2 meetings

Today I have taken part in two meetings.

#38; ca. 3.000 words written in May

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my Wasted growth articles, with some literature search conducted for all three articles and 800 words added in total. Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 38.

In May I had 7 writing days, and wrote 3.057 words. So far I have written 20.373 words since New Year (net).

Philosophy business - annual reporting for 2020

In 2020, my one-person company, Spør Filosofen, had 24.069 Norwegian crones in income and 4.123 Norwegian crones in expenses, resulting in profits of 19.846 crones (margin 82,9%). Income was mainly related to book royalties and fee for a couple of public lectures.

#37

Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, specifically the first in the series, with some 300 words written. 

Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 37.

Google Scholar: 539 citations; 44 so far in 2021

According to my Google Scholar profile, my research has been cited 539 times (+8 since May 21st). This includes 44 citations in 2021 (+7 since May 21st). My i10-index remains 20 and my h-index 14.

6 employee appraisals and 1 more meeting

Today I have had 6 employee appraisals (total to date: 63) and 1 more meeting. Altogether I have had 12 employee appraisals this week.

4 employee appraisals, parts of a webinar, one more meeting, and a joint response letter

Today I have had 4 employee appraisals (total to date: 57), attended part of a webinar held by NORECOPA and Norway´s Council of animal ethics, and a meeting among the departments of the faculty in relation to plans for reorganizing who stays in what building. After that latter meeting, I drafted a joint response letter to these plans on behalf of the three departments.

Tuesday: 2 employee appraisals and 2 more meetings, including employee survey meeting

Yesterday, Tuesday, I had 2 employee appraisals (total to date: 53), and attended 2 more meetings. This included a staff meeting devoted to going through results from the employee survey (Medarbeiderundersøkelsen) conducted this Spring. Some 38 people attended.

#36,5

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 650 words written. Among other things, I have updated 2 tables with the most recent HDI data.

So far this Spring I have had 36,5 writing days.

Abstract for 21st Gathering in biosemiotics: "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology"

I have just composed the abstract below for the 21st Gathering in biosemiotics, which will be held online and possibly in Stockholm on July 26-29th.

**

The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology  

Morten Tønnessen, Professor of philosophy, Department of social studies, University of Stavanger, Norway 

**@gmail.com   

ABSTRACT  

This presentation draws on two chapters I have recently written, one titled “Phenomenology” (to appear in Sharov & Tønnessen, forthcoming) and the other “Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology” (Tønnessen, forthcoming).   

In the first chapter, we discuss the phenomenological tradition within philosophy with emphasis on representative phenomenological positions on subjectivity, sentience, consciousness and self-consciousness, and make the argument that giving phenomenology a biosemiotic grounding will make it more comprehensive. Even though both Husserl and Heidegger, two classics of phenomenology, acknowledged that animals have subjective lifeworlds, their respective phenomenologies were clearly anthropocentric. The same goes for most mainstream versions of contemporary phenomenology. Heidegger states this anthropocentric bias plainly when, after referring to the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll, he claims that animals are “poor in world”. The Umwelt theory offers an alternative, more pluralistic framework for phenomenology – a phenomenology beyond the human, with a biosemiotic basis. Von Uexküll´s Umwelt theory was discussed by Merleau-Ponty and has further inspired several contemporary philosophers within and beyond phenomenology. In the chapter we also discuss the relation between semiotics and phenomenology, including Peirce´s ideas and recent calls for a naturalized phenomenology. While modern phenomenology was from its inception programmatically presented as anti-naturalism, leading contemporary phenomenologists favour realignment between phenomenology and naturalism. With its roots in sign theory and biology, biosemiotics can contribute further to this endeavour, and be an important piece in the puzzle when realigning phenomenological studies of subjective experience and behaviour with natural science.  

The second chapter outlines a scientific method for conducting qualitative studies of human and animal lifeworlds by introducing a semiotically informed descriptive phenomenology that goes beyond the human. A depiction of the theoretical basis for a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology is followed by a depiction of its methodological basis. The chapter concludes with a number of semiotic guidelines for practical application of Umwelt theory organized by relevant professions and settings of study.  

