New Synthesis in Biology European Journal for Semiotic Studies University of Copenhagen, Institute of Molecular Biology, The Biosemiotics Group, hoffmeyer@mermaid.molbio.ku.dk Short Biography: Jesper Hoffmeyer Biochemistry Associate professor Institute of Biological Chemistry genetic and biochemical regulation of purine nucleoside biosynthesis purine nucleoside biosynthesis genetic regulation biochemical regulation studies of the history of science and technology history of science and technology theoretical biology Biosemiotics Group at the Institute of Molecular Biology The nature-culture relation in its historical development Historical development Semiotics of nature Bioanthropology semiotisation of nature trend in 20th century life science life science analysis of reasons for a trend semiosis is an emergent property in our universe appearing with the first life forms nearly 4 billion years ago emergent property semiotic freedom organic evolution key fact bridging of the gap history in the sense of thermodynamic irreversibility history in the sense of human culture unification of biology ‘modern synthesis’ of biology understanding of evolution semiotic theory of life 20th century life sciences molecular reductionism genetic reductionism important trend umwelt refers to the phenomenal worlds of organisms, the worlds around animals as they themselves perceive them phenomenal worlds of organisms Every action that consists of perception and operation, imprints its meaning on the meaningless object and thereby makes it into a subject-related meaning-carrier in the respective umwelt (Uexkόll, 1982 [1940]) action that consists of perception action that consists of operation imprint of a meaning meaningless object subject-related meaning-carrier respective umwelt Conrad Lorenz inspired by the work of growth of a new discipline of ethology next important step explicit observation special case diachronic semiotics branch into other disciplines animal communication sociobiology major breakthrough understanding of the semiotic character of life semiotic character of life Watson-Crick double-helix model of DNA deciphering of the genetic code semiotic understanding of nature communicative processes between organisms are termed exosemiotics by Sebeok (1976) exosemiotics communicative processes between organisms semiotic processes prevalent at the biochemical level endosemiotics Roman Jakobsen genetic code shared several properties with human language and that both were based on a double-articulation principle (Jakobsen, 1973; Emmeche and Hoffmeyer, 1991) double-articulation principle reductionist inclination mainstream biology apply a semiotic terminology Florkin, 1974 semiotic terminology Eugene F. Yates shift in vocabulary modern biochemistry use of communicational terms recognition high-fidelity messenger-RNA signaling presenting chaperones modern textbooks in biochemistry physicalist universe modern biological statement genes direct development scientific papers semiotic context sign-processes information exchange mathematical theory of information information is an objectively existing measurable entity, a property so to say of a given object objectively existing measurable entity property of an object tacit assumption idea of biological information mathematical information informational molecules central dogma by Francis Crick holds that information is always passed from DNA to RNA and from RNA to protein, never the other way around Information is something which can be moved or transported conception of biological information when biologists and physicists talk about information, they talk about different kinds of things information as understood by physicists has no connection to values, relevance or purpose connection to values connection to relevance connection to purpose everyday language sense biological information purpose in the system promote survival information as understood by biologists in a much more everyday language sense, and in fact biological information always serves a purpose in the system, if nothing else it at least serves to promote survival biological information is inseparable from its context and it has to be interpreted in order to work inseparable from the context interpretation of information in order to work genetic information contrary to the general image raised in textbooks simple relation DNA coded messages construction of the organism single celled organism multi-cellular organism amino acid sequence of the backbones of proteins assembly of the backbones of proteins RNA-editing processes Introduction of a context dependent element in the process context dependent element in the process element in the process amino acid backbones folding of amino acid backbones into three-dimensional protein molecules three-dimensional protein molecules directly specified fully specified virgin proteins put into the right place complex architecture of the cell how the virgin proteins should be put into the right place in the nearly unbelievably complex architecture of the cell? multi-cellular organisms division of cells differentiation of cells migration of cells embryonic tissue how and when, in multi-cellular organisms, cells divide, differentiate or migrate in the embryonic tissue? Richard Lewontin First, DNA is not self-reproducing, second, it makes nothing and third, organisms are not determined by it” (Lewontin, 1992) extended criticism DNA-centred view of biological information developmental systems theory DNA does not contain the key to its own interpretation (Hoffmeyer) hermetic molecule sexually reproducing organisms fertilised egg instructions for producing the organism In the prototype case of sexually reproducing organisms only the fertilised egg ‘knows’ how to interpret DNA, i.e., to use DNA’s text as a manual containing the necessary instructions for producing the organism (Hoffmeyer, 1987; Hoffmeyer, 1991; Hoffmeyer, 1992) interpretant of the DNA message cytoskeleton of the fertilised egg growing embryo product of history molecular habits evolution of the eukaryotic cell phylogenetic history of the species the interpretant of the DNA message is buried