plant/object (but plant/fungus are likewise variant life forms, of course, just as object/interpretant are both sign variants)” (Sebeok, 1999b, p. 391).
Source: Major Publications in Biosemiotics
Springer Book Series in Biosemiotics
- Mimicry and Meaning: Structure and Semiotics of Biological Mimicry.Maran, Timo. Dordrecht: Springer, 2017.
- The Cultural Implications of Biosemiotics.Cobley, Paul. Dordrecht: Springer, 2016.
- Origins of Mind. Swan, Liz (Editor) Berlin: Springer, 2013.
- The Symbolic Species Evolved. . Schilhab, Theresa; Stjernfelt, Frederik; Deacon, Terrence (Editors). Berlin: Springer, 2012.
- Laws, Language And Life. Howard Pattee’s classic papers on the physics of symbols with contemporary commentary. Pattee, Howard Hunt, Rączaszek-Leonardi, Joanna. Berlin: Springer, 2012.
- A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics: People, Paths, Idea. Martinelli, Dario. Berlin: Springer, 2010.
- Essential Readings in Biosemiotics: Anthology and Commentary.Favareau, Donald (Editor). Berlin: Springer, 2010.
- Life as Its Own Designer: Darwin’s ‘Origin’ and Western Thought. by Anton Markoš, Filip Grygar, László Hajnal, Karel Kleisner, Zdenek Kratochvíl, and Zdenek Neubauer. Berlin: Springer, 2009.
- The Codes of Life: The Rules of Macroevolution. Barbieri, Marcello (Editor). Berlin: Springer, 2008.
- A Legacy for Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as a Precursor to Biosemiotics. Hoffmeyer, Jesper (Editor). Berlin: Springer, 2008.
- Introduction to Biosemiotics: The New Biological Synthesis. Barbieri, Marcello (Editor). Berlin: Springer, 2007.
Other Recently Released Books
- A More Developed Sign: Interpreting the Work of Jesper Hoffmeyer.Favareau, Donald; Cobley, Paul; Kull, Kalevi (eds).Tartu University Press, 2012.
- Gatherings in Biosemiotics. (Tartu Semiotics Library 11). Rattasepp, Silver; Bennett, Tyler (Editors). Tartu : University of Tartu Press, 2012.
- Towards a Semiotic Biology. Life is the Action of Signs. Emmeche, Claus; Kull, Kalevi (Editors) London: Imperial College Press, 2011.
- Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs. . Cobley, Paul; Deely, John; Kull, Kalevi; Petrilli, Susan (Editors). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011.
- Readings in Zoosemiotics. Maran, Timo; Martinelli, Dario; Turovski, Aleksei (Editors). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011.
- Reviving the Living: Meaning Making in Living Systems. Neuman, Yair. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2008.
- Biosemiotics: Nature/Culture/Science/Semiosis. Wheeler, Wendy (ed).Living Books About Life Online Series.
- Biosemiotics: An Examination into the Signs of Life and the Life of Signs.Hoffmeyer, Jesper. University of Scranton Press.
- Genes, Information and Semiosis. Charbel Niño El-Hani, Joáo Queiroz, Claus Emmeche . Tartu University Press.
- Reviving the Living: Meaning Making in Living Systems. Neuman, Yair.Amsterdam: Elsevier.
- The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. Wheeler, Wendy J. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
- Cybersemiotics: Why Information is Not Enough. Brier, Soren. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Biocommunication and Natural Genome Editing. Witzany, Guenther.Springer, Dordrecht.
- Demonios de Darwin. Semiótica y Termodinámica de la Evolución Biológica. Andrade, Eugenio. Bogota: Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
- The Semiotic Animal. Deely, John; Petrilli, Susan & Ponzio, AugustoToronto: Legas.
Foundational Readings
- Barbieri, M. 1985. The Semantic Theory of Evolution. London: Harwood Academic Press.
- Barbieri M. 2003. The Organic Codes: An Introduction to Semantic Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Deacon T. 1997. The Symbolic Species. London: Penguin.
- Emmeche C., Kull K., Stjernfelt F. 2002. Reading Hoffmeyer, Rethinking Biology. Tartu: Tartu University Press.
- Hoffmeyer J. 1996. Signs of Meaning in the Universe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Markos, A. 2002. Readers of the Book of Life: Contextualizing Developmental Evolutionary Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Schult, Joachim (ed.) 2004. Biosemiotik – praktische Anwendung und Konsequenzen fur die Einzelwissenschaften. [Studien zur Theorie der Biologie 6.] Berlin: Verlag Wissenschaft und Bildung.
- Sebeok T.A., Umiker-Sebeok J. (eds.) 1992. Biosemiotics: The Semiotic Web 1991. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Taborsky E. (ed.) 1999. Semiosis, Evolution, Energy: Towards a Reconceptualization of the Sign. Aachen: Shaker Verlag.