Acknowledgements: Alexei Sharov contributed to the chapter “Phenomenology”. Tønnessen is a member of the University of Stavanger´s program areas for research “Philosophy and subjectivity” and “The Greenhouse: An environmental humanities initiative at University of Stavanger”.   

References 

— Tønnessen, M., forthcoming. Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology. In Amir Biglari (ed), Open Semiotics. Paris: L’Harmattan.  

— Sharov, A. & Tønnessen, M., forthcoming: Semiotic Agency: Science beyond Mechanism. Springer Nature. 

#35,5

Today I have had half an article writing day, devoted to planning for the autumn.

Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 35,5.

Google Scholar: 531 citations; 37 so far in 2021

According to Google Scholar (see my profile), my research has attracted 531 citations (+3 since May 14th). 2021 now stands with 37 citations (+4 since May 14th). My h-index remains 14 and my i10-index 20.

I am currently listed with 100 texts, 51 of which have been cited.

The screenshot below shows my 10 most cited papers.

Second Fagforum held, chaired

Today I have chaired the second Fagforum (academic forum) at Department of social studies, this time on a project aiming to develop and evaluate models for preventing domestic violence in Poland. Some 30 people attended (in Zoom). Ingunn Studsrød presented on behalf of the project.

Bachelor closing ceremony 2021 at Department of social studies, University of Stavanger

This is the bachelor closing ceremony 2021 for Department of social studies at University of Stavanger. The program includes a speech by me, and one by Andreas Håheim, plus two song performances (jazz).

1 employee appraisal and 2 more meetings, including of Norway´s Council for animal ethics

Today I have had 1 employee appraisal (total to date: 51; of which 7 this week), and attended one more meeting, plus attended the meeting of Norway´s Council for animal ethics.

4 employee appraisals, a meeting, a video-recorded speech; reference check

Today I have had 4 employee appraisals (total to date: 50) and one more meeting. I have also completed reference check for a philosophy position, and given a recorded speech for the bachelor closing ceremony of the department.

2 employee appraisals, a meeting and a webinar

Today I have had 2 employee appraisals (total to date: 46), chaired the third department council meeting this Spring, and attended part of a webinar for prospective MSCA PF supervisors.

Google Scholar: 528 citations; h-index of 14

According to my Google Scholar profile, my work has attracted 528 citations by now (+6 since May 7th). 2021 now stands with 33 citations (+4 since May 7th). My i10-index remains 20, my h-index is now 14 (+2 since May 7th and +1 since March 14th).

#35; plus chronicle

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 400 words written on my wasted growth articles, and one table updated. Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 35.

I have also written a chronicle, titled "Vekst i velferdens og miljøkrisens tid" (Welfare in the time of welfare and environmental crisis).

3 meetings and a research workshop presentation

Today I have attended three meetings - of which one physical. One of the meetings were in relation to an audiovisual production to mark the completion of bachelor studies for bachelor in social work and bachelor in child protection.

I also presented my paper "Umwelt temporalities: Individuality and subjectivity in animals in light of Umwelt temporality" at the online international interdisciplinary research workshop "Animal (Pre)History, Agency & Legacy", held by Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University, Germany via ZOOM. Some 14 people were present. A multi-authored opinion piece is to follow.

3 meetings and (parts of) a research workshop

Today I have attended three meetings and 2 hours of today´s session of the international interdisciplinary research workshop "Animal (pre)history, agency and legacy". The meetings included the second day of the University of Stavanger Lederforum, and the Spring´s third and last staff meeting at Department of social studies, which I chaired (the meeting was attended by more than 40 people).

2 meetings and a workshop

Today I have attended a brief coordination meeting, the first day of the UIS Lederforum, this time focused on environmental issues, and parts of the first day of the international research workshop "Animal (pre)history, agency and legacy", held digitally from University of Bielefeld, Germany.

#34

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to work on my commentary "Making the Umwelt bubble of the Modern Synthesis burst" (published today, see other post) and my wasted growth articles. The latter included updating a table for the second article, focused on inequality, and adding some 200 words in the process (analysis and comments).

Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 34.

"Publications available online" link list updated

I have updated the links list "Publications available online" with more publications from the last 3-4 years. It now counts 37 articles/texts (mostly freely available in full online). You find the list in the right margin.