in the cytoskeleton of the fertilised egg the growing embryo is the product of history in general and the successive phylogenetic history of the species in particular (Hoffmeyer) billions of molecular habits having been acquired through the evolution of the eukaryotic cell (Margulis, 1981) It took evolution two billion years to produce this marvellous entity, the eukaryotic cell (Hoffmeyer) understanding of basic life processes on a concept of information world of physics way of saving the life sciences saving the life sciences interpretative processes Cellular processes chemical processes cytoskeletal membranes dynamic needs of semiosis in response to historical entities carry in the cytoskeleton carry in DNA traces DNA traces Cells like organisms are historical entities carrying in their cytoskeleton and in their DNA traces of their pasts going back more than three billion years (Hoffmeyer) measure present situations make choices based on interpretations basic unit for studying life the sign rather than the molecule is the basic unit for studying life (Hoffmeyer, 1996) last decade trend towards semiotisation of nature new levels evolutionary biology neo-Darwinism be challenged by a set of ideas idea of infodynamics (Brooks and Wiley, 1986; Weber, et al., 1989; Weber and Depew, 1995; Goodwin, 1989; Salthe, 1993) Infodynamics in the words of Stanley Salthe 'subsumes thermodynamics and information theory, essentially animating the latter by means of the former' (Salthe, 1993, 6) general idea as originally suggested by Dan Brooks Ed Wiley information capacity developing systems spontaneous increase information capacity (disorder) increases spontaneously in developing systems, being produced along with physical entropy as the system grows and differentiates (Dan Brooks – Ed Wiley) self-organisation is a prevalent property of our universe prevalent property property of the universe natural selection dominating force of evolution forces of evolution play a role modest role role of pruning down the novelty constant generation of novelty autonomous generation of novelty requirements of the second law of thermodynamics surprising correspondence between ideas cosmogonic philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce interesting development point of view takes place in area of artificial life strong thesis presented by Chris Langton life is not a property exclusively of 'flesh and blood', rather life is a formal phenomenon which may be exhibited by a whole range of material substrates, for instance silicon (Langton, 1989) exclusive property formal phenomenon range of material substrates based on the assumption researchers in artificial life a-lifers are researchers in artificial life b-lifers are the biologists develop a multitude of computer simulations exhibit that essential property property for living systems critical review area of research biology of a dialogue competing ideas ideas of life express reservations strong version version of the programme semiotic point of view artificial life research identification of life digital informational aspect of life abstracting life historical nature inherent semiotic nature ongoing need need for a translation between analoguely and digitally coded representations analoguely coded representations digitally coded representations research in artificial life over-simplified vision vision of life true semiotisation of the view of nature throughout the 20th century spontaneous semiotics Spontaneous semiotics implies that 'biological communication is studied not as a phenomenon requiring a special theory or explanatory frame but as a loose accumulation of experiences in different biological disciplines concerning sign-processes in nature' (Emmeche 1995) biological communication study of biological communication requirement of a special theory special theory explanatory frame requirement of an explanatory frame communication takes place at all levels of animate nature takes place at levels of animate nature animate nature need for searching a deeper pattern kind of behaviour in the end, evolution through natural selection is thought to explain the appearance of all such phenomena, which furthermore in each single case can be reduced to molecular mechanics at the level of cells reductionist trend in biology block the way development of a more theoretical biosemiotics explain the appearance of phenomena appearance of phenomena single case molecular mechanics at the level of cells reduce to molecular mechanics reductionism in the life sciences research strategy run into serious problems serious problems explain life as 'nothing-but-interacting-molecules' interacting molecules life as 'nothing-but-interacting-molecules' leave out a whole dimension of life reductionist research strategy dimension of semiosis aim of biosemiotics develop a biological theory experimental knowledge living sphere of the earth. unified biology We must understand our world in such a way that it shall not be absurd to claim, that this world has itself produced us" (Prigogine and Stenger 1984) Understand our world logical problem implied by a traditional scientific world view scientific world view world view physical theories explain nature stupid thing capable of creating Creativity non-creative world traditional science need for miracles elimination of creativity claim absolute determinism absolute determinism leads us into absurdity of believing kind of mental spasm Prigogine's response traditional theories insufficient theories work on the thermodynamics of irreversible systems thermodynamics of irreversible systems irreversible system dissipative structures systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium ordered states ordered states arise spontaneously out of disordered states arise spontaneously disordered states Our universe is inherently creative (Prigogine) revolution in understanding of thermodynamics modern cosmology understanding of thermodynamics modern cosmology thermodynamics modern cosmology modern cosmology self-organising place our world is a self-organising place (Kauffman 1991, 1993) recent work point of view of biology view of the physical