11th lecture - on tacit knowledge

Today I gave the 11th Ex. Phil. lecture this autumn. The topic was Michael Polanyi´s thoughts on tacit knowledge.

"The epistemology of biosemiotics" submitted; outline

In the night between Friday and Saturday this week, I finished and submitted my article "The epistemology of biosemiotics" to Biosemiotics, for a special issue on constructive biosemiotics (previous work title: "Descartes, phenomenology, and the epistemology of biosemiotics"). Ca. 6.000 words including references.

Structure:

1. Introduction
2. Biosemiotic Epistemology: To Know, What Life Knows
3. A Foray into Cartesian Territory
4. To be Healthy and Live Well
5. Umwelt Theory and Constructivism
6. Why Uexküllian Phenomenology is Phenomenology
7. Biosemiotic Empiricism or Rationalism?

Radio interview on animal experience of mortality aired; podcast

Today NRK P2's weekly radio program Verdibørsen aired, featuring a 15 minute interview with me on animal experience of mortality. Podcast is available.

In the interview I make reference to Peter Wessel Zapffe and Michael Polanyi.

Read

In the 1st half of 2010, my reading log shows I have read 4.486pp, written by 199 authors (abstracts included). If this (not very quick) reading pace keeps up (as it has of late), I may read something like 36,000pp during my 4 year PhD studies.

Author Top 5 (in parenthesis: second half of 2009, first half):

1 (-, 53). Michael Polanyi

2 (-). Ralph H. Lutts

3 (6, 26). Arne Næss

4 (12, 1). John Deely

5 (-). Walter Gulick

The following thinkers have been treated the most in what I have read these 6 months (out of 218 thinkers logged):

1 (-). Michael Polanyi

2 (10, 5). Jakob von Uexküll

3 (16, 1). Charles Sanders Peirce

4 (18), 10. Thomas Sebeok

5 (29, 18). Maurice Merleau-Ponty

6 (-). Marjorie Grene

7 (5, 11). René Descartes

8 (-). William J. Long

9 (3, 18). Immanuel Kant

10. Aristotle (2, 3), Heidegger (14, 7), Theodore Roosevelt (-)

As we see, scientist-come-philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) - who I first read last spring - tops both lists, and I have also taken interest in his part-colleague Marjorie Grene (1910-2009), who's #7 at the author list and #6 in the about-list. For totally unrelated top 10-lists, including 10 Truly Awful Ways To Be Killed By An Animal, see Listverse.

Academic news in brief VIII

1. The April 2011 conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations, for which I am part of the organizing team, has announced publicly its four keynote speakers: Colin Allen, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Graham Huggan and David Rothenberg.

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2. The 10th Gathering in Biosemiotics, to be arranged in Braga, Portugal June 22-27th, has some time ago announced its program, where my talk is scheduled for presentation Friday June 25th at 9-9.30. The abstract of "We The Living: The Reception of Uexküll in Norwegian Ecophilosophy" is to be found at page 42 in the abstract book.

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3. Since the last "Academic news in brief" was posted May 7th, I have conducted further Michael Polanyi work papers, and thereby, as it turned out, concluded the course work in The philosophy of Michael Polanyi. I have started reading Marjorie Grene, and expect to write a paper at some not too distant point in time on Polanyi and Grene and their relevance for matters of biosemiotics (and vice-versa).

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4. Quite some time ago, I was told my first blurb ever was not included after all in Paul Cobley (ed.): Realism for the 21st Century. A John Deely Reader, published October 2009.

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5. Monday - two days ago - I wrote my Attestation Review report for my third year as a Ph.D. student (progress review report), which includes a Revised plan for research and study for the academic year 2010/2011. 13 pp. The attestation review meeting takes place Thursday 17th of June, but I do not have the chance to be there in person.

Academic news in brief VII

1. The last couple of weeks I have conducted two work papers (6-8pp) reviewing The tacit dimension and chapters of a forthcoming Polanyi-reader, as course work in the course "The philosophy of Michael Polanyi", which I am taking as a reading course. I have established contact with Phil Mullins, who has - along with my course teacher Walter Gulick - suggested Polanyi's article "Sense-giving and sense-reading" as a link to my interests. A further three work papers on Polanyi's work are in process.

