Docent/associate professor promotion application assessed for Södertörns högskola

This Autumn I have assessed an application concerning promotion to docent/associate professor for Södertörns högskola (Sweden), within philosophy.

Abstract for Lund conference: "Prospective studies of contested climate pasts and futures"

I have just composed the abstract below for the organisers of the upcoming conference "Cognition and Evolution in Historical and Social Research", which is to be held September 23–24, at Lund University, Sweden (I have been invited to contribute). 

***

Prospective studies of contested climate pasts and futures  

While most researchers in relevant fields of study may agree that the current scale of human impact on current ecology is massive and unprecedented, there is no agreement on the time frame for the Anthropocene. Like the epoch itself, the current conceptualisation of the Anthropocene remains a work in progress. We are currently situated in the middle of an ongoing climate crisis. On this background, it may come as no surprise that both how we should understand recent modern history, and how we should understand possible climate futures, is contested. In this presentation I will outline how biosemiotics and Umwelt theory can contribute to prospective studies of past and future lifeworlds. I will then proceed to discuss how climate futures may be construed by way of a few examples. The presentation will draw on my articles «The study of past Umwelten» (Discipline Filosophische, 2023) and «What can be known about future Umwelten?» (The American Journal of Semiotics, 2019) as well as my forthcoming book Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement (Bloomsbury Academic). In relation to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), I will touch upon the influence ideas about CCS have had on envisioned climate futures over the last 30 years or so. Disturbingly, there is no consensus among researchers or regulators on the relevant time scales for CO2 storages. Short retention times for CO2 in CO2 storages (<10,000 years) may delay rather than solve the problem of climate change, in effect exposing future generations to the risk of anthropogenic climate change caused in our time. Lastly, I will look into the challenges of long-term waste management in the contexts of radioactive waste and CO2 storage, respectively, including the challenge of communicating across multiple generations.  

Short bio: Morten Tønnessen (born 1976) is a professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger, Norway. Academic (b)log: https://utopianrealism.blogspot.com 

Plenary "The crisis of mechanistic science seen through the lens of the nature crisis" held at IACS5

Yesterday I gave my plenary talk "The crisis of mechanistic science seen through the lens of the nature crisis" at The Fifth Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, with the theme “Crises of meaning”, organised at Division of Cognitive Semiotics at the Centre for Language and Literature at Lund University, in Lund, Sweden (August 15-17th). Some 50-60 people attended.

IACS5 plenary speakers presented in cognitive semiotics newsletter

The 2023 newsletter of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, IACS News, published in December, includes presentation of the six plenary speakers for the forthcoming IACS conference to be held in Lund, Sweden this Summer (August 15th to 17th), with the theme "Crises of meaning". 

The newsletter can be read in full here.

Abstract for IACS5 (Lund, Sweden): "The crisis of mechanistic science seen through the lens of the nature crisis"

I have just composed and submitted the abstract below for my plenary talk at the 5th conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS5), to be held in Lund, Sweden in August 2024.

***

The crisis of mechanistic science seen through the lens of the nature crisis 

Morten Tønnessen  

Edmund Husserl (1954, 1970) famously thematized science´ forgetting of the lifeworld. In a somewhat similar way, Jakob von Uexküll (1956 [1940]) decried the ´meaning-blind´ biology of his time. Drawing on the fact that the experience of animals is constrained by the sensory and behavioral repertoire of each organism and takes place within the context of species-specific configurations of time and space (von Uexküll 1928), the Umwelt theory he developed was programmatically framed as subjective biology. While he applied the Umwelt perspective to humans as well, particularly in von Uexküll 1956 [1934], unfortunately, human Umwelten remained undertheorized in his work. Hannah Arendt, however, discussed the human condition and observed a crisis within the natural sciences play out as an inability to be relatable to normal speech and thought (Arendt 1958). Although she saw the significance of our evolving global perspective and power, which is today often conceptualized in terms of the Anthropocene (Steffen et al. 2011), Arendt failed to acknowledge the decisive difference our anthropocentric bias makes in matters of ontology and epistemology alike. From the perspective of Umwelt phenomenology, today´s environmental crisis can be conceived of as an ontological crisis (Tønnessen 2003) involving the extinction and marginalization of myriads of lifeworlds. As is well established, the environmental crisis is characterized by extensive anthropogenic environmental change. This can be conceptualized in terms of Umwelt transitions (Tønnessen 2009). The ongoing nature crisis is most blatantly observable in rapidly escalating climate change, and the well-documented marginalization of wild terrestrial mammals, which now account for only 4% of terrestrial mammalian biomass (Bar-On et al. 2018). Arguably, the last decades´ scientific neglect, theoretically and methodologically, of the agency, subjectivity, and worth of living beings has contributed to this intensifying and deepening nature crisis. With its objectivistic, mechanistic perspective on the natural world, the scientific enterprise has in practice facilitated and helped justify a real-life objectification, de-souling, exploitation, and commodification of living beings as mere means and resources. It is high time to replace this outdated and harmful outlook with a philosophically based scientific framework more fit for the 21st century. One way forward entails acknowledging the semiotic agency of all that lives (Sharov & Tønnessen 2023), and start planning for the socio-ecological and economic transformations that will be required to solve the environmental crisis in the next few decades (Tønnessen 2021). This will have to involve a serious rethinking of the human condition (Tønnessen, forthcoming).  

