"Existential universals" chapter now available via ResearchGate

My chapter "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis" has been published by De Gruyter Mouton as part of Eero Tarasti´s book Transcending signs - Essays in existential semiotics. I have now uploaded a private copy of the chapter to my ResearchGate profile, so that I can more easily share it if scholars request a copy. Feel free to do so.

"Transcending signs" book published, updated reference for "Existential universals" chapter

According to information from the publisher, De Gruyter Mouton, the book Transcending Signs: Essays in Existential Semiotics has now been published, with my chapter on "Existential universals" included.

Updated reference: 

Tønnessen, Morten 2023. Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis. Reprint of Tønnessen 2017 (Chinese Semiotic Studies 13(4): 381–398). In Eero Tarasti (ed.), Transcending Signs – Essays in Existential Semiotics (Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 35) pp. 327–342. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110789164-020

Updated reference for Open Semiotics chapter; updated publication date for 3 more publications

There is new information about the placement and publication of my chapter for Open Semiotics, which will be published in 4 volumes with 141 chapters:

— Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming, 2022. Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology. In Open Semiotics (4 volumes, ed. Amir Biglari), volume 4: Life and its extensions. Paris: L’Harmattan. Planned for publication in December 2022.

There are also new publication dates for some other forthcoming publications, according to online info from the publishers:

—  Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming, 2022. Semiotics in ethology and zoology. Book chapter, in Bloomsbury Semiotics (4 volumes, ed. Jamin Pelkey), volume 2, Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences (ed. Stéphanie Walsh Matthews), pp. 75–91. Bloomsbury Academic. Planned publication date November 3rd 2022. 

—  Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming, 2022. Beyond the human animal: Towards a cross-species neurosemiotics. In Adolfo García & Agustin Ibanez (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Semiosis and the Brain (Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics), pp. 82–96. Routledge. Planned publication date November 14th 2022. 

—  Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming, 2023. Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis. To be reprinted in Eero Tarasti, Sayantan Dasgupta and Paul Forsell (eds), Transcending Signs – Essays in Existential Semiotics (Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 35). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Planned publication date March 6, 2023.

Book reprint of "Existential universals" to be published in October; link to book

The book Transcending Signs – Essays in Existential Semiotics, which will include a reprint of my article "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis", is now advertised online by the publisher, with planned publication date October 22nd.

Updated reference:

Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming, 2022. Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis. To be reprinted in Eero Tarasti, Sayantan Dasgupta and Paul Forsell (eds), Transcending Signs – Essays in Existential Semiotics (Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 35). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Planned publication date October 22nd 2022.

"Existential universals" article hopefully to be reprinted in Tarasti anthology

My article "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis" was first drafted around 12-13 years ago and eventually published as a journal article in 2017, in Chinese Semiotic Studies. The anthology it was originally written for, Transcending signs edited by Eero Tarasti et al., is now to be published by Mouton de Gruyter. Granted that we get permission to reprint it, the article will appear in the anthology too.

"Existential universals" published

My article "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis" has just been published in no. 4, 2017 of Chinese Semiotic Studies, in the section "Biosemiotics and philosophy of science" (along with a paper by the late Eliseo Fernández).

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2017i. Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis. Chinese Semiotic Studies 13(4): 381–398. Published online November 16th 2017. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/css-2017-0022.

"Existential universals" revised

I have just carried out a small revision of my paper "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis", which will soon appear in Chinese Semiotic Studies.

"Existential universals" article reformatted etc.

I have just reformatted my article "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential semiosis", and added abstract and a bionote. The paper has been submitted to Chinese Semiotic Studies.

"Existential universals" chapter still forthcoming

My book chapter "Existential universals: biosemiosis and existential semiosis" has been forthcoming in Eero Tarasti´s (et al.) (Eds), Transending Signs (Paris: Muyton de Gruton) since 2010 at least. And it still is.

Abstract: "Existential universals: A link between biosemiotics and existential semiotics"

Existential universals: A link between biosemiotics and existential semiotics

Morten Tønnessen

Abstract submitted for the symposium Nordic Semiotic Paradigms – NASS 25 Years: "Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?"

Associate professor at Department of Health Studies, University of Stavanger

Researcher in the grant Dynamical Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations (Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu)

The ten steps to a semiotics of being detailed in Tønnessen 2010 (and said to be “pertinent to various sub-fields at the conjunction of semiotics of nature (biosemiotics, ecosemiotics, zoosemiotics) and semiotics of culture – semioethics and existential semiotics included”) start out with the following three points:

1) Semiotics of being entails inquiry at all levels of biological organization, albeit, wherever there are individuals, with emphasis on the living qua individuals (integrated biological individualism).

