References to my work in co-authored manifesto article

Some of my work is referred to (p. 15) in a manifesto article which I have co-authored:

Favareau, Don, Kalevi Kull, Gerald Ostdiek, Timo Maran, Louise Westling, Paul Cobley, Frederik Stjernfelt, Myrdene Anderson, Morten Tønnessen and Wendy Wheeler 2017. How can the study of the humanities inform the study ofbiosemiotics? Biosemiotics 10(1). DOI: 10.1007/s12304-017-9287-6 (published online April 8th 2017).

The references are to:

Beever, J., & Tønnessen, M. (2013). "Darwin und die Englische moral": the moral consequences of Uexküll’s umwelt theory. Biosemiotics, 6(3), 437–447.

Tønnessen, M. (2003). Umwelt ethics. Sign Systems Studies, 31(1), 281–299.

Tønnessen, M. (2009). Signs grow – But should they? Semioethics and the dominant semiosis of Homo sapiens sapiens (= Meditationes Semioticae I). Hortus Semioticus, 4, 81–84.

Tønnessen, M., & Beever, J. (2014). Beyond sentience: Biosemiotics as foundation for animal and environmental ethics. In J. Hadley & E. Aaltola (Eds.), Animal ethics and philosophy: questioning the orthodoxy (pp. 47–62). London: Rowman & Littlefield International.

von Uexküll, J. (2013). Darwin and the English morality. Translation of "Darwin und die Englische moral", Deutsche Rundschau 173: 215–242. (trans.) M. Tønnessen, (Ed.), J. Beever. Biosemiotics, 6(3), 449–471.

"How can the study of the humanities inform the study of biosemiotics?" published online

The manifesto-like article referred to below has just appeared online.

Favareau, Don, Kalevi Kull, Gerald Ostdiek, Timo Maran, Louise Westling, Paul Cobley, Frederik Stjernfelt, Myrdene Anderson, Morten Tønnessen and Wendy Wheeler. How can the study of the humanities inform the study of biosemiotics? Biosemiotics 10(1). DOI: 10.1007/s12304-017-9287-6 (published online April 8th 2017).

Wheeler interview finished

Last week I took part in completing

Beaver, Jonathan, Morten Tønnessen and Yogi Hendlin. Interview with Wendy Wheeler on biosemiotic ethics. Zeitschrift für Semiotik. To be published December 2016.

Piece on ethics for humanities article written

On November 30th, I wrote my ca. 1.000 words contribution to a joint "humanities manifesto" article to be sent to Biosemiotics, work-titled "Why Biosemiotics Needs the Humanities". My contribution is on normatively and ethics. The article is coordinated by Wendy Wheeler.

See also:

Manifesto article on biosemiotics and the humanities

Steps to a semiotics of being published online

My article 'Steps to a semiotics of being' has been published online (April 30th), as part of the special issue of Biosemiotics 'Semiotics of perception'.

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There's a 1p free preview for all - the full article is available after login only.

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Contents

From Self to World

The Value of Nature

Umwelt Terminology

Concluding Remarks on Umwelt Mapping

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Another article from the special issue that is now online is Wendy Wheeler's Delectable creatures and the fundamental reality of metaphor: Biosemiotics and animal mind.

Annotated bibliography, 3rd quarter

As part of a 4-times-a-year report I am conducting as a researcher in one of the research projects I am partaking in, I write a Selected Annotated Bibliography. Here's my annotated bibliography for the last three months.

Douglas W. MacCLEERY: American forests: A history of resilience and recovery. Forest History Society, 1992. This publication offers a lot of interesting statistics and facts not only since 1930 or so, when the proportion of US land that is forested has generally been stable, after 300 years of deforestation, but also concerning times as far back as to year 1600 (even native indigenous forestry practices are briefly described). The last century several wildlife species have recovered, not least due to the gradual introduction of conservation measures. In conclusion, this work is a helpful source of references and thoroughly examines the full implications of different attitudes to forests and utilization of forest products. Though the situation of Norwegian forests is not identical with the American situation, this book nevertheless provides useful knowledge about the interconnections of conservation efforts and forestry practices/land use.

The Norwegian daily Nationen [The nation], Mon 31^st of August – Wed 9^th of September. The latest national election in Norway took place September 14^th. For 10 days close to the conclusion of the election, I followed Nationen, Norway’s only national daily devoted to matters of agriculture and rural policies. Every day in this period there were articles etc. about carnivore policy; about half of the editions one of them featured on the front page. In many rural areas, wolf and carnivore policy turned out to become one of the defining topics of the electoral campaign, though only 3 parties (Senterpartiet, Fremskrittspartiet and Sosialistisk Venstreparti) talked much about it. For the first time the populist right-wing party Fremskrittspartiet competed seriously for the anti-wolf votes – though Senterpartiet, traditionally the farmers’ party, still dominated the discourse. The carnivore policy for 2009-2013 is now up for negotiations within the re-elected coalition government, which consists of Arbeiderpartiet (the social democrats), Senterpartiet and Sosialistisk Venstreparti (a left-wing party which supports wolf conservation).

Paolo VIRNO: Natural-historical diagrams: The ‘new global’ movement and the biological invariant. Pp. 131-147 in The Italian difference: Between nihilism and biopolitics (eds. Lorenzo Chiesa and Alberto Toscano), Melbourne 2009: re.press. Translated from Italian by Alberto Toscano. Virno’s notion of the natural-historical diagrams of human nature refers to “concrete phenomena, socio-political states of affairs, historical events.” He thus offers an empirical (or emergent) notion of human nature – which can be of interest in the context of my depicting of a natural history of the phenomenal world. Crucial in Virno’s observations is that ‘human nature’ as we know it places us as an “indefinite animal”, an animal without any definitive natural environment. This, he claims, explains our ‘instability’ as a species, and our constant urge for further modifications of the environment. It would be interesting to integrate and try to develop some of his main points in my own work.

Wendy WHEELER: The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. London 2006: Lawrence & Wishart. In this valuable book, Wheeler outlines some connections between biosemiotics and other complexity science on the one hand and politics and cultural theory on the other. In the context of my work Wheeler’s book represents an important step toward a proper understanding of the cultural implications of competing scientific outlooks and worldviews. While Wheeler on some points simplifies the connections between ‘capitalism’ and mainstream science, her portrayal of the cultural and ethical (and political) implications of a world view of biosemiotic relationism rather than one of capitalist atomism/individualism is in the main informative and telling. The main message – which I do subscribe to – is that human beings are social (and ecological) creatures which can not thrive – or correctly be described on a theoretical level – as isolated individuals. Her stress of the social and ecological aspects of cultural life bears implications not least for economic thought.