Videos from Berkeley gathering in biosemiotics

Here are videos of presentations from the 18th gathering in biosemiotics, held in Berkeley this summer. This is the video of my presentation "The search image as link between sensation, perception and action".

No writing day

Struggling with a backlog I have had for a week or more, I can not find the time to have a writing day today. Hope I can get on track for the next weeks.

Google Scholar status per summer 2012 vs. autumn 2018

As of June 2012 - according to an old note - Google Scholars (cf. my profile) listed 19 academic articles of mine, which were in total cited 32 times, and I had an h-index of 3 (meaning that 3 of my articles had been cited at least 3 times each).

6 year on, I have according to Google Scholar been cited 324 times, and I have an h-index of 9 (up 1) as well as an h10-index of 9 (up 1; meaning that 9 of mine articles have been cited at least 10 times each). This is up 12 since August 20th. My 9th article to reach 10 citations is "Outline of an Uexküllian bio-ontology", my very first academic article, published in 2001.

"Academic day" on challenges in PhD supervision attended

Today I attended a half-day "fagdag" at Department of social studies for PhD supervisors, with training by Anne Lee.

IPSOS meeting on Norsk Monitor data

Today I attended the first half hour of IPSOS´s presentation of Norsk Monitor data at University of Stavanger. I will get access to the data for research purposes.

Supervision

Today I had the first PhD supervision session for this autumn. Will happen once a month. For now I do not have any more Master or Bachelor students assigned for supervision (Bachelor thesis supervision is in Spring only).

Third philosophy of science lecture

Today I gave the third lecture on introductory philosophy of science in "Philosophy of science and research methods". Some 40 students attended.

Two more Ex.phil. seminars

I gave one Ex.phil. seminar yesterday and another one today, thus completing the first round of four seminars.

6 hours of Ex.phil. teaching; adjusted seminar arrangement

Today I have taught for 6 hours consecutively in Examen Philosophicum at Department of social studies - first the second lecture, and then the two first rounds of the first of six seminars.

Compared with earlier years I have adjusted the seminar arrangement somewhat with 15 minutes used for Q & A or repetition based on student questions. There are also a discussion, as before, and work with Multiple Choice questions, as before (but with half an hour only now for the last task).

Letter to the editor on Ex.phil. published

My letter to the editor published as "Samfunnet trenger generalister" appeared in Stavanger Aftenblad in print last Friday, and online today. It is part of an ongoing debate about Examen philosophicum, Norway´s introductory course in philosophy.

Two Master defences at UiO

Today I have acted as external examiner at two philosophical Master degree defences at University of Oslo (Norun Pernell Haugen and Hilde Andenæs), both with an animal theme.

Second writing day

Today I had my second writing day this autumn. Managed 4 and a half hour this time, in addition to other work. Working on my "wasted growth" article.

Second MEE140 lecture

Today I have given the second lecture on philosophy of science in the course "Philosophy of science and research methods". Topics covered were demarcation of science and scientific reasoning. Some 60 students attended.

First MEE140 lecture

Today I gave the first lecture in the Master course "Philosophy of science and research methods", which is now followed by the students of two master degree programs - Master in energy, environment and society (MEES) and Master in urban planning (M-BYUTV), altogether some 65 students. Today we went through course information, started organizing/planning student presentations, and covered the introduction of the philosophy of science text book.

Google Scholar: 312 citations; 25 texts with 5+ citations

According to Google Scholar my academic work has now been cited 312 times. This is up 9 since July 11th, up 109 since August 2017, and up 207 since February 2016. 25 of my texts have now been cited 5 times or more.

Three texts cited in Brentari 2018

In "From the hiatus model to diffuse discontinuities: A turning point in human-animal studies", published online by Biosemiotics, Carlo Brentari cites three articles of mine:

• Tønnessen, M. (2009). Umwelt transitions: Uexküll and environmental change. Biosemiotics, 2(1), 47–64.
• Tønnessen, M. (2014). Umwelt trajectories. Semiotica, 198, 159–180.
  Tønnessen, M. (2016). The semiotics of predation and the umwelten of large predators. In T. Maran, M. Tønnessen, & K. Armstrong Oma (Eds.), Animal umwelten in a changing world: Zoosemiotic perspectives (pp. 150–118). Tartu: University of Tartu Press.

Excerpt (p. 10):

A good way to introduce the approach of the diffuse discontinuities as an alternative to the hiatus model is to discuss how the mentioned authors (Scheler, Gehlen, Plessner, Cassirer, and Langer) interpret the thought of Jakob von Uexküll. With impressive regularity, all of them present as the main Uexküllian concept the strict tie between the effector system (action) and the receptor system (perception) that characterises all animal organisation, but not the human life form. In other words, they make of Uexküll champion of the hiatus model [...]

