Biosemiotics (bios=life & semion=sign) is a growing field that studies the production, action and interpretation of signs in the physical and biologic realms in an attempt to integrate the findings of scientific biology and semiotics to form a new view of life and meaning as immanent features of the natural world. The term "biosemiotic" was first used by F.S. Rothschild in 1962, but Thomas Sebeok has done much to popularize the term and field. Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. ... Semiotics (also spelled Semeiotics) is the study of signs and sign systems. ... In semiotics, the concept of a code is of fundamental importance. ... Computational semiotics is an interdisciplinary field that applies, conducts, and draws on research in logic, mathematics, the theory and practice of computation, formal and natural language studies, the cognitive sciences generally, and semiotics proper. ... This word has distinct meanings in logic, philosophy, and common usage. ... In semiotics, the process of interpreting a message sent by the addresser to the addressee is called decoding. ... In semiotics, denotation is the surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary. ... In semiotics, the process of creating a message for transmission by the addresser to the addressee is called encoding. ... In the lexicon of a language, lexical words or nouns refer to things. ... In semiotics, modality refers to the particular way in which the information is to be encoded for presentation to humans, i. ... In semiotics, salience refers to the relative importance or prominence of a piece of a sign. ... In semiotics, a sign is generally defined as, ...something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity. ... A sign relation is the basic construct in the theory of signs, or semiotic theory, as developed by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). ... In semiotics, a sign relational complex is a generalization of a sign relation that allows for empty components in the elementary sign relations, or sign relational triples of the form (object, sign, interpretant). ... Semiosis is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. ... Semiosphere is the sphere of semiosis in which the sign processes operate in the set of all interconnected Umwelts. ... Semiotic literary criticism, also called literary semiotics, is the approach to literary criticism informed by the theory of signs or semiotics. ... In logic, mathematics, and semiotics, a triadic relation or a ternary relation is an important special case of a polyadic or finitary relation, one in which the number of places in the relation is three. ... Umwelt (from the German umwelt, environment) according to Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok is the biological foundations that lie at the very epicenter of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal. ... In semiotics, the value of a sign depends on its position and relations in the system of signification and upon the particular codes being used. ... In semiotics, the commutation test is used to identify the value or signficance of any of the signifiers used in the material to be analysed. ... In semiotics paradigmatic analysis is analysis of paradigms rather than surface structure (syntax) as in syntagmatic analysis, often made through commutation tests, comparisons of words chosen with absent words, words of the same type or class but not chosen. ... In semiotics syntagmatic analysis is analysis of syntax or surface structure (Syntagmatic structure), rather than paradigms as in paradigmatic analysis. ... Roland Barthes Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 – March 25, 1980) (pronounced ) was a French literary critic, literary and social theorist, philosopher, and semiotician. ... Marcel Danesi is known for his work in language, communications, and semiotics, being Professor of Semiotics and Communication Theory at the University of Toronto, Canada. ... Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (pronounced ) (November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Geneva-born Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many of the significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. ... Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. ... Louis Hjelmslev (October 3, 1899 - May 30, 1965) was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Danish School in linguistics. ... Roman Osipovich Jakobson (October 11, 1896 - July 18, 1982) was a Russian thinker who became one of the most influential linguists of the 20th century by pioneering the development of structural analysis of language, poetry, and art. ... Roberta Kevelson was the #1 authority on the pragmatism theories of Charles Sanders Peirce, and an authority on Semiotics in general. ... Charles Sanders Peirce (IPA: /pɝs/), (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, physicist, and philosopher, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Thomas Albert Sebeok (born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 9, 1920, died December 21, 2001 in Bloomington, Indiana) was one of the most prolific and wide-ranging of US semioticians. ... Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of beauty and the moral value of art, so aestheticization as propaganda is the process of presenting any form of behaviour considered dangerous or threatening as an acceptable means of promoting a political aim, for example violence that may involve... The aestheticization of violence in high culture art or mass media is the depiction of violence in a manner that is “stylistically excessive in a significant and sustained way” so that the audience is able to connect references from the play of images and signs” to artworks, genre conventions, cultural... The Semiotics of Ideal Beauty examines whether there can ever be an objective measurement of beauty or whether the concept and appreciation of beauty will always remain in flux as cultures evolve and establish new standards of physical attractiveness. ... In semiotics, a sign is generally defined as, ...something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity. ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density Physics (Greek: (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the branch of science concerned with the discovery and characterization of universal laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation). ... Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ... Thomas Albert Sebeok (born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 9, 1920, died December 21, 2001 in Bloomington, Indiana) was one of the most prolific and wide-ranging of US semioticians. ...