basis for organic evolution physical basis for organic evolution organic evolution organic evolution is no longer a miracle (Hoffmeyer) real task of a unified biology modern synthesis non-living world kinds of living entities levels of complexity how the world became a place for human beings? how life originated in a non-living world and evolved into all the present day kinds of living entities at all levels of complexity, including human beings? one end of the scale history in the sense of intentional and self-conscious human beings sense of intentional human beings sense of self-conscious human beings cultures that human beings created cultures that created human beings the other end of the scale kind of self-organising history predicted by the second law of thermodynamics connection of the two ends of a scale subject matter of evolutionary biology biology is a meeting place between physics and the humanities Biologists consider themselves to be natural scientists and, like Darwin himself, they try to conform to the kind of explanatory strategies developed by physics natural scientists kind of explanatory strategies developed by physics kind of explanatory strategies explanatory strategies invent a theory witness brutality of nature Malthus' laws set a theory in a lawlike way theory of natural selection theory acceptable to physics part of the natural sciences separate study of nature from the study of culture study of nature study of culture Darwin's work undermine an idea If human mind is a product of evolution it cannot be kept independent from the world in which it was born product of evolution independent from the world dependent from the world why should biology be considered so firmly a part of natural science? evolutionary perspective open the borderline questions No-Mans-Land the reason why bypass the regions of the life processes regions of the life processes explain consciousness directly from physics explain mind directly from physics semiotisation of nature preceding section connection to a problem advancing edge of biological reduction edge of biological reduction biological reduction semiotic small talk formally reductive descriptions reductive descriptions need for more formally reductive descriptions work in the laboratory definitely unsatisfactory level of theoretical biology growing understanding of life processes adopt a semiotic terminology core dynamics of living systems requirement to accept an idea central to life extraction of a non-semiotic dynamic lowest level semiosis is in fact central to life, and that it is highly unlikely that the extraction of a non-semiotic dynamic at the 'lowest level' is at all possible modern formulation of the complementarity relation complementarity relation between physical analysis and typical biological processes physical analysis typical biological processes biological process of maintenance biological process of reproduction understand biology as a separate layer 'between' physics and semiotics separate layer layer 'between' physics and semiotics science of the interface in which biology and physics meet interface in which biology and physics meet semiosis is the interface in which we study the origin and evolution of sign processes study the evolution of sign processes study the origin of sign processes origin of semiosis essential problem How could pre-biotic systems acquire the ability of turning differences in their surroundings into distinctions? pre-biotic systems ability of turning differences in system’s surroundings into distinctions differences in system’s surroundings capable of orienting itself nutritional gradient amount of nutrient molecules receptors of the outer cell membrane change the amount of nutrient molecules bacterium movement registration of a change in a cell select the direction of movements necessary but sufficient condition make distinctions develop self-reference based on code-duality code-duality continued chain of digital - analogue i.e. DNA-cell re-interpretations chain of digital - analogue re-interpretations genealogical descent origin of a system requirement of the creation of a highly structured and chemically very complicated aggregate of macromolecules highly structured aggregate of macromolecules chemically complicated aggregate of macromolecules aggregate of macromolecules macromolecules no reason to doubt created by self-organising processes self-organising processes Weber and Depew (1995) Rod Swenson thermodynamic fields behave in a fashion get to the final state final state minimise the field potential maximise the entropy fastest possible rate the law of maximum entropy production (Swenson, 1989) progressive evolutionary ordering production of increasingly higher ordered states higher ordered states of the world higher order symmetries of the world production of higher order symmetries of the world perception-action is the physics in higher order symmetries and higher ordered states of the world (Swenson and Turvey 1991) order production business business of producing living things business of producing perception capacities in living things business of producing action capacities in living things perception capacities in living things action capacities in living things produce entropy the world is in the order production business, including the business of producing living things and their perception and action capacities, because order produces entropy faster than disorder (Swenson and Turvey 1991) Semiosis in its most modest form arose in the very process which created the first living systems on earth (Hoffmeyer) Forms of semiosis process which created the first living systems on earth creation of living systems begin a new evolutionary dynamics in the course of time development of organisms capable of mastering increasingly more sophisticated semiotic interactions capability of mastering increasingly more sophisticated semiotic interactions the semiotic aspects of material processes gradually increased their autonomy thereby creating an ever more sophisticated semiosphere (Hoffmeyer 1994, 1996) semiotic aspects of material processes increase the autonomy of processes