The direct reading of Uexküll’s writings and the interpretation of his work given by Thomas Sebeok (Sebeok 1979, 2001), von Uexküll (1981), and many other recent scholars (Hoffmeyer 1996; Kull 1998, 2001, 2010; Deely 2004; Rüting 2004; Barbieri 2007; Magnus 2008; Tønnessen 2009, 2014, 2016; Favareau 2010; Petrilli and Ponzio 2002; Farina and Pieretti 2014; Salthe 2014; Kleisner 2015; Maran 2016) tell us another story. In Uexküll’s thought, the constitution of the Umwelt is a transcendental process through which the animal organism transforms the stimuli impinging from the outer reality in perceptive and operative signs (on the validity of this interpretation of the Umwelt concept for all levels of animal life see Brentari 2015: 89-95, 107-115); the interaction of both kinds of signs does not at all follow a mechanical immediacy, but is, instead, a sort of subject-mediated tuning of action and perception.

 

First Ex.Phil. lecture

Today I gave the first Ex.Phil. lecture this autumn at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. The topics were: What is philosophy? And, what can we know?

Ex.Phil. teaching plan

A couple of days ago I composed teaching plan for Examen Philosophicum at Department of social studies this autumn.

Oral exam - MA defence

Today I participated, as internal examiner, in the oral exam held in relation to Linn Tjøtta´s Master degree defence. The grade for the thesis was given two days ago.

Quarter writing day

I had scheduled to have my first "writing day" of the autumn today, but since my son starts school today (and was at home yesterday since SFO was closed), and I also have an email backlog to take care of, it only amounted to 90 minutes of thought-gathering (on a forthcoming editorial for Biosemiotics plus revision of "Introducing a notion of accumulated GDP").

Home office; son´s first day at school

Today I am working from home (perhaps half day) since my oldest boy has his first day at school today.

Ulvetider to be published in pocket version

According to the autumn 2018 catalogue of Vega forlag, a pocket book version of our book Ulvetider will be published in September (price: 199 NOK).

More Ex.Phil. info

Today I presented basic information about Ex.Phil. to child welfare students at Department of social studies, University of Stavanger. I was accompanied by my oldest son.

Council for animal ethics statement mentioned in Dyrevern viten

The latest Dyrevernalliansen email newsletter, Dyrevern Viten, makes mention of and links to Norway´s Council for animal ethics´ statement on tagging of wild animals, which I drafted (under the heading "Viltmerking ute av kontroll").

Ex.Phil. course information presented to social work students

Today I have briefly presented course information on Ex.Phil. (SVEXPHIL10) for social work students here at Department of social studies.

MEE140 planning meeting

Today I have attended a meeting with two colleagues concerning the MEES course (Master in energy, environment and society) I am course coordinator for, "Philosophy of science and research methods" (MEE140), for planning purposes.

Brentari´s Uexküll book received

I have, at long last, received my copy of Carlo Brentari´s book Jakob von Uexküll - The discovery of the Umwelt between biosemiotics and theoretical biology, published by Springer in 2015 - for which I wrote the introduction chapter.

MEES intro meeting

Today I attended an introduction meeting with the new MEES students (Master in Energy, Environment and Society). Teaching starts next week.

Google Scholar profile updated with areas of interest

I have added areas of interest to my Google Scholar profile (max 5): Biosemiotics, theoretical biology, philosophy of science, ethics, and economics. I furthermore added https://utopianrealism.blogspot.no/ as my homepage.

Special issue on biosemiotic ethics freely available online

Our special issue of Zeitschrift für Semiotik on biosemiotic ethics is now freely available online, downloadable in PDF format.

Brief presentation:

This issue presents the rapidly growing field of biosemiotic ethics. In the past two decades, biosemioticians have began to tease out the ethical implications of biosemiotics. The foundational argument is that if semiosis is a morally-relevant capacity, and if all living systems are semiotic, then biosemiosis can serve as the basis for justifying the attribution of moral status to humans, to animals and plants, and even to ecosystems. Biosemiotic ethics opens the road towards a perspective that connects ecological thinking with ethical perspectives.

All articles are licensed under the CC-BY 4.0 International license.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14464/zsem.v37i3-4

I contribute as an author to these texts:
Introducing biosemiotic ethics
Justifying moral standing by biosemiotic particularism
Interview on biosemiotic ethics with Wendy Wheeler
A world of signs (in memory of John Deely)

ResearchGate score and following

My current ResearchGate score is 16.71, cf. my profile. I have 250 followers.