I have just composed this book chapter abstract.
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Neurosemiotics across species
By Morten Tønnessen
ABSTRACT
Behavioral neuroscience arguably comes with two
contrasting pitfalls, which we can associate with anthropocentrism and
anthropomorphism respectively. In the first instance, we neglect or
misunderstand traits of non-human neurobiology because we mistakenly believe
that such traits are uniquely human. In the second instance, we mistakenly
attribute neurobiological traits found in humans to non-humans. To avoid both
these pitfalls, we need to be clear on the actual characteristics of
neurobiology across species. This will shed light on questions such as: How
different are humans from non-humans in the context of neurosemiotics? What do
we have in common with some other animals, and what is uniquely human? In this
chapter, I build mainly on the neurosemiotics implicit in the Umwelt theory of
Jakob von Uexküll (1864–1944) and contemporary interpretations thereof.
Uexküll´s pioneering thinking on neurosemiotics has influenced classical
ethology as well as contemporary biosemiotics, code biology and cognitive
semiotics, and shares some perspectives with cognitive ethology and comparative
psychology. His neurosemiotic constructs include Merkzeichen and Wirkzeichen,
Wirkwelt and Merkwelt, Umwelt and Innenwelt. The treatment will include a
discussion about objecthood in perception and different organisms´ capacity for
relating to objects. A distinction between proper subjects (i.e., organisms
capable of having coherent experience) and quasi-subjects (i.e., organisms that
have some sort of experience which is, however, disorganized or scattered) will
be made. I also investigate the nature of the neural code(s) from the
standpoints of biosemiotics and code biology, and provide an Uexküllian
perspective on neural codes by framing neural codes in terms of Umwelt theory.
In conclusion, the chapter further includes a biosemiotic perspective on certain
methodological issues in neurobiology.
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