Abstract for Henrik Steffens conference in Stavanger September 2023:

Today I have submitted the abstract below to the organizers of a conference on the work of Henrik Steffens that is to be held at Museum of Archaeology, organized by University of Stavanger on September 8-9th, in relation to the 250 year anniversary of his birth. I am an invited speaker.

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Title: Reconstructing the nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene

By Morten Tønnessen

In earlier work, I have addressed “Steffens’ ideas about organic meteorology: From the Totalorganismus to Planetary Health?” (forthcoming chapter, 2023). Here, I noted that discussion of humans´ place in nature has received renewed attention in the two last decades following the rise of the Anthropocene discourse, where the “Anthropocene” designates the current geological era characterized by environmental changes induced by human agency, and observed that this new context for theorizing on humans´ place in nature potentially reactualizes Steffens´ work. In this presentation, I will treat relations between Steffens´ work and the contemporary Anthropocene discourse more in-depth. Particularly, I will ask in how far Steffens´ work can be informative with regard to understanding how humans understood their place in nature around the time when many claim the Anthropocene actually started, in the wake of the industrial revolution following the invention of the steam engine in 1786.

Webpage for CCEP colloquium/conference "After Nagel: Science and the Phenomenology or Animal Subjects"

There is now a webpage for the CCEP colloquium: After Nagel: Science and the Phenomenology or Animal Subjects (Conference), to be held at Center for Contemporary European Philosophy, Radboud University, the Netherlands, in March 8-9th, where I am an invited speaker.

Invited speaker at Steffens conference in Stavanger Autumn 2023

I have been invited as a speaker to a Henrik Steffens conference to take place in Stavanger September 8-9th 2023 at Museum of Archaeology, Stavanger.

To be invited speaker at the conference: «After Nagel: Science and the phenomenology of animals subjects”, at Radhoud university, March 2023

I have been invited to be a speaker at the conference: «After Nagel: Science and the phenomenology of animals subjects”, which will be held at Radhoud university, the Netherlands, March 6-7th 2023.

Talk on biosemiotic perspective on human lifeworld given for Norwegian school of sport sciences

Today I have given an invited online talk for the philosophy group at Norwegian school of sport sciences (Norges idrettshøyskole), titled "Biosemiotikkens perspektiv på menneskets livsverden" (A biosemiotic perspective on the human lifeworld).

Steffens presentation delivered at University of Copenhagen conference

Last week I attended the conference (or research symposium) ""…just as alluring as instructive…” – Henrik Steffens’ Concept of Nature in Science, Humanities and Arts around 1800», which was held at University of Copenhagen, South Campus, October 7th to 9th. My presentation "Steffens’ ideas about organic meteorology. From the Totalorganismus to planetary health?" was delivered on Saturday October 9th, with some 18 people present. I took part as an invited speaker.

Tartu Semiotics Summer School 2021 cancelled

Tartu Semiotics Summer School 2021, with the theme "Semiotic horizons: time, memory, and future(s)", was planned for August 13-16th, but I have now been informed by the organizers that the event is cancelled, for covid-related reasons. I was one of the invited speakers.

Abstract for Tartu Summer School of Semiotics 2021: "Semiotic futures: Transformative semiotics and its role in facilitating change in human self-comprehension"

I have just composed the abstract below, for my invited talk at Tartu Summer School in Semiotics 2021, which has the theme "Semiotic horizons: time, memory and future(s)".

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Semiotic futures: Transformative semiotics and its role in facilitating change in human self-comprehension  

Morten Tønnessen 

Abstract  

The human being is far from the only being that relates to the passage of time. All organisms that are endowed with an Umwelt (subjective lifeworld) live through what Jakob von Uexküll called an Umwelt-tunnel. Moreover, we can safely state that organisms with an Umwelt also go through Umwelt transitions and partake in Umwelt trajectories. But the human species is, however, unique in some of the ways in which it relates to time. We collectively negotiate our memory of the past and our assumptions about the future, and are furthermore consciously aware that we are mortal, and constantly strive to make our lives meaningful in light of this fact.  