sophisticated semiosphere power to create semiotic systems a semiosphere which after three and a half billion years, had the power to create semiotic systems, such as thoughts and language thoughts and language are only in the slightest way dependent on the material world, from which they were ultimately derived (Hoffmeyer 1994, 1996) dependent on the material world search for quantification real synthesis new synthesis natural selection is itself in need of explanation and therefore cannot be the cornerstone of a synthetic theory of evolution (Hoffmeyer) need of explanation cornerstone of a synthetic theory of evolution synthetic theory of evolution the term selection presupposes an intentional person (Hoffmeyer) A selection presupposes a selector (Hoffmeyer) selector natural selection is a process very different from artificial selection in that no intention or purpose lay behind it (Darwin) artificial selection intention of a process purpose of a process Natural selection is a selection without a selector (or even a selection principle since organic evolution had no privileged direction) (Darwin) selection principle privileged direction semantic ambiguity of a term Darwinian theory of evolution cause controversy inside a science cause misunderstanding outside a science selective power of nature nature capability of exercising selective power in the 40ties physics means for describing nature last two decades understanding of thermodynamics understanding of complex systems dynamics ‘infodynamic’ approach to evolutionary theory The capacity for selective processes to unfold in the world has itself evolved (Brooks et. al. 1989) Capacity to unfold principle separating the human sphere from the pre-human sphere human sphere pre-human sphere separate the human sphere from the pre-human sphere sphere of selective processes Selection is not an either/or principle separating the human sphere (a sphere of selective processes) from the pre-human sphere as seems to be presupposed by the humanities (Hoffmeyer) Selection, in the human sense of that word, is not present in pre-human nature as biologists often seem to think Pre-human nature natural history essence of evolution Selection is a concept of more-and-less, it has its own natural history, and that may well be the essence of evolution or to state it differently: even historicity has a history (Hoffmeyer, 1995a) historicity search for a quantitative theory of evolution based at the genetic level quantitative theory of evolution quantitative theory of evolution based at the genetic level obsessions of neo-Darwinism Fisher Haldane Wright Depew Weber level of individuals measure the nature selection fitness of natural selection edge of chaos natural selection at the level of individuals and the notion of fitness used to measure it, is itself poised on the edge of chaos (Depew and Weber, 1995) fitness of various sorts of organisms sorts of organisms enhance fitness of natural selection superiority in a single trait emergence of the ability to take advantage in resource competitions ability to take advantage in resource competitions resource competitions indefinitely number infinitesimally small differences creation of degrees of freedom technical senses ordinary senses chemical systems physical systems creation of variables creation of interactions reduce the components of fitness components of fitness system of variables Earth system Emergence of life Emergence of natural selection when life, and thus natural selection, emerged inside the Earth system we had already passed beyond the secure sphere of physics into the sphere of communication and interpretation (Hoffmeyer) sphere of physics sphere of communication and interpretation dynamics of history dynamics of evolution change the dynamics of evolution change the dynamics of history individualise the dynamics of history individualise the dynamics of evolution In the sphere of communication and interpretation, the dynamics of history (evolution) changed and began to become individualised, so that each little section of history became unique and henceforward no big formulas could be erected covering the whole process whole process of evolution Formula for the whole process of evolution section of history section of evolution Organic evolution is narrative rather than lawlike (Gould 1989, Lewontin 1991) If quantification of organic evolution is wanted, it should be searched not at the level of genetics, but at the level of the constrained thermodynamic system framing organic evolution (Hoffmeyer) quantification of organic evolution level of genetics level of the constrained thermodynamic system frame organic evolution eco-semiotic discourse constraints old synthesis failed to integrate the communicative or semiotic behaviour of animals into its explanatory schemes (Hoffmeyer) integrate the communicative behaviour of animals into the explanatory schemes communicative behaviour of animals explanatory schemes integrate the semiotic behaviour of animals into the explanatory schemes semiotic behaviour of animals The reification of communication to 'nothing but' transmission of signals (like e.g. genes) favoured quantitative genetics but at the cost of a grave underestimation of the interpretative or semiotic competence of living systems (Hoffmeyer) reification of communication to 'nothing but' transmission of signals transmission of signals quantitative genetics underestimation of the interpretative competence of living systems underestimation of the semiotic competence of living systems semiotic competence of living systems interpretative competence of living systems blind spots missing aspect Evolution takes place in the 'ecological theatre' (Evelyn Hutchkinson) Evolution is always co-evolution (Hoffmeyer) In the neo-Darwinian tradition co-evolution, with the Red Queen Hypothesis as the standard illustration, is always treated like an arms race problem which implicitly figures evolution as a game against something "out there" (Kampis 1995 neo-Darwinian tradition co-evolution Red Queen Hypothesis standard illustration arms race problem game against something "out there" representative model in