Today, at the first day of the 26th Gathering in biosemiotics, which is held at the University of Sheffield, in Sheffield, UK July 27th to 31st, I have presented my paper «Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life» as part of the session «Ecological biosemiotics», which was chaired by Sara Cannizzaro. The presentation took place in the building The Wave and was attended by about 40 people.
My paper «Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life» has been scheduled for oral presentation at the 26th Gathering in biosemiotics, which is to be held July 27–31st at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, on Monday July 27th at 14.30–15.00 as part of the session «Ecological biosemiotics».
I have been informed by the organizers of the 26th Annual Gathering in Biosemiotics that my paper "Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life" has been accepted for oral presentation.
Jonathan Beever and I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organisers of the 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which will be held in Sheffield, UK, July July 27-31st.
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Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy
This presentation examines ecosemiotics´ relation to environmental philosophy: how has it interwoven with other approaches, and how can it support the future of environmental philosophy? We argue that ecosemiotics’ fundamental relationality offers both strong parallels to and novel perspectives on environmental phenomenology, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and ethics, articulating how ecosemiotics can respond to contemporary debates in environmental philosophy. Ecosemiotics’ novel Peircean and Uexküllian representationalism acts as a thread running through environmental philosophical traditions. Researchers have advanced relational perspectives in environmental ethics deeply informed by ecosemiotics, like Beever and Tønnessen, who argue – for example – that accounts of intrinsic value in nature can be strengthened by appeals to biosemiotics accounts of life-worlds. Key figures in environmental philosophy have cited ecosemiotic figures directly, like Merleau-Ponty’s references to Uexküll that anticipate the emergence of ecophenomenology in environmental philosophy. Other contemporary figures have developed ecosemiotic positions in traditional environmental philosophical areas in order to offer novel and more robust articulations, like Tønnessen’s Uexküllian reading of phenomenology, that pursues Merleau-Ponty and the late Husserl along biosemiotic lines. In this presentation, we draw attention to these threads throughout enviornmental philosophy, and anticipate the possibility of a John Deely-esque project of weaving semiotic threads together in environmental philosophy to fundamentally reorient perceptions of the field and to resolve some old tensions (like around disputes on the metaphysics of deep ecology, concerns about deprioritizing human value, and under-evidenced claims about environmental capacities) with the introduction of an empirically-grounded science of signs and meaning-in-environments. Not only does such a project support ongoing research in environmental philosophy, it can furthermore reshape pedagogical approaches to the field, opening space for a re-telling of the history of environmental philosophy that is grounded in the study of signs. Our presentation will conclude with a foray into the possibility of semiosis of artificial agents and its implications for extensions in environmental philosophy beyond mere «natural» environments.
A video recording of my talk on ecosemiotics from this year´s Gathering in Biosemiotics, which was held in Rotterdam in August, is now available on YouTube.
Today I chaired a session with two papers at the 25th Annual Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is held at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, August 25-29th.
My paper "Ecological semiotics" has been rescheduled for oral presentation at The 25th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics, which is to be held 25-29th of August 2025 at Erasmus University Rotterdam, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Monday August 25th at 3.30 pm (not 10.30 as previously communicated).
My paper «Ecological semiotics» has been scheduled for presentation on Monday, August 25th at 10.30-11.00 at the 25th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is to be held at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, August 25-29th.
I have just been informed that my paper "Ecological semiotics" has been accepted for oral presentation at The 25th Annual Gatherings in Biosemiotics, which is to be held 25-29th of August 2025 at Erasmus University Rotterdam, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
I have just submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 25th gathering in biosemiotics, which will be held in Rotterdam August 25-29th.
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Ecological semiotics
ABSTRACT
This presentation draws on my recently published encyclopedia chapter “Ecological semiotics” (Tønnessen 2024). Ecological semiotics, or ecosemiotics, can be understood as the study of sign use by organisms in an ecological context. In ecology, semiotic phenomena and sign processes occur at different levels of biological organization, and distinctive kinds of sign use is characteristic of different kinds of interspecies interaction. Ecosemiotic studies help to explain how ecological complexity can be understood in semiotic terms, and how sentient organisms interpret their environment and make choices that are informed by their sign use. The basic theoretical outlook of ecological semiotics includes lifeworld perspectives, particularly represented by the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll (2010). This connects ecosemiotics with phenomenology, subjectivity and agency. In a more rudimentary sense, even plants, fungi and microorganisms have agency which can be framed in semiotic terms. A semiotic approach to ecology is particularly pertinent in the context of human ecology and contemporary discussions concerning environmental sustainability. While ecosemiotics is amply informative applied to general ecology, it is especially pertinent in the context of understanding how human agency and sign use affects the environment at large. Ecological semiotics can help us understand how genuinely human sign use stands out from non-human sign use, and the ways in which human sign use is subject to cultural variation. Crucially, a semiotic approach to environmental issues can be informative with regard to understanding how human behaviour and sign use affects non-human lifeworlds by triggering environmental change which is experienced in sign-mediated ways. This positions ecosemiotics to address issues of environmental sustainability.
REFERENCES
Tønnessen, Morten 2024. “Ecological semiotics”. Chapter. Encyclopedia of Ecology (3rd edition) (Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21964-1.00018-5.
von Uexküll, Jacob 2010. A foray into the worlds of animals and humans with A theory of meaning. O’Neil, J. D. (transl.). Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press.
Today I held my presentation "Applied Umwelt theory in the context of descriptive phenomenology and phenomenological triangulation" digitally at the 24th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is held at the University of the free state in Bloemfontein, South Africa, as a hybrid event. Some 17 people attended online, in addition a number of people attended physically.