Quite a bit can be known about future Umwelten. In some contexts, Umwelt predictions can be made about future lifeworlds, in others, we can develop a number of plausible Umwelt scenarios. Such predictions and scenarios can help us make more informed choices whenever we discuss actions, lifestyles or policies that have an impact on future lifeworlds. While Umwelt futurology, the study of future Umwelten, can help us understand aspects of the future, transformative semiotics allows semioticians to engage in discussions about value issues. By ‘transformative semiotics’, I mean a normatively conscious form of semiotics that explicitly relates to value issues and aims to frame a perceived need for normative transformation (i.e., normative change) in semiotic terms.   

To be of any use for contemporary society, Umwelt futurology as well as transformative semiotics should be empirically informed. I will briefly summarize and review major changes in common understandings of the environmental crisis, starting with the emerging awareness of a global environmental crisis and ending with the growing acknowledgement of the Anthropocene notion in recent years. While the current predominant understanding of the global environmental crisis is an improvement over earlier understandings on some points, it lacks direction with regard to necessary courses of action. 

In 1984, Thomas Sebeok wrote a technical report for the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation (USA), titled “Communication measures to bridge ten millennia”. This is an interesting example of applied semiotics in the context of long-term future environmental and societal change. I will review Sebeok´s message in the report, and discuss its relevance for contemporary discussions about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a climate mitigation measure, which has a similar time perspective.  

The question about how humans´ relation to nature has to change over the next century or so, is intimately related to the question about how the self-comprehension of human beings must or should change in the same process. This was a central premise for Deep Ecologist Arne Næss. In light of philosophical anthropology, just as much as it is concerned with environmental or societal change, transformative semiotics is concerned with human self-comprehension. This brings us back to the issue of what role semiotics can play in addressing the urgent issues of the Anthropocene.   

As John Deely stressed, human beings´ knowledge and awareness about our semiotic capabilities, and about the real-world consequences of our actions, makes us ethically responsible in ways that animals are not. It also opens up fundamental philosophical questions for renewed reflection. Before we can start acting in sustainable ways, we need to develop a sustainable notion of what it means to be human. This requires a thoughtful revision of our human self-comprehension. Increased sensitivity to our own semiotic capabilities, and to the ways in which our actions have an impact on the semiotic lifeworlds of humans and non-humans alike, is key to managing the sustainability transition.

Steffens conference in Copenhagen postponed until 2021

I have been informed that the conference «“…just as alluring as instructive…” – Henrik Steffens’ Concept of Nature in Science, Humanities and Arts around 1800», to be held at University of Copenhagen, has been postponed from October this year to October 2021 (specifically october 7-8th). I am an invited speaker for the event.

Abstract for Steffens conference: "Steffens´ ideas about organic meteorology: From the Totalorganismus to planetary health?"

I have today composed the abstract below for my invited lecture at a conference about Henrik Steffens which is (hopefully) to be held at University of Copenhagen October 1-2nd, "“…just as alluring as instructive…” – Henrik Steffens’ Concept of Nature in Science, Humanities and Arts around 1800".

Steffens´ ideas about organic meteorology: From the Totalorganismus to planetary health?  

Morten Tønnessen Professor of philosophy, Department of social studies, University of Stavanger  

As Linda Richter (2019) has recently investigated, in a report to the Prussian state in 1811, Henrik Steffens made the argument that the atmosphere is a living being, and that adopting this perspective could lead to advances in medicine and our understanding of diseases in humans and animals. The context of the commissioned report was the idea – which was widely held at the time – that many diseases were caused or affected by the climate or weather. In another recent article based on her Ph.D., Richter (2020) distinguishes between Semiotics, Physics, and Organics of the weather as three distinct forms of meteorological knowledge in the period 1750–1850 in German-speaking countries, and presents Steffens as a prominent representative of the Organics perspective.  

I will approach Richter´s two articles and Steffens 1811 report from four different angles. First, I will look into in what ways Steffens´ proposal for an organic perspective on meteorology highlights key aspects of his nature view more broadly. This will include reflecting on possible interpretations of his notion of a “grand organism” (Totalorganismus) in the context of ecology. Second, I will discuss how Steffens´ perspective on organic meteorology fares in comparison with the Gaia theory of James Lovelock. Third, I will discuss whether Steffens´ idea that human and animal health and the weather mirror each other has any resemblance with how we think about human ecology and anthropogenic climate change today. Lastly, I will discuss how Steffens´ perspective connects with contemporary (w)holistic notions such as `One health´, `One Welfare´, and `Planetary health´.

