Academic news in brief II

1. First step of co-editing (with Kati Lindström) the upcoming special issue of the journal Biosemiotics, entitled 'Semiotics of Perception', is completed, as all abstracts have been gathered and an introduction ('Being in the World of the Living - Semiotic Perspectives') drafted.

2. Last Friday/Saturday I finished my Springer book proposal for the book 'The Growth Crisis: Norwegian Ecophilosophy and the Future of the Growth Economy'. 10 pp. A Norwegian language book proposal was finished in two versions over the course of the last couple of weeks.

CHAPTERS:
1 Zapffe: The distraction economy
2 Kvaløy Setreng: Growth means crisis
3 Arne Næss: Sooner or later economic growth must end
4 Semiotic economy: An economy with room for the living
5 How we became so rich (and the Earth so poor)
6 How rich are we?
7 On the future of growth

3. The blogger Kvond recently posted 'Umwelt, Umwelten and The Animal Defined By Its Relations', in which he discusses a few points from my 2003 article 'Umwelt ethics' (he also refers to Kalevi Kull, John Deely, Paul Bains etc.). He finds that it is a wonderful outline of the possibilities of the thought of an Uexküllian deep ecological ethics, "including an informing critique of Uexküll’s actual political views, but it seems to lack a thorough connection between the two streams, presenting more a juxtaposition." I see that point.

There is much to be said ... about what a Spinozist/Davidsonian analysis could contribute to Morten Tønnessen’s Deep Ecology ethics, and even more to investigate in terms of just how Exowelten could overlap, and with what consequence. I hope to have opened up an avenue of extra-somatic interpretation of the real way that awareness crosses boundaries and resides in organs of perception beyond what is well-considered our “body”.

4. This week there are two guests in town, both Italian - philosopher Carlo Brentari, who is visiting the Jakob von Uexküll Centre and will be offering a 45 min. talk in a biosemiotics seminar, and a certain Umberto Eco.