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2. Yesterday I finally finished reworking and rewriting my article 'I, wolf: The ecology of existence', with revisions prompted by the critique of David Abram and others. To appear in an anthology this year.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION
Judging by appearances, this article is divided into five parts – under the headings ‘The politics of wolves and sheep’, ‘Estranged, endangered, extinct’, ‘Human beings qua living beings – distinctive being vs. communal being’, ‘Man is not a sign’ and ‘In search of the wolf’s perspective’. But the reader could rightfully claim that but two topics are to be identified in the matrix of this text: The nature of the wolf, and the nature of man.3 These two topics are methodologically problematic for two different reasons: Man’s nature because we are the topic to be investigated, and can thus not judge it without bias; the wolf’s nature because we are not wolves and can thus not know firsthand what it is like to be a wolf.

3. My paper 'The legality and ethical legitimacy of wolf hunting in Scandinavia' has been scheduled for presentation in group 1 (one out of three in 'green criminology'), at 12.30, Tuesday May 11th at the 52nd research seminar of the Scandinavian Reseach Council for Criminology.

4. Two days ago, Wednesday May 5th, I went back and forth to Oslo in one day, and spent a couple of hours researching at the National Library (Nasjonalbiblioteket) in the process, logged in through their license for using LovData, a Norwegian database of laws and regulations.

5. Yesterday I was interviewed in the regional daily newspaper Fædrelandsvennen, in connection with three readings I will be doing today and tomorrow. Will be published tomorrow.

6. One of the readings is philosophical and will take place in a fair trade-shop in Kristiansand, as part of the event Kulturnatta. My theme: 'Frigjøring' [liberation] - May 8th happens to be both the day of liberation (WW2) and the international fair trade-day.

7. Meanwhile, we, the guest editors of Hortos Semioticus' special issue Semiotics of Nature, have been receiving full-length papers from contributors.

Academic news in brief VI - Tartu/Tallinn events April 1-8

April 1-7 I was in Tartu, and 7-8 in Tallinn.
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1) Thursday April 1st the deadline for submitting abstracts to the special issue of Hortus Semioticus "Semiotics of nature" expired. All in all we received 3 English language abstracts. We expect to see them all materialize.

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2) Friday April 2nd I presented the 30m PP "Territory vs. confinement: The Umwelten of free-range vs. captive wolves" at a 6 hour Research seminar in zoosemiotics and animal representations.
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3) During the seminar, I agreed with Silver RATTASEPP and Nelly MÄEKIVI to include the latter (possibly as a replacement of the former) in the planned co-work with Estonian wolf ethologist Ilmar ROOTSI. An initial meeting has yet to take place - perhaps in June.

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4) After the seminar, researchers of the project Dynamical zoosemiotics and animal representations had a meeting (at Vilde) where we first of all made plans for the April 2011 conference Zoosemiotics and animal representations. I agreed to co-edit the proceedings (expected spring 2012) with Timo MARAN, which we aim to get published in book form by an international publisher. The proceedings will envelop selected conference contributions only.

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5) Monday April 5th I guest-lectured in Riin MAGNUS' English language MA course in ecosemiotics. The topic was "More-than-human needs: The needs of the living". We discussed two papers:

- Arne NÆSS & Ivar MYSTERUD: "Philosophy of wolf policies (I): General principles and prelimenary exploration of selected norms"

- Alf HORNBORG: "Vital signs: An ecosemiotic perspective on the human ecology of Amazonia"

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6) After the seminar I discussed the topic of animal play during lunch with MA student Arlene TUCKER. She'll write a term paper on fish play.
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7) I then met with Riin MAGNUS to prepare our Hortus Semioticus interview with Kalevi KULL.

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8) Tuesday April 6th I met 2 hours with visiting professor Walter GULICK for consultation. I am a student in his course "The philosophy of Michael POLANYI". Polyani seems quite useful for my thesis work etc.

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9) After reading another chapter in GULICK's forthcoming POLANYI reader - which we use as course material - I went to class (generally I take this course as a reading course. A term paper will have to be conducted in May).

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10) A while after the course, I returned to Department of semiotics to conduct the interview on biosemiotics with Kalevi KULL, together with Riin MAGNUS. 1hr50min of recordings.

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11) Finally, in Tallinn, Wednesday April 7th, I met with Allan GROMOV in Keskkonnaministeerium, the Estonian Ministry of the Environment, to discuss possible cooperation on climate issues.

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You'll find the first five "Academic news in brief" postings here.

Course on Polanyi

This spring semester I will be taking a course on the philosophy of Michael Polanyi. Unfortunately I had to cancel a course on phenomenology ("History of Philosophy II: from I. Kant to Phenomenological Philosophy"), due to linguistic difficulties.