Thus, biosemiotics is

• biology interpreted as sign systems study

or, to use a few more words, biosemiotics is a study of

• the signification, communication and habit formation of living processes
• semiosis (changing sign relations) in living nature
• the biological basis of all signs and sign interpretation

To define biosemiotics as “biology interpreted as sign systems study” is to emphasize not only the close relation between biology as we know it (as a scientific field of inquiry) and semiotics (the study of signs), but primarily the profound change of perspective implied when life is considered not just from the perspectives of molecules and chemistry, but as signs conveyed and interpreted by other living signs in a variety of ways, including by means of molecules. In this sense, biosemiotics takes for granted and respects the complexity of living processes as revealed by the existing fields of biology -- from molecular biology to brain science and behavioural studies -- however, biosemiotics attempts to bring together separate findings of the various disciplines of biology (including evolutionary biology) into a new and more unified perspective on the central phenomena of the living world, including the generation of function and signification in living systems, from the ribosome to the ecosystem and from the beginnings of life to its ultimate meanings. A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... Signification is the act of signifying or being a sign or meaning. ... Communication allows people to exchange thoughts by one of several methods. ... In psychology, habituation is an example of non-associative learning in which there is a progressive diminution of behavioral response probability with repetition of a stimulus. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation). ... Semiosis is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. ... Interpretation, or interpreting, is an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. ... In science, a molecule is a group of atoms in a definite arrangement held together by chemical bonds. ... It has been suggested that the central science be merged into this article or section. ... Complexity in general usage is the opposite of simplicity. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Figure 1: Ribosome structure indicating small subunit (A) and large subunit (B). ... A coral reef near the Hawaiian islands is an example of a complex marine ecosystem. ... Biogenesis is the process of lifeforms producing other lifeforms, e. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Furthermore, by providing new concepts, theories and case studies from biology, biosemiotics attempts to throw new light on some of the unsolved questions within the general study of sign processes (semiotics), such as the question about the origin of signification in the universe. Here, signification (and sign) is understood in a very general sense, that is, not simply the transfer of information from one place to another, but the generation of the very content and meaning of that information in human as well as non-human sign producers and sign receivers. The Universe is defined as the summation of all particles and energy that exist and the space-time in which all events occur. ... The ASCII codes for the word Wikipedia represented in binary, the numeral system most commonly used for encoding computer information. ... Look up content in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) in the family Hominidae (the great apes). ...

Sign processes are thus taken as real: They are governed by regularities (habits, or natural rules) that can be discovered and explained. They are intrinsic in living nature, but we can access them, not directly, but indirectly through other sign processes (qualitative distinction methods, for instance) -- even though the human representation and understanding of these processes (in the construction of explanations) builds up as a separate scientific sign system distinct from the organisms’ own sign processes. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

One of the central characteristics of living systems is the highly organized character of their physical and chemical processes, partly based upon informational and molecular properties of what came to be known in the 1960s as the genetic code. Distinguished biologists, such as Ernst Mayr, have seen these informational aspects as one of the emergent features of life as a process that distinguish life from anything else in the physical world, except, perhaps, man-made computers. However, as the informational teleology of computer programmes are derived, qua being designed by humans to achieve specific goals, the teleology and informational characteristics of organisms are intrinsic, qua being evolved naturally, through adaptation processes. A series of codons in a short RNA molecule. ... This article has been identified as possibly containing errors. ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... Teleology (telos: end, purpose) is the philosophical study of design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in nature or human creations. ... Teleology (telos: end, purpose) is the philosophical study of design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in nature or human creations. ...

Traditional biology (and philosophy of biology) has seen such processes as being purely physical and, being influenced by a reductionist and mechanist tradition, has adopted a very restricted notion of the physical as having to do with only efficient causation. Biosemiotics is an attempt to use the concepts from semiotics (in the sense of Peirce as the broad logical and scientific study of dynamic sign action in humans as well as elsewhere in nature) to answer questions about the biological emergence of meaning, intentionality and a psychic world; questions that are hard to answer within a purely mechanist and physicalist framework. Philosophy of biology (also called, rarely, biophilosophy) is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. ... Reductionism in philosophy describes a number of related, contentious theories that hold, very roughly, that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things. ... The efficient cause is a philosophical concept proposed by Aristotle. ... Charles Sanders Peirce (IPA: /pɝs/), (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, physicist, and philosopher, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (meaning word, account, reason or principle), is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... Intentionality, originally a concept from scholastic philosophy, was reintroduced in contemporary philosophy by the philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano in his work Psychologie vom Empirischen Standpunkte. ... Psychic, from the Greek psychikos meaning mental, of the soul (in turn derived from psyche meaning soul, mind), is a term used to describe phenomena or abilities that are said to originate from the brain but which transcend its confines. ...