most cases caricature model hare-fox situation Anthony Holley (1993) energy saving behaviour effort of running reject an alternative explanation monitor the movements of a predator react in the same way depend on stealth counterproductive signal the presence of someone or something exemplify a way of interaction semetic interaction (from gr. semeion = sign, etos = habit) means that species' habits are interpreted as signs, are releasing other habits in individuals from another (or the same) species (Hoffmeyer 1994b ,1995b) semetic interaction species' habits interpretation of species’ habits as signs release habits in individuals from another species release habits in individuals from the same species develop a habit fix a habit in the genomic set-up of an organism based on experience ecological niches semiotic niche master a set of signs of visual origin master a set of signs of acoustic origin master a set of signs of olfactory origin master a set of signs of tactile origin master a set of signs of chemical origin acoustic origin visual origin olfactory origin tactile origin chemical origin signs of visual origin signs of acoustic origin signs of olfactory origin signs of tactile origin signs of chemical origin belong to ecological niches bound to a semiotic niche organisms not only belong to ecological niches, they are always also bound to a semiotic niche, i.e. they will have to master a set of signs of visual, acoustic, olfactory, tactile and chemical origin in order to survive (Hoffmeyer) semiotic demands to populations decisive challenge to success Ecosystem dynamics understanding of the semiotic networks operative in ecosystems semiotic networks operative in ecosystems spare the time spare the effort kind of mutualism whole situation presuppose the existence of a shared interpretative universe or 'motif' shared interpretative universe existence of a shared interpretative universe or 'motif' eco-semiotic discourse structure Michel Foucault The term discourse refers to the symbolic order relating human subjects to a common world (Foucault 1970, Cooper 1981) symbolic order relate human subjects to a common world How much of semiotic co-operation goes on in nature? kind of studies present knowledge inexhaustible stock of smart semiotic interaction patterns smart semiotic interaction patterns take place at all levels of complexity levels of complexity level of cells level of tissues level of ecosystems existence of eco-semiotic discourse structures developmental constraints evolution is perhaps as much constrained by the existence of eco-semiotic discourse structures as it is by developmental constraints (Hoffmeyer) most biologists suppose that symbiotic mutualism is an exceptional case of no general importance for evolutionary theory (Hoffmeyer) symbiotic mutualism exceptional case general importance semiotic mutualism involving a delicate balance of interactions between many species might well be widespread (Hoffmeyer) if semiotic mutualism is widespread between species, the fitness of any changed behaviour in a species would depend on the whole semiotic system (Hoffmeyer) organism-environment borderline fitness of any changed behaviour in a species changed behaviour in a species behaviour in a species The level of the eco-semiotic discourse structure is an integrative level intermediate between the species and the ecosystem (Hoffmeyer) integrative level intermediate level between the species and the ecosystem eco-semiotic discourse structure is especially interesting in cases where experience and learning, enters the interactive pattern, which might often be the case in mammals or birds (Hoffmeyer) enter the interactive pattern interactive pattern subsum the evolutionary process in eco-semiotic discourse structure cases, learning would in a way have subsumed the evolutionary process (as it is the case in human culture) (Hoffmeyer) a relatively autonomous eco-semiotic discourse structure is not exactly what would be needed for learning to evolve in the first place (Hoffmeyer) autonomous eco-semiotic discourse structure evolution does not just maximise complexity or information content (whatever that is) but rather it maximises the sophistication of semiotic interactions, i.e. semiotic freedom (Hoffmeyer 1992) maximise complexity maximise information content maximise the sophistication of semiotic interactions sophistication of semiotic interactions semiotic interactions semiotic freedom refined semiotic interaction patterns between species semiotic interaction patterns physical interactions between species evolution favours the establishment of refined semiotic interaction patterns between species (Hoffmeyer 1992) evolution tends to open the way for a multitude of physical interactions between species (Hoffmeyer 1992) symbiotic relations systematically occurring phenomenon in the semiosphere phenomenon in the semiosphere symbiotic relations are not to be considered just funny accidents, rather they constitute a systematically occurring phenomenon in the semiosphere (cf. Salthe 1993, chp. 6) fitness ambiguity Semiotic freedom is an emergent property and should always be analysed in relation to the proper level (Hoffmeyer) analysed in relation to the proper level proper level the semiotic freedom of the cell probably decreased to a certain extent when the unicellular organism became a multi-cellular organism (Hoffmeyer) somatic ecology of the body constrain the freedom of single cells level of the organism enormous gain differentiation of tissues capacity for processing knowledge capacity for communicating knowledge process knowledge communicate knowledge Through the differentiation of its tissues, the multi-cellular organism, has acquired a much bigger capacity for processing and communicating knowledge (Hoffmeyer) the increase in the capacity of a multi-cellular organism, for processing and communicating knowledge, means that it can deal with bigger parts of its environment in space as well as in time (Hoffmeyer) the increase in the capacity of a multi-cellular organism, for processing and communicating knowledge, means that, its umwelt has increased (Jakob von Uexkόll) the growth