REFERENCES 

Arendt, Hannah 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 

Bar-On, Yinon M., Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo 2018. The biomass distribution on Earth. PNAS 115(25) (2018): 6506–6511. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711842115. Includes Supplementary Information Appendix. 

Husserl, Edmund 1954. Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die Tranzendentale Phänomenologie (Husserliana: Gesammelte Werke 6). Edited by Walter Biemel. Extended version, with appendices. Haag: Martin Nijhoff. 

Husserl, Edmund 1970. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Translation of (and selection from) Husserl 1954 by David Carr. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. 

Sharov, Alexei and Morten Tønnessen 2021: Semiotic Agency: Science beyond Mechanism (Biosemiotics 25). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89484-9 

Steffen, Will, Jacques Grinevald, Paul Crutzen, and John McNeill. The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 369 (2011): 842–867. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2010.0327  

Tønnessen, Morten 2003. Umwelt Ethics. Sign Systems Studies 31 (1): 281–299. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2003.31.1.13  

Tønnessen, Morten 2009. Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change. Biosemiotics 2 (1): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-008-9036-y  

Tønnessen, Morten 2021. Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century. Sign Systems Studies 49 (1/2): 12–62. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2021.49.1-2.02    

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 42). Springer. 

Uexküll, Jakob von 1928. Theoretische Biologie. 2nd edition. Berlin: J. Springer. 

Uexküll, Jakob von 1956 [1934/1940]. A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans – with A Theory of Meaning (Posthumanities 12). Transl. Joseph D. O¨Neil. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press.

To present "If looks could kill" paper in Cognitive Semiotics seminar November 16th

On Thursday November 16th, at 3-5 p.m. I will give another presentation in Lund university´s Cognitive Semiotics Seminar: "If looks could kill: The human ecology of visible and overlooked worlds in the perspective of Umwelt phenomenology". Attendance is possible physically and digitally (I will take part remotely).

See abstract, description and Zoom link here. 

Conference website for Fifth Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS-5)

The Fifth Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS-5), to be held August 15-17, 2024 in Lund, Sweden with the theme "Crisis of meaning", has now launched its conference website. I figure as one of the plenary speakers, along with Hans-Georg Moeller, Cornelia Mueller, Jamin Pelkey and Komarine Romdenh-Romluc. Abstract submissions are due January 15th, 2024.

2 meetings Friday; opponent at Juan Mendoza-Collazos´ ph.d. defense at Lund university, Sweden, this weekend

On Friday I had 2 meetings at UIS. 

This weekend I have been faculty opponent at the ph.d. defense of Juan Mendoza-Collazos´, who defended the thesis "Agency and Artefacts: A cognitive semiotic exploration of design" at Lund university, in Lund, Sweden, December 17th. My presentation and opposition in dialogue with the candidate went on for about two and a half hours. Some 35 people attended, most of which physically.

Related to the ph.d. defense, I also attended an informal dinner Friday evening, and a celebration party Saturday evening.