Biosemiotics sees the evolution of life and the evolution of semiotic systems as two aspects of the same process. The scientific approach to the origin and evolution of life has, in part due to the success of molecular biology, given us highly valuable accounts of the outer aspects of the whole process, but has overseen the inner qualitative aspects of sign action, and lead to a reduced picture of causality. Complex self-organized living systems are also governed by formal and final causality —- formal in the sense of the downward causation from a whole structure (such as the organism) to its individual molecules, constraining their action but also endowing them with functional meanings in relation to the whole metabolism; and final in the sense of the tendency to take habits and to generate future interpretants of the present sign actions. Here, biosemiotics draws also upon the insights of fields like systems theory, theoretical biology and the study of complex self-organized systems. In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ... It has been suggested that Organizing be merged into this article or section. ...

Particular scientific fields like molecular biology, cognitive ethology, cognitive science, robotics, and neurobiology deal with information processes at various levels and thus spontaneously contribute to knowledge about biosemiosis (sign action in living systems). However, biosemiotics proper is not yet a specific disciplinary research programme, but a general perspective on life that attempts to integrate such findings, and to build a semiotic foundation for biology. It may help to resolve some forms of Cartesian dualism that is still haunting philosophy of mind. By describing the continuity between body and mind, biosemiotics may also help us to understand higher forms of mind. Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... The fusion of cognitive science and classical ethology into cognitive ethology emphasizes observing animals under more-or-less natural conditions, with the objective of understanding the evolution, adaptation (function), causation, and development of the species-specific behavioral repertoire - (Tinbergen 1963). ... Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Look up robotics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Neurobiology is the study of cells of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior. ... Cartesian dualism was Descartess principle of the separation of mind and matter and mind and body. ...

Apart from Charles Peirce (1939-1914) and Charles Morris (1901-1979), early pioneers of biosemiotics were Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944), Heini Hediger (1908-1992), and Giorgio Prodi (1928-1987); the founding fathers were Thomas Sebeok (1920-2001) and Thure von Uexküll (1908-2004), and contemporary scholars include biologists Jesper Hoffmeyer, Kalevi Kull, Claus Emmeche, Alexei Sharov, Søren Brier, Marcello Barbieri, Anton Markos, Howard Pattee, and semioticians Frederik Stjernfelt, Floyd Merrell, John Deely, Myrdene Anderson, Lucia Santaella, Winfried Nöth, and philosophers Guenther Witzany, et al. Charles Sanders Peirce (IPA: /pɝs/), (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, physicist, and philosopher, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Charles Morris may refer to: Charles Morris (naval officer) (1784 - 1856) Charles Morris (boxer) Olympic medallist 1908 Charles Morris (photographer) Charles Morris (politician) former MP for Manchester, Openshaw Charles W. Morris (1901-1979) semioticist This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise... Jakob von Uexküll (September 8, 1864 - July 25, 1944) was an Estonian biologist who had important achievements in the fields of muscular physiology and the cybernetics of life. ... Heini Hediger (1908-1992) was a German zoologist noted for work in proxemics in animal behavior and is known as the father of zoo biology. Hediger described a number of standard interaction distances used in one form or another between animals. ... Thomas Albert Sebeok (born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 9, 1920, died December 21, 2001 in Bloomington, Indiana) was one of the most prolific and wide-ranging of US semioticians. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... John Deely John Deely (born 1942) is Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies of the University of St. ...

Bibliography

• Emmeche, Claus; Kalevi Kull and Frederik Stjernfelt. (2002): Reading Hoffmeyer, Rethinking Biology. (Tartu Semiotics Library 3). Tartu: Tartu University Press.
• Hoffmeyer, Jesper. (1996): Signs of Meaning in the Universe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (special issue of Semiotica vol. 120 (no.3-4), 1998, includes 13 reviews of the book and a rejoinder by the author).
• Kull, Kalevi, eds. (2001). Jakob von Uexküll: A Paradigm for Biology and Semiotics. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. [ = Semiotica vol. 134 (no.1-4)].
• Jesper Hoffmeyer and Kalevi Kull (2003): Baldwin and Biosemiotics:What Intelligence Is For in :"Evolution and Learning -The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered" Bruce H. Weber and David J.Depew eds., 2003 The MIT Press.
• Sebeok, Thomas A., and Umiker-Sebeok, Jean, (eds.) (1992): Biosemiotics. The Semiotic Web 1991. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Sebeok, Thomas A.; Hoffmeyer, Jesper; and Emmeche, Claus, eds. (1999). Biosemiotica. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. [ = Semiotica vol. 127 (no.1-4)].
• Witzany, Guenther (2006). The Logos of the Bios 1. Contributions to the Foundation of a three-leveled Biosemiotics." Helsinki: Umweb.

James Mark Baldwin (Columbia, South Carolina, 1861—1934) was an American philosopher, educated at Princeton and several German universities. ...

External links

• International Society for Biosemiotics Studies
• The international biosemiotics page
• Biosemiotics, introduction
• Overview of Gatherings in Biosemiotics
• The S.E.E.D. Journal (Semiotics, Evolution, Energy, and Development)
• Jakob von Uexküll Centre
• Zoosemiotics Home Page