I have been notified that my conference paper "Applied Umwelt theory in the context of descriptive phenomenology and phenomenological triangulation" has been scheduled for presentation on Friday 21st of June at 10:30, during the 24th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is to be held June 17-21st in Bloemfontein, South Africa (University of the free state) and online. I will attend the conference digitally.
This is the conference abstract I submitted:
Applied Umwelt theory in the context of descriptive phenomenology and phenomenological triangulation
Author: Morten Tønnessen
Affiliation: Professor of philosophy, Department of social studies, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
In earlier work, I have argued that a genuine ´Uexküllian phenomenology´ can be derived from the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll and that such a phenomenology is capable of accounting for the subjective experience of both humans and animals. With its foundation in contemporary biosemiotics, such a modern, empirically informed phenomenology is particularly relevant for the study of human-animal relations and interaction in societal and ecological settings. In a recent chapter (Tønnessen 2023) I have outlined a scientific method for conducting qualitative studies of human and animal lifeworlds by introducing a semiotically informed descriptive phenomenology. While descriptive phenomenology in its current forms is typically only applicable to the study of human lifeworlds (Giorgi 2009), a reiteration of descriptive phenomenology that draws on Umwelt theory can be designed to be non-anthropocentric and pluralistic. In this paper I elaborate on a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology and explain how it can be applied within the humanities and social sciences as well as in a natural science context. Furthermore, I will discuss how Umwelt theory can be made use of as part of a methodology of phenomenological triangulation, in which 1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspectives are combined in studies of one and the same study object. This methodology draws on ideas developed in cognitive semiotics by Jordan Zlatev, Göran Sonesson, and others (e.g. Zlatev 2012). Overall, this paper aims to contribute to integrating biosemiotics and phenomenology and demonstrating the relevance of Umwelt theory for phenomenology, and vice versa.
REFERENCES
Giorgi, Amedeo (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology. Duquesne University Press.
Tønnessen, Morten (2023). Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology. Pp. 303–314 in Open Semiotics (4 volumes, ed. Amir Biglari), volume 4: Life and its extensions. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Zlatev, Jordan (2012). Cognitive Semiotics: An emerging field for the transdisciplinary study of meaning. The Public Journal of Semiotics IV(1) (2012): 2–24.
I have been notified by the organizers of the 24th Gathering in biosemiotics, to take place in South Africa, that my paper "Applied Umwelt theory in the context of descriptive phenomenology and phenomenological triangulation" has been accepted for oral presentation. Due to a lack of funding, however, I will not be able to attend physically, but luckily there is a chance to attend digitally.
See also:
My presentation "A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition & the environmental crisis" from the 23rd Gathering in biosemiotics, held in Copenhagen, Denmark in August earlier this year, has been made available in PDF format online, along with other conference presentations.
Yesterday I announced the winner of the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2022, Sigmund Ongstad, for his article "Simple Utterances but Complex Understanding? Meta-studying the Fuzzy Mismatch between Animal Semantic Capacities in Varied Contexts", at the 23rd gathering in biosemiotics, held in Copenhagen. I have taken part in this year´s Selection panel along with Ludmila Lackova and Anti-Veikko Pietarinen.
Today I have presented my paper «A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition & the environmental crisis» at the 23rd Gathering in biosemiotics, which is held in Copenhagen, Denmark (July 31st - August 4th). Some 50-60 people attended.
My presentation «A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis» has been scheduled for presentation at the 2023 Gatherings in Biosemiotics 23, which is to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, at University of Copenhagen’s Social Sciences Faculty Library July 31st–August 4th, at Wednesday August 2nd at 16.30-17.00.
I have been notified that my paper «A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis» has been accepted for oral presentation at the 23rd Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is to be held in Copenhagen July 31st – August 4th.
I have submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 23rd gathering in Biosemiotics, which is to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 31st - August 4th.
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A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis
Morten Tønnessen
Professor of philosophy, University of Stavanger, Norway
ABSTRACT
In this presentation I will present the book chapter “A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis” (Tønnessen, forthcoming). The chapter presents a biosemiotic perspective on the basic situation for human beings and that of other organisms, with an emphasis on the subjective experience of sentient animals, and the sign use of all lifeforms. The human condition is portrayed as traditionally conceived, and then revisited in the new context of the current environmental crisis. In recent decades, the expression ‘The Human Condition’ has been strongly associated with the political philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). In her book with the same name (Arendt 1958), she stresses that “[t]he earth is the very quintessence of the human condition”, and yet argues that “the “human artifice of the world separates human existence from all mere animal environment”. In this sense, in her view, human reality is distinguished from the reality of any other living being on Earth, despite our shared ecological circumstances. A cornerstone of the chapter is an analysis of the materiality of the environmental crisis, and how the massive changes humans have caused in the physical environment can be understood in light of the semiotic agency of humans and other living beings. Experiential aspects of the environmental crisis are highlighted. The aim of the chapter is to improve our understanding of our species´ place in the natural world, our historical role in causing a global crisis for life, and how we can move forward towards a more sustainable future. As Masatake Shinohara (2020) has proposed, “what conditions human beings in the most fundamental sense includes not only the world of the human artifact but also the world of earthly things”, and in light of this, “the consideration of the human condition should be fundamentally reformulated” by making the human world “open to the earthly things that vastly expand outside of the human artifice”.
REFERENCES
Arendt, Hannah (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Shinohara, Masatake (2020). “Rethinking the Human Condition in the Ecological Collapse”. The New Centennial Review 20(2): 177–203.
Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming. A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis. In Lenart Škof, Sashinungla, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir (eds.), Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures). Springer.
The dates for the 23rd Gathering in Biosemiotics, to be held at University of Copenhagen, Denmark, have now been set to July 31st - August 4th. Abstracts are due March 20th - see the conference webpage which includes a Call for papers.