of semiotic freedom in our universe would seem to follow from the principle of maximum entropy production (Swenson 1989) growth of semiotic freedom in our universe aspect of play in the evolutionary process, Play is an activity which carries its purpose in itself (Hoffmeyer) the characteristic of 'play' is that this is a name for contexts in which the constituent acts have a different sort of relevance or organisation from that which they would have had in non-play" (Bateson 1979, 139) constituent acts sort of relevance sort of organisation ‘play’ is the establishment and exploration of relationship (Bateson) establishment of relationship exploration of relationship affirmation of relationship nature is engaged in an open ended or non settled exploration of relationships between systems at many levels of complexity, nature does in fact exhibit play like behaviour (Hoffmeyer) 'natural play' open ended exploration of relationships between systems non settled exploration of relationships between systems play like behaviour Natural selection acts to 'settle things', i.e. to fix behaviours, morphologies or genetic set-ups, thereby stopping the natural play but also allowing for the beginning of new natural plays settle things fix behaviours fix morphologies fix genetic set-ups stop the natural play begin new natural plays particular ant species kind of fungus natural selection settles an interaction, between different species, into a new species habit (Hoffmeyer) creation of semetic interaction pattern creation of 'eco-semiotic motif' eco-semiotic motif higher forms become specialized cannot survive right variety total crystallisation of the relations open form of play closed form of ritual relations between the interacting organisms based on a heavy physical dependence physical dependence use of regularities, exhibited by other organisms, as cues exhibit regularities cues for orientation cues for flight cues for shelter abiotic factors important cues in the life of animals read the configuration of stars migrating birds increasing semiotic freedom will tend to push the influence of selective forces to higher levels (Hoffmeyer) increase of semiotic freedom influence of selective forces higher levels the more there is of inter-species semiotic interaction the more will the ‘selective aspect’ of evolution be loosened at that level, and the more dominating will be the ‘play aspect’ (Hoffmeyer) inter-species semiotic interaction selective aspect of evolution play aspect of evolution aspect of evolution rich semiotic interaction pattern a rich semiotic interaction pattern produces fitness ambiguity (Hoffmeyer) when organisms are bound up in a web of complex semiotic relations any newly developed property or behaviour can potentially be counteracted or integrated in many ways (Hoffmeyer) web of complex semiotic relations complex semiotic relations newly developed property newly developed behavior counteract a newly developed property integrate a newly developed property counteract a newly developed behavior integrate a newly developed behavior develop a property develop a behavior number of possible solutions subtlety of the communicational interactions communicational interactions produce a no-win situation natural selection cannot really ‘measure’ the stakes of single players (individuals, demes, or species) in the natural play (Hoffmeyer) natural selection can influence the choice of the natural play itself so natural plays and not players, are selected for (Hoffmeyer) measure the stakes of single players single players instead of genetic fitness, evolutionary biology should try to develop a concept of semiotic fitness (Hoffmeyer 1995a) genetic fitness develop a concept of semiotic fitness the notion of fitness depends on a relation, something can be fit only in a given context (Hoffmeyer) depend on a relation Genes may be fit only under certain environmental conditions (Hoffmeyer) fit only under certain environmental conditions environmental conditions self-sustaining dynamic capacity actual genotype resources adapt to the actual genotype resources environments might perhaps be said to be fit in the sense that their self-sustaining dynamic capacity has been adapted to the actual genotype resources offered to them (Hoffmeyer) genotypes envirotypes context of measurement semiotic fitness is a semiotic capacity semiotic capacity the evolutionarily relevant fitness is semiotic fitness evolutionarily relevant fitness semiotic fitness should ideally measure the semiotic competence or success of natural systems in managing the genotype-envirotype translation processes (Hoffmeyer) measure the semiotic competence in managing the genotype-envirotype translation processes measure the success of natural systems in managing the genotype-envirotype translation processes semiotic competence manage the genotype-envirotype translation processes genotype-envirotype translation processes translation processes The optimisation of semiotic fitness results in the continuing growth in the depth of interpretative patterns accessible to life (Hoffmeyer) optimise semiotic fitness depth of interpretative patterns accessible to life interpretative patterns interpretative patterns accessible to life depth of meaning level of biology dismiss a problem account for suggested trends in terms of quantitative analysis based on selective forces quantitative analysis neglect a problem justify claims of evolutionary principles in terms of causal processes evolutionary principles causal processes mathematical models develop mathematical models Classical natural selection level of individuals ongoing process indubitable importance for evolution macro evolutionary patterns level of speciation formation of new specie traditional selectionist schemes be of limited value ideas of speciation semiotic dimension of intraspecific interactions intraspecific interactions theory of speciation (Paterson 1993) mate recognition idea of mate recognition narrowly conceived idea conceive an idea Recognition of mates cues in the environment influence the reproductive pattern reproductive pattern create isolation sympatric speciation attractive