Commentary article "Making the Umwelt Bubble of the Modern Synthesis Burst" published in Biosemiotics

My commentary article on Denis Noble´s Target article "The illusions of the Modern synthesis" was published today.

Reference and link:

Tønnessen, Morten 2021a. Making the Umwelt Bubble of the Modern Synthesis Burst. Commentary. Biosemiotics. Published online May 9th 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-021-09430-2

Commentary on Denis Noble´s Target article on the Modern Synthesis proof-read

I have just proof-read my commentary "Making the Umwelt Bubble of the Modern Synthesis Burst", which is to be published in Biosemiotics as a commentary to Denis Noble´s Target article "The illusions of the Modern synthesis".

Google Scholar: 522 citations; i10-index 20

According to my Google Scholar profile, my research has attracted 520 citations (+13 since March 14th; +3 since December 30th 2020). My h-index is 12 (-1 since March 14th), and my i10-index 20 (+2 since March 14th and unchanged since December 30th). 2021 now stands with 29 citations (+13 since March 14th).

On the current count, I have 5 publications with more than 30 citations each. This includes 31 citations of the book The semiotics of animal representations, which I co-edited and co-wrote the introduction for, along with Kadri Tüür (and which has been merged to one source by Google Scholar).

#33

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 600 words written and two tables updated for my article "Wasted growth in rich vs. poor countries: The marginal cost of human development".

Number of writing days this Spring is up to 33.

4 employee appraisals, 3 job interviews and 1 more meeting

Today I have had 4 employee appraisals (total to date: 44; of which 7 this week), 3 job interviews and 1 more meeting, altogether 8 meetings in one day - which I think is a new record. Total number of scheduled meetings for the week is 18.

1 employee appraisal and 1 more meeting

Today I have had 1 employee appraisal (total to date: 40) and 1 more meeting - related to development of a master degree in psychology.

2 employee appraisals and 3 more meetings

Today I have had 2 employee appraisals (total to date: 39) and 3 more scheduled meetings. This included an info meeting on open science, and the second day of the UHR-Helse og sosial meeting (Universities Norway, health and social studies).

3 meetings

Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings. This included the first day of the annual meeting in UHR-Helse og sosial, and my weekly meeting with the department´s office manager.

#32

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to working on my "wasted growth" articles, with some 100 words written. I recovered two important data files (Excel), and updated two tables with the most recent HDI data.

Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 32.

Appointed as member of the scientific committee of the 15th world congress of semiotics

I have been asked, and agreed, to be appointed as a member of the scientific committee for the 15th world congress of semiotics, which is to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece on August 30th - September 3rd 2022 with the theme "Semiotics in the lifeworld". The congress is held in association with the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS). See list of world congresses here.

Referred to in Yogi Hendlin´s first Biosemiotics editorial

Yogi Hale Hendlin´s editorial in his first issue as Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics has just been published, titled "Expanding the reach of Biosemiotics". In the same issue, the journal´s first Target Article with a number of invited Commentaries will also appear. I served as an Editor-in-Chief until the end of last year, after which Yogi took over as Editor-in-Chief.

Excerpts:

Taking up this role of Editor-in-Chief also prompted reflection on all those whose leadership at this journal has developed the discipline into an oasis for robust transdisciplinary dialog. Most immediately prior, I’d like to thank previous Editor-in-Chief Morten Tønnessen for his many years of leadership at the journal, as well as Filip Jaroš, and Timo Maran. Marcello Barbieri, the journal’s first Editor-in-Chief, helped launch Biosemiotics in 2008. And finally, Alexei Sharov, my fellow current Editor-in-Chief, deserves thanks for his steady and indispensable guidance of the journal. 

In the current iteration of Biosemiotics, we have shifted from three Editors-in-Chief to two; but have expanded the journal leadership to include five Associate Editors plus an Intern. We are grateful for all of their contributions towards making this journal run smoothly and to expanding Biosemiotics’ reach and capacity. One reason for the need for this greater capacity is to accommodate the new article type of Target Articles and Commentaries pioneered by Morten Tønnessen. It is my pleasure to work with the Editorial Board of Biosemiotics, the Associate Editors and Intern, and the Members and Executive Board of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies in continuing their devoted work in this tradition.