- Vijver G. van de, Salthe S.N., Delpos M. (eds.) 1998. Evolutionary Systems: Biological and Epistemological Perspectives on Selection and Self-Organization. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
- Neuman, Yair 2003. Processes and Boundaries of the Mind: Extending the limit line. Kluwer.
- Weber, Andreas 2003. Natur als Bedeutung: Versuch einer semiotischen Theorie des Lebendigen. Warzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann.
- Witzany, Guenther 2000. Life:The Communicative Structure. Norderstedt: Libri.
Journals
- Biosemiotics
- Cybernetics and Human Knowing
- Sign Systems Studies
- Semiotics, Evolution, Energy and Development Journal
- Cognition, Communication and Co-operation Journal (Triple C)
Special Issues of Journals
- The American Journal of Semiotics 24.1-3. Favareau, D. (ed.) 2008. Special Issue on Biosemiotics.
- Cybernetics and Human Knowing 10(1). 2003. Thomas Sebeok and the biosemiotic legacy.
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 901. Chandler J.L.R., Vijver G. van de (eds.) 2000. Closure: Emergent Organizations and their Dynamics.
- Cybernetics and Human Knowing 5(1). 1998. Life: natural selection, self-organization and semiosis.
- Cybernetics and Human Knowing 7(1). 2000. The Embodied Mind and the Baldwin effect.
- European Journal for Semiotic Studies 9(2), 248-376. Laubichler M.D. (ed.) 1997.
- Semiotica 42(1), 1-87. Uexküll T. (ed.) 1982. Jakob von Uexküll’s ‘The Theory of Meaning’.
- Semiotica 89(4), 277-391. Uexküll T. (ed.) 1992. Jakob von Uexküll’s ‘A Stroll through the Worlds of Animals and Men’.
- Semiotica 120(3/4), 231-482. 1998. Semiotics in the Biosphere: Reviews and Rejoinder.
- Semiotica 127(1/4), 1-655. Sebeok T.A., Hoffmeyer J., Emmeche C. (eds.) 1999. Biosemiotica.
- Semiotica 134(1/4), 1-828. Kull K. (ed.) 2001. Jakob von Uexk¸ll: A Paradigm for Biology and Semiotics.
- Sign Systems Studies 27, 128-147. 1999 [two articles on biosemiotics].
- Sign Systems Studies 28, 326-420. 2000 [five articles on biosemiotics].
- Sign Systems Studies 29(1), 1-376. N-th W., Kull K. (eds.) 2001 [special issue on semiotics of nature].
- Sign Systems Studies 30(1), 1-386. Emmeche C., Hoffmeyer J., Kull K. (eds.) 2001 [special issue on biosemiotics].
- Studium Generale 3(2/3), 61-135. 1950. [About Uexküll’s Umwelt-concept.]
- Zeitschrift für Semiotik 8(3). 1986. Zeichenverhalten der Tiere.
- Zeitschrift für Semiotik 12(4). 1990. Kultur und Evolution.
- Zeitschrift für Semiotik 15(1/2). 1993. Kommunikation zwischen Mensch und Tier.
- Zeitschrift für Semiotik 18(1). 1996. Natur, Umwelt, Zeichen.
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Key Sources of Research
The forms of meaning : modeling systems theory and semiotic analysis,
by Thomas A. Sebeok, Marcel Danesi
link.umsl.edu/portal/The-forms-of-meaning–modeling- systems-theory/MGf9zM5JDwQ/
Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics
Kalevi Kull
Cybernetics And Human Knowing. Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. xx-xx
Semiotics Continues to Astonish
Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs
Edited by
Paul Cobley John Deely Kalevi Kull Susan Petrilli
Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 7
Editors
Paul Cobley Kalevi Kull
ISBN 978-3-11-025319-1
e-ISBN 978-3-11-025438-9
ISSN 1867-0873
Sebeok’s Doctrine of Signs as Global Semiotics
Augusto Ponzio
Click to access sebeok-s-20doctrine.pdf
The Notion ‘Semiotic Self’ Revisited
Thomas A. Sebeok
Pages 189-195
Semiotics 1988
https://doi.org/10.5840/cpsem198851
THE CODING AND DECODING OF THE SIGN AT THOMAS A. SEBEOK
Paul GORBAN
International Journal of Communication Research
Volume 6 • Issue 1, January / March 2016
The Sign Science and the Life Science
Thomas A. Sebeok
Indiana University
Applied Semiotics / Sémiotique appliquée 3 : 6/7 (1999) 85-96
Thomas Sebeok: Mister (Bio)semiotics. An obituary for Thomas A. Sebeok.
Brier, S. (2003).
Cybernetics & Human Knowing – A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis and Cyber-Semiotics, 10(1), 102-105.
Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics
Second Edition
THOMAS A. SEBEOK
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Sebeok’s semiosic universe and global semiotics
Susan Petrilli
Thomas Sebeok and the Biosemiotic Legacy, ed. by Soeren Brier, Vol. 10, no. 1, 2003, pp. 61-79.
Cybernetics & Human Knowing. A Journal of Second-order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis and Cyber-Semiotics.
Gatherings in Biosemiotics
Tartu Semiotics Library 11
Towards the semiotic paradigm in biology
ALEXEI A. SHAROV
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061
1998. From cybernetics to semiotics in biology. Semiotica 120: 403-419.
http://alexei.nfshost.com/biosem/txt/tosemiot.html
TOWARDS A SEMIOTIC BIOLOGY
Life is the Action of Signs
Claus Emmeche University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Kalevi Kull University of Tartu, Estonia
2011
Biosemiotics and Applied Evolutionary Epistemology: A Comparison
Marta Facoetti and Nathalie Gontier
Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab, Centro de Filosofia das Ciências, Departamento de História e Filosofia das Ciências, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
e-mail: nlgontier@fc.ul.pt
E. Pagni, R. Theisen Simanke (eds.), Biosemiotics and Evolution, Interdisciplinary Evolution Research 6,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85265-8_9
https://philarchive.org/archive/GONBAA-2
Biosemiotics in the twentieth century: A view from biology
KALEVI KULL
Semiotica 127-1/4 (1999), 385-414
https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1999.127.1-4.385
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/semi.1999.127.1-4.385/pdf
BIOSEMIOTICS: A NEW SCIENCE OF BIOLOGY?
DUŠAN GÁLIK, Institute of Philosophy Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava
FILOZOFIA 68, 2013, No 10, p. 859-867
Steps to a science of biosemiotics
Terrence W. Deacon
University of California, Berkeley, 2015
Mimicry: Towards a Semiotic understanding of Nature
Timo Maran
Sign Systems Studies 2001
THE SHAPE OF BIOLOGY TO COME? THE ACCOUNT OF FORM AND FORM OF ACCOUNT IN HOFFMEYER’S BIOSEMIOTICS
Dániel Bárdos and Gábor Á. Zemplén
Click to access bardos_zemplen_TAD43_1_pp32_50_u.pdf
Biosemiotics: a new understanding of life
Marcello Barbieri
Naturwissenschaften
DOI 10.1007/s00114-008-0368-x
Essential Readings in Biosemiotics
Anthology and Commentary
Donald Favareau
ISBN 978-1-4020-9649-5
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-9650-1
Biosemiotics: To Know, What Life Knows
Kalevi Kull
Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 16, nos. 1-2, pp. xx-xx
The Natural Emergence of (Bio)Semiosic Phenomena
J. H. van Hateren
Biosemiotics (2015) 8:403–419
DOI 10.1007/s12304-015-9241-4
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4661186/
Biosemiotic Approches to the Self
Katsiaryna Suryna
Master Thesis
Tartu 2014
From molecules to human: a research on the 4th dimension of life.: Energy, material, information, meaning.
Sixia Liu.
Linguistics. Université de Limoges, 2017. English. NNT : 2017LIMO0048 .
tel-01679865
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01679865/document
What is Biosemiotics?
Marcello Barbieri
Biosemiotics (2008) 1:1–3
DOI 10.1007/s12304-008-9009-1
Click to access what%20is%20biosemiotics.pdf
A Short History of Biosemiotics
Marcello Barbieri
Biosemiotics (2009) 2:221–245
DOI 10.1007/s12304-009-9042-8
Click to access Barbieri%202009_%20A%20short%20history%20of%20Biosemiotics.pdf
CYBERSEMIOTICS: MERGING THE SEMIOTIC AND CYBERNETIC EVOLUTIONARY VIEW OF REALITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS TO A TRANSDISCIPLINARY VISION OF REALITY
SØREN BRIER
Click to access Brier%20P26.pdf
A biosemiotic view on consciousness derived from system hierarchy.
Cottam, R., & Ranson, W. (2013).
In A. Pereira, Jr & D. Lehmann (Eds.), The Unity of Mind, Brain and World: Current Perspectives on a Science of Consciousness (pp. 77-112).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.1017/CBO9781139207065.004
Life is semiosis
The biosemiotic view of Nature
Marcello barbieri
Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 4, nos. 1-2, 2008
https://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/99/197
SEMIOTICS THE BASICS
SECOND EDITION
Daniel Chandler
Major Publications in Biosemiotics
International Society for Biosemiotic Studies
Semiotics Unbounded
Interpretive Routes through the Open Network of Signs
Susan Petrilli and Augusto Ponzio
2005
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
ISBN 0-8020-8765-5
Encyclopedia of semiotics
- E. Battistella, P. Bouissac
- Published 1 September 1999
- DOI:10.2307/417120