model find a plausible mechanism plausible mechanism purely semiotic barriers semiotics might even hold the clue to this most central of Darwinian events: the origin of new species (Hoffmeyer) process of speciation hold the key to macro evolutionary development macro evolutionary development key to macro evolutionary development morphological trajectories encompass a number of successive lineages successive lineages require explanation perpetual unfolding of developmental trajectories developmental trajectories inception immaturity maturity senescence general pattern formation of high-level trajectories high-level trajectories why a new semiotic synthesis for biology? A synthesis is a combination of separate parts, elements, substances, etc., into a whole or into a system (Hoffmeyer) combination of separate parts combination of elements combination of substances separate parts modern synthesis of the 1940s what exactly is meant by 'the modern synthesis'? kind of theoretical synthesis formerly disparate biological fields call for explanatory unification among a variety of disparate disciplines in biology explanatory unification disparate disciplines in biology biogeography paleontology systematics morphology population genetics variant forms make a unification possible Depew furnish a relatively unified perspective relatively unified perspective unified perspective branches of biology important areas of life sciences include important areas in a unification semiotic creativity of biological systems explanatory universe of the 'modern synthesis' in biology paradoxical situation central concept of the 'modern synthesis' in biology meaningless outside a semiotic context inside a semiotic context semiotic context selection is the central process in animate nature (Darwin) Darwinists take the full consequence of an insight selective processes in biology presuppose interpretations (with the implied possibility of misinterpretation) (Hoffmeyer) selective processes possibility of misinterpretation selection is a natural process and semiosis is a natural process (Hoffmeyer) semiosis goes on all the time and at all levels of the biosphere (Hoffmeyer) levels of the biosphere time of the biosphere put biology outside the safe range of natural science safe range of natural science interpretation seems to presuppose the existence of some kind of subjectness (Hoffmeyer) kind of subjectness confront a risk thorough analysis of the implications evade by repression idea of seeing semiosis as a unifying concept in the study of life unifying concept study of life vitalism strategy of repressing the semiotic dimension of life semiotic dimension of life nourish the revival of vitalistic notions continual revival vitalistic notions vital principles invoke vital principles in a biosemiotic understanding of life biosemiotic understanding of life ontological problem how coding surfaces could arise in lifeless nature? coding surfaces lifeless nature confront a problem universe of known physical principles known physical principles the difference between biosemiotics and biology rather has to do with the consequences to be drawn from the fact of coding (Hoffmeyer) biosemiotic conception universe of signification internal structure of cells internal structure of organisms describable in purely biochemical terms true understanding guiding logic semiotic interactions semiotic ordering of chemistry spans of evolutionary history life is an irreducible phenomenon (Hoffemeyer) modern unification of biology based on the fundamentally semiotic nature of life semiotic nature of life nature of life Abstract discourse schemata Formal discourse schemata Content discourse Schemata Applied Linguistics Journal perceptual (abductive strategies of inference indexical (inductive) strategies of inference deductive generalizations kinds of schemata active interpretations of photographs audio-visual discourse written text Peircean method of exact logic Comprehension language acquisition language use dependent on true narrative representations true narrative representations fictions errors lies meaning of any representation literacy language acquisition language teaching Empirical studies foundation for the theory of schemata theory of schemata semiotic theory of relations logic of relatives theory of discourse theory of cognition how meanings are represented? how meanings are understood? Peirce's brand of logic potential competitors degree of mathematical exactitude rigorous consistency Ketner 1992 Houser 1986 Nagel 1959 Peirce's system radically more comprehensive prior systems materially existing objects persons events other genuine objects discursive relations Oller Kennedy Peirce's approach weaknesses of Chomskyan linguistics Reichling (1961) Uhlenbeck (1963, 1967) Rommetveit (1968, 1979) Oller Sales Harrington (1969) Carswell Rommetveit (1971) Makkai (1972) Jakobson (1980) critical weaknesses of government critical weaknesses of binding Peirce's logic of relatives mathematical elegance mathematical simplicity Putnam 1992 Leech 1969 Rommetveit 1968, 1979 van Dijk 1981 Johnson-Laird 1983 material contexts of ordinary experience ordinary experience theories of linguistics cognate disciplines psycholinguists Rommetveit 1968, 1979 Johnson-Laird 1983 cognitive scientists Kintsch 1988 Mandler 1992 discursive representations facts of the material world Chomsky's government and binding theory (1982, 1988) Langacker's functional grammar (1987) Givón's pragmatics (1984, 1989, 1990) existential material world theories of language teaching theories of language acquisition communicative aspects of language teaching social aspects of language teaching pragmatic aspects of language teaching communicative aspects of language acquisition social aspects of language acquisition pragmatic aspects of language acquisition communicative approaches notional approaches functional approaches Widdowson (1990) Wilkins (1994) similar paradigms material contexts of the experience of real individual persons in a world of genuine risks Valdman 1992 Walz 1989 real individual persons world of genuine risks Richard-Amato 1983 notional-functional vignettes