I have just submitted the following 4 abstracts - all based on chapters, of which one has been published and three are forthcoming - for the 15th world congress of semiotics, which is to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, August 30th to September 3rd:
Semiotics in ethology and zoology
Morten Tønnessen
Contribution to the panel “Semiotics in the disciplines: progress and priorities”
KEYWORDS: zoosemiotics, ethology, zoology, Umwelt theory
ABSTRACT
Today, zoosemiotics is arguably the theoretically and empirically soundest approach to “taking the animal´s perspective”. The chapter on which this presentation is based (Tønnessen, forthcoming) presents semiotic studies in ethology and zoology, starting with foundational work and contemporary developments and proceeding to relevant methodologies and prospective future studies. The conception of zoosemiotics as a field of study has evolved considerably since Thomas Sebeok coined the term in 1963, and currently signifies a far more comprehensive field than what Sebeok’s original definition of zoosemiotics as “the scientific study of signalling behaviour in and across animal species” indicates (1963: 465). Given the contemporary notion of zoosemiotics, the semiotic study of animals cannot simply be understood as a synthesis between semiotics and ethology; it furthermore engages and intersects with ecology, cultural studies and other fields of study where animals appear in one form or another. In modern science, the agency and subjectivity of animals has tended to be neglected. More research is needed on how humans relate to animals, and more research is needed on how animals relate to humans, including by making further connections between semiotic studies of animals and phenomenology.
REFERENCES
Sebeok, T. A. (1963). Review. Language, 39: 448–466.
Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming. Semiotics in ethology and zoology. In: Bloomsbury Semiotics (4 volumes, ed. Jamin Pelkey), volume 2, Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences (ed. Stéphanie Walsh Matthews). Bloomsbury Academic.
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Nosology and semiotics*
Morten Tønnessen
Professor of philosophy
Department of social studies
University of Stavanger Stavanger
Norway
ABSTRACT
Semiotic concepts such as ‘sign’ and ‘symptom’ have been applied in medicine ever since ancient Greece. On this background, a semiotic perspective on nosology may be relevant and informative, particularly regarding the recognition of diseases. This chapter provides an overview of key works in semiotics on the study of medicine in general and nosology in particular. It presents a biosemiotic perspective on human health, starting with the ‘Umwelt’, the organism´s subjectively experienced lifeworld, and ending with ‘endosemiosis’, the sign processes that are internal to the body and relate to somatic phenomena. The chapter contributes to biosemiotic medicine by commenting on how such an approach can be understood as process-based medicine, the way in which it can bridge human and animal health studies, and how it can be understood as involving a conception of the human being as a system of interrelated sign systems. It concludes by making remarks on how organ crosstalk can be understood within a biosemiotic framework.
* This presentation builds on Tønnessen, forthcoming.
KEYWORDS Biosemiotics, endosemiosis, biosemiotic medicine, One Health, nosology
REFERENCE
Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming. Nosology and semiotics. In: Carlo Guido Musso & Adrian Covic (eds.), Organ Crosstalk in Acute Kidney Injury: Basic Concepts and Clinical Practices. Springer Nature.
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Phenomenology and semiotics
Morten Tønnessen
Professor of philosophy
Department of social studies
University of Stavanger Stavanger
Norway
In the chapter on which this presentation is built (Sharov & Tønnessen 2021), we discuss the phenomenological tradition within philosophy with emphasis on representative phenomenological positions on subjectivity, sentience, consciousness and self-consciousness, and make the argument that giving phenomenology a biosemiotic grounding will make it more comprehensive. Even though both Husserl and Heidegger, two classics of phenomenology, acknowledged that animals have subjective lifeworlds, their respective phenomenologies were clearly anthropocentric. The same goes for most mainstream versions of contemporary phenomenology. Heidegger states this anthropocentric bias plainly when, after referring to the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll, he claims that animals are “poor in world”. The Umwelt theory offers an alternative, more pluralistic framework for phenomenology – a phenomenology beyond the human, with a biosemiotic basis. Von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory was discussed by Merleau-Ponty and has further inspired several contemporary philosophers within and beyond phenomenology. In the chapter we also discuss the relation between semiotics and phenomenology, including Peirce’s ideas and recent calls for a naturalized phenomenology. While modern phenomenology was from its inception programmatically presented as anti-naturalism, leading contemporary phenomenologists favour realignment between phenomenology and naturalism. With its roots in sign theory and biology, biosemiotics can contribute further to this endeavour, and be an important piece in the puzzle when realigning phenomenological studies of subjective experience and behaviour with natural science.
KEYWORDS Phenomenology, lifeworld, biosemiotics, Umwelt theory, naturalized phenomenology
REFERENCE
Sharov A., Tønnessen M. (2021). Phenomenology. In: Semiotic Agency (Biosemiotics, vol 25). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89484-9_9
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Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology
Morten Tønnessen,
Professor of philosophy, Department of social studies, University of Stavanger, Norway
Contribution to the panel “Biosemiotics, Umwelt, and the lifeworld”
ABSTRACT
The chapter on which this presentation is based (Tønnessen, forthcoming) outlines a scientific method for conducting qualitative studies of human and animal lifeworlds by introducing a semiotically informed descriptive phenomenology that goes beyond the human. Descriptive phenomenology denotes a scientific method for describing lived experience based on phenomenological philosophy. Despite the fact that classics such as Husserl and Heidegger acknowledged the existence of animal lifeworlds, descriptive phenomenology in its current forms is typically only applicable to the study of human lifeworlds. Using the semiotically framed Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll as foundation allows for the development of a novel version of descriptive phenomenology that is non-anthropocentric and pluralistic. A depiction of the theoretical basis for a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology is followed by a depiction of its methodological basis. The chapter concludes with a number of semiotic guidelines for practical application of Umwelt theory organized by relevant professions and settings of study. These include veterinarians and ethologists (in both wildlife and captive settings), zookeepers, anthropologists and social scientists. The guidelines are meant to facilitate studies of human-animal relations and interaction from an Umwelt perspective. This requires the use of interviews with experts and/or practitioners in combination with interaction with and participatory observation of animals.
KEYWORDS Umwelt theory, applied Umwelt theory, descriptive phenomenology, animal phenomenology, human–animal phenomenology
REFERENCE
Tønnessen, forthcoming. Umwelt theory for practitioners: Semiotic guidelines for application in a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology. In Amir Biglari (ed), Open Semiotics. Paris: L’Harmattan.