Two invited plenary presentations given at zoo conference

Today I have given two talks at the conference of the Swedish zoo association (Svenska Djurparksföreningen), "Fremtidens dyreparker" (The zoos of the future). My talks were titled "Dyreparker i fremtiden - Om å møte samfunnets holdninger og forventninger" (Zoos in the future - about meeting society´s attitudes and expectations) and "Gjestemøter - snakker vi samme språk?" (guest meetings - do we speak the same language?). Some 40 people attended. My first lecture lasted for 70 minutes including questions, the second one 25 minutes. The conference takes place at Bjørneparken i Flå. This were invited plenary presentations.

Abstract for UiT Terra conference: "What implications does the relational nature of living beings have with regard to their agency, autonomy and moral status – and our world view?"

Today I have composed the abstract below, for an invited talk at the conference "Terra", to be arranged at University of Tromsø June 6-7th.

«What implications does the relational nature of living beings have with regard to their agency, autonomy and moral status – and our world view?»

Morten Tønnessen

Professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies

Relationality – the ways in which organisms are involved in relations to other organisms – is a crucial aspect of ecology, and biology at large. In biosemiotics, the semiotic study of biology, biosemioticrelations are understood as relations that involve methodical (regular or recurring) sign exchange. Organisms that are connected by such relations are biosemiosically linked, and have a partly overlapping or complementary experience of the world. By mapping and describing the biosemiotic relations a specific organism engages in, and thus what it relates to as carrying meaning for it, we by and largely describe what being that organism amounts to. Biosemiotic relationality can furthermore help us understand how the individual and ecological level of biological study are interconnected. 

   Building on biosemiotics, Umwelt theory (first developed by Jakob von Uexküll) and deep ecology, I will explore implications of the relational nature of living beings for agency, autonomy, moral status and our world view.

   Agency: In biosemiotics, agency can be understood as semioticagency, which is the capacity of relating to signs. Such agency always involves a degree of subjectivity. All living beings relate to signs. While proper subjects have unified, cohesive experience of their surroundings, quasi-subjects such as plants, fungi and animals with decentralized bodies have semiotic experience but one that is not cohesive or integrated. Their respective agency reflects this.

   Autonomy: By being relational creatures we all depend on others – and yet all living beings have autonomy in the sense that their actions are based on their species-specific semiotic agency. Freedom is related to how what we perceive as meaningful can be interpreted, and what alternative actions we can take in response to what we perceive.

   Moral status: The crucial importance of relations is emphasized in biosemiotic ethics (as developed by Tønnessen and Jonathan Beever). Under current ecological circumstances, many biosemiotic relations are bended or broken by extreme breeding, automated machine-handling, homogenous social environments, industrial-style indoor environments (in animal husbandry), and depleted wildlife. What are the moral limits for such bending of significant biosemiotic relations, in terms of environmental sustainability and individual welfare? Biosemiotic ethics suggests that respecting autonomy and enabling autonomous choices is essential.

   World view: We need to develop an empirically based understanding of the Anthropocene from an animal and organismic (individual level) perspective. Through our affiliated global species such as livestock and pets, humankind partakes in human–animal relations that largely determine resource use and conditions for domesticated and wild animals alike. Improving our scientific understanding of human–animal and other relations is crucial for understanding the world we live in, and the current and future state of the environment.

Acknowledgement: Morten Tønnessen is a member of two program areas for research at University of Stavanger, namely “Philosophy and subjectivity” and “The Greenhouse: An environmental humanities initiative at University of Stavanger”.

Commentary scheduled for December 17th (Centre for Cognitive Semiotics)

On December 17th, at Lund University, Sweden, I will be one of the invited commentators at the concluding symposium of the Centre for Cognitive Semiotics (CCS), "Hur människan blev ett så annorlunda djur" [How the human became such a different animal]. My commentary, entitled ”Biosemiotisk synvinkel på CCS” (Biosemiotic perspective on CCS), has been scheduled for 14.15-14.30. Other commentators include Frederik Stjernfelt and Sören Brier, among others.

"Animals in the Anthropocene" conference: Keynote abstracts now online

The webpage for the international 17-19 September University of Stavanger conference "Animals in the Anthropocene: Human-animal relations in a changing semiosphere" has been updated with the abstracts of the keynote speakers and invited speaker (altogether seven abstracts), in both its English and Norwegian version.