To be opponent at Juan Mendoza-Collazos´ ph.d. defence

I will be the opponent at Juan Mendoza-Collazos´ ph.d. defence of the thesis "Agency and Artefacts: A cognitive semiotic exploration of design", which is to take place at Lund university, in Lund, Sweden, on December 17th 2022. More info and link to the ph.d. thesis here.

Umwelt and phenomenology paper accepted for presentation at 21st Gathering in biosemiotics

I have been informed by the organizers of the 21st Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is to be held digitally and in Stockholm July 26-29th and streamed online, that my paper "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology" has been accepted for oral presentation. I plan to attend the conference digitally.

21st Gathering in Biosemiotics to be held July 26-29th; abstract deadline June 1st

The International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) has announced that the 21st Gathering in Biosemiotics will be held July 26-29th, online and possibly also physically in Stockholm, Sweden. Abstract deadline is June 1st. For more info, see here.

To be member of PhD evaluation committee

I have tentatively agreed to be a member of a PhD evaluation committee at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. More info as the engagement is confirmed.

Wolf Symposium linking to interview on Swedish Radio

The webpage of the Wolf Symposium now links to Sara Sällströms report for Swedish public radio "När vilda djur blir försöksdjur" [When wild animals become laboratory animals], which features interviews with me, Katarina Cvek and Olof Liberg.

Panel discussion on ethics of wolf research and management attended

Yesterday, at Vargsymposiet [The wolf symposium], I participated in a panel discussion on ethics in wolf research and management, along with Katarina Cvek (Djurförsöksetiska nämnden Uppsala, SLU), Olof Liberg (SKANDULV) and the chair Sverre Sjölander. The panel discussion lasted for an hour.

Preliminary program for The Wolf Symposium distributed; two scheduled events March 8th

Today a preliminary program for The Wolf Symposium 2016, to be held in Vålådalen, Sweden, has been distributed by email. Exact times for program posts are not included, but have been communicated to those on the program.

My talk "Marked for life – Ethical questions concerning management of and research on wolves" (to be held in Norwegian, with Powerpoint in English) is scheduled for the afternoon of March 8th, probably at 14.15-15.00.

The panel discussion on ethics in research and management is preliminarily scheduled for March 8th at 16.15-17.00 or so. In addition to me and Katarina Cvek, Maria Hörnell Willebrand and the chair Sverre Sjölander (see previous post linked to below), it is now communicated that it will feature Olof Liberg (representing SKANDULV and Grimsö Wildlife Research Station).

See also:

Discussion on ethics in research and management scheduled for The wolf symposium (Sweden, March 2016)

Discussion on ethics in research and management scheduled for The wolf symposium (Sweden, March 2016)

As a follow-up to my talk "Merket for livet – Etiske spørsmål knyttet til forvaltning av og forskning på ulv" [Marked for life – Ethical questions concerning management of and research on wolves] at Vargsymposiet [The wolf symposium] 2016 in Vålådalen, Sweden, a discussion session has been scheduled. The discussion session is entitled "Etik i forskning och forvaltning" [Ethics in research and management], and will feature me, Katarina Cvek (Djurförsöksetiska nämnden [Committee for ethics of animal experiments]), Maria Hörnell Willebrand (Naturvårdsverket [Swedish Environmental Protection Agency]) and a wildlife researcher.

To be commentator at concluding symposium for Lund University´s Centre for cognitive semiotics

I´ve agreed to be one of the commentators at the concluding symposium for Centre for cognitive semiotics, which will take place December 17th at Lund University, Sweden. The symposium language will be Swedish (cf. Seminars).

17/12: All-day symposium, summarizing the program "Centre for Cognitive Semiotics" (2009-2014) Pufendorf institute (Note: In Swedish)

Peer-review for Establishing Cognitive Semiotics book volume

In March I peer-reviewed a chapter submitted to a book project which is to be published by Peter Lang. The book has the working title Establishing Cognitive Semiotics.

IACS General Assembly held - Todd Oakley new President

Yesterday I attended the General Assembly of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS), which was held during the IACS' first conference, in Lund, Sweden. Todd Oakley was elected new President.

Session "Learning and development" chaired

Today I have chaired the session "Learning and development" at the ongoing First Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (Lund, Sweden, September 25-27th). The session involved papers by Tobias Fredlund (with Cedric Linder and John Airey), Elin Westlund and Sara Lenninger. Some 10-17 people attended.