UTOPISM. *** In the long run, nothing else is realistic. *** Welcome to the English language blog of Morten Tønnessen, Professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger's Department of Social Studies.
Yesterday my letter to the editor "Farvel, sivilisasjon" (Farewell, civilization) was published in Khrono. The text draws on Peter Wessel Zapffe´s "Farvel, Norge" (1958) and relates to a debate about academic studies started by politician and member of parliament Peter C. Frølich.
Today I have given my keynote speech "A Comprehensive Framework for Studies of Changing Umwelten" at the conference Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations, which has been held yesterday and today in Tartu, Estonia, at Estonian Naturalists´ Society, organized by the University of Tartu´s Department of semiotics. Some 30 people attended. The speech was also streamed live via Zoom.
I have composed an abstract for my plenary speech at the conference “Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations” (to be held April 18-19th in Tartu, Estonia).
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Title: “A comprehensive framework for studies of changing Umwelten”
By Morten Tønnessen
Using Jakob von Uexküll´s classical Umwelt theory and updated knowledge on how human agency works as a driver of environmental change as starting points, I will present a comprehensive framework for studies of changing human and animal Umwelten. The framework indicates how past Umwelten, contemporary Umwelten, and future Umwelten can be studied by drawing on Umwelt theory accompanied by other relevant fields of study. The framework is comprehensive not only in that it allows for studies of different Umwelt temporalities, and different “layers” of the Umwelt (core – mediated – conceptual), but also by being applicable at different levels of biological organization, and by showing how changes in the Umwelt (outer subjective world) are correlated with changes in the Innenwelt (inner subjective world) and the physical environment. By seeing changes in the Umwelt, the Innenwelt, and the physical environment in context, we can achieve a better understanding of the interplay between semiotic causation and efficient causation in socio-ecological and socio-cultural contexts, and of how human agency can cause environmental problems – and solutions. In the setting of culture, socio-cultural transformations are particularly pertinent. In light of the framework presented here, these can be understood as involving collective Innenwelt transitions that in turn affect how we perceive our Umwelt. As part of my presentation, I will outline how Umwelt theory can serve as the basis of a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology suitable for studies of animal Umwelten and human–animal relations. I will further share some tentative ideas about how Umwelt theory can play a role in phenomenological triangulation, in which 1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspectives are combined (drawing on methodology developed by Jordan Zlatev).
Bionote: Morten Tønnessen (born 1976) is a Professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies, Norway. He has worked with Jakob von Uexküll´s Umwelt theory since his master degree in philosophy (University of Oslo, 2002) and ph.d. thesis in philosophy and semiotics (University of Tartu, 2011).
I will be a keynote speaker at the conference “Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations”, which will be held in Tartu, Estonia, 18th-19th of April, 2023, at the University of Tartu, Estonia, along with Kalevi Kull (University of Tartu) and Carsten Herrmann-Pillath (University of Erfurt, Germany).
Abstracts are due January 31st 2023. For more info, see the conference webpage.