sociocultural excerpts of discourse illustrative conversations activities of the typical language classrooms games of the typical language classrooms typical language classrooms genuine experience of real persons actual objectives at-risk plans for trying to achieve actual objectives vignettes of sociocultural experience sociocultural experience conversational exchanges applied linguists teaching languages in contexts Walz 1989 need for sociocultural relevance need for sociocultural sensitivity Wong-Fillmore 1989 need for genuineness need for authenticity Spolsky 1989 Valdman 1992 theory of how language is actually connected with experience logic of relatives modern thought esoteric branch of logic binary system of George Boole dyadic relations triadic relations polyadic relation all possible forms of predication number of real arguments number of fictitious arguments number of virtual arguments formal logic Peircean theory starting point for a discussion sympathetic semioticians Jakobson 1980 Eco (1990, p. 214) practitioners in applied linguistics seminal works on applied linguistics seminal works on psychology seminal works on psycholinguistics schema theory pragmatics discourse processing van Dijk 1981 Mandler 1984, 1992 Flammer and Kintsch 1982 Kintsch, Miller, and Polson 1984 Kintsch 1988 Shapiro (1983) Peircean thought Givón (1984, 1989, 1990) Artigal (1992, 1993) applied linguist Peircean concepts Peircean index concept Peircean symbol concept main Peircean categories explicit consideration of the icon full power of the logic of relatives how indices linking general predicates to one or more particular arguments (whether existing or fictional) can be mathematically described-but not without all three of Peircean major categories (icon, index, and symbol)? particular arguments existing arguments fictional arguments mathematical description states of affairs linking of indices to actual objects and states of affairs genuine experience data of discourse grammatical theories All natural languages particulars of an intersubjectively presupposed life space intersubjectively presupposed life space temporarily established life space shared life space immediate life space process of verbal communication deictic (`pointing') linguistic tools (`indicators') demonstratives time pronouns place pronouns tense of verbs deictic aspects of language clarification of the hermeneutic cycle hermeneutic cycle indexing of actual logical arguments actual material persons actual places actual things actual states of affairs ordinary experience through icons through indices through symbols theories of grammar remain untestable lack of sufficiently determinate data determinate data satisfactory basis for the determination of any meaning determination of any meaning themes common literature on discourse processing literature on cognitive sciences profound departure prior theories of text-linguistics prior theories of discourse-processing prior theories of language acquisition need to understand the pragmatic contexts of language acquisition need to understand social contexts of language acquisition need to understand material contexts of language acquisition need to understand the pragmatic contexts of language use need to understand social contexts of language use need to understand material contexts of language use substantial theoretical departure methods employed up till now Peirce's thinking applied the full power of Peirce's logic of relatives full power of Peirce's logic of relatives Peirce's logic experimentalists in the discursive sciences Peirce's thought Charles Morris De Saussure's notion of semiology Barthes (1967) Connel and Mills (1985, p. 33ff) vagueness of theories weaknesses of theories de Beaugrande (1991) modern semioticians Fine (1994) Advances in Discourse Processes Kintsch van Dijk (1978) Mandler (1984, 1988, and 1992) relating discursive kinds of representations material contexts of experience comprehensive theory purpose of this paper theoretical relevance extending Peircean theory applying Peircean theory certain experimental results prior theories accomplish an objective exponentiating literature on the subject a schema is a way of looking at states of affairs in experience including literature, films, and vicarious experiences Piaget (1947, 1952) kind of organization certain kinds of tasks more efficiently Rumelhart 1975 Schank 1975 Abelson 1977 landmark work on the subject scripts of reference scenes of reference scenarios of reference plans of reference frames of reference abstracted commonalities of memories abstracted commonalities of fictions abstracted commonalities of fantasies abstracted commonalities of dreams commonly used example framework for differentiating content schemata from formal schemata content schemata are those that pertain to the particular facts of a situation particular facts of a situation formal schemata which pertain to the underlying structure of one or more similar situations underlying structure of one or more similar situations Yarborough (1982) Carrell (1984) rhetorical schemata formal schemata can be defined as 'background knowledge of the rhetorical structures of different types of texts' (Carrell 1984, p. 192) background knowledge rhetorical structures of different types of texts different types of texts theory of schemata general schemata logical comprehensiveness kinds that can possibly exist other arrangements subject matter distinct kinds produce differing results under certain experiemental conditions strict logical hierarchy Content schemata are less general and thus less powerful than are formal schemata Formal schemata are less general and less powerful than abstract schemata The arguments are essentially mathematical The arguments are deriving deductively from definitions which cannot (it is argued) be reasonably doubted The arguments can be subjected to empirical testing The arguments are regarded more as hypotheses than may seem to be the case in the way they are stated theoretical distinctions experimental studies empirical power of the theory True narrative representation was earlier called pragmatic mapping (Oller 1975, 1990) or