2) An Umwelt is the public aspect (cf. the Innenwelt, the private aspect) of a phenomenal/experienced world that is organism-specific (rather than species-specific) and ultimately refers to an existential realm.

3) Existential universals at work on Earth include seeking out the edible, dwelling in a medium, holding a phenomenal world (possibly an Umwelt) and being endowed with life, and followingly being mortal.

This paper will present the notion of existential universals, and sketch how these can be seen as a link between biosemiotics and existential semiotics. Though existential universals can be articulated and conceptualized in a variety of ways, and any chronological exposition may well be at least in part arbitrary, a list of such universal features of life will be presented. Not all semiosis is conceptualized as existential, i.e., by nature experientially related to the existence of a being. Consequently, not all ‘biosemiotic universals’ qualify as existential universals. All existential universals, however, are necessarily universals of biosemiosis.

What is it like to be a human being? (In other words: What is the human condition?). Before we can answer that question, we have to answer a more general question, the answer to which has foundational validity for the human question, namely: What is it like to be a living being? In this paper I will allude to sixteen answers to that question.

Reference

Tønnessen, Morten 2010. Steps to a semiotics of being. Biosemiotics 3.3: 375-392.

Two papers accepted for presentation at Imatra Summer School

Last week I was notified that my two abstracts for the International Semiotics Institute's Summer School (2012 - June 8-12, Imatra, Finland) have been accepted by the organisers. These are (session for which they were submitted in parenthesis):

* "Existential universals: A bridge between biosemiotics and existential semiotics" ("Nordic Semiotic Paradigns - NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?", chaired by Luis Emilio Bruni)

* "Introducing semiotic economy" (special theme session Consumption as Signification, chaired by Kristian Bankov)

I will publish these two abstracts here in Utopian Realism as separate posts.

Nordic Semiotic Paradigms – NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?

A symposium at the 27th International Summer School for Semiotic and Structural Studies (Imatra, Finland – June 8-12, 2012)

Within the days June 8-12, 2012, the symposium “Nordic Semiotic Paradigms – NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?” will be arranged in Imatra, Finland, as part of the 27th International Summer School for Semiotic and Structural Studies. NASS’ president Luis Emilio Bruni will chair the anniversary symposium, which will take place at Hotel Valtionhotelli.

The Imatra ISI symposium marks the 25 year anniversary of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS). The venue of the anniversary symposium, Imatra, is appropriate given that it was at a meeting in this Finnish town that NASS was founded in the summer of 1987. The first Executive Committee of NASS counted representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The current board, elected at the Seventh Conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies in Lund in May 2011, involves Ordinary Representatives and Supplementary Representatives from these five countries and further Estonia.

The theme of the NASS anniversary symposium draws on the work of several notable Nordic scholars in the fields of cognitive semiotics, biosemiotics and existential semiotics. These are all promising, novel, dynamic subfields in contemporary semiotics. Neither of them are but regionalparadigms – rather, Nordic researchers have been instrumental in establishing and consolidating them at an international level, with a sphere of influence which by far exceeds the Nordic region. How has Nordic semiotics come to be so influential? And, as the title of the symposium asks: Where do these fields meet? A number of scholars are involved in both cognitive semiotics and biosemiotics, and there is clearly a thematic overlap in-between the two. And what of existential semiotics – on what points does it overlap with biosemiotics, and with cognitive semiotics? Furthermore, how can these various Nordic paradigms acquire informative inspiration from each other, and find common ground to cultivate further? Despite differing inclinations and academic taste, such a project should not be unattainable, given that cognitive semiotics, biosemiotics and existential semiotics are all concerned with the semiotics of life.

The symposium/research seminar will consist of papers presented by both invited lecturers and participants. The aim of the summer school is to offer the participants both up-to-date research and an opportunity to discuss their projects with leading specialists in various fields. The duration of presentations will be 30 minutes, and the working languages of the seminars are English, French and German. Active participants – i.e., participants presenting papers, must register by April 15th. Passive participants can register until April 30th. Active participants must send a short Curriculum Vitae and a one-page abstract of his/her paper to info@isisemiotics.fi and submit the registration form online. Passive participants must submit the registration form online by April 30, 2011. Participation fee for the whole summer school is 200 EUR (this covers lunch and two coffees a day June 9–12 and an elegant evening reception and buffet on June 9th). For payment instructions and information about accommodation, see the pages of The International Semiotics Institute (ISI).

Existential universals - update

Transcending Signs - Essays around Eero Tarasti's existential semiotics is in progress. My contribution, "Existential universals - biosemiosis and existential semiosis", is now pending re-submission OR revision, depending on my decision. This is due January 15th.

The editors of the book, to be published by Mouton de Gruyter, are Paul Forsell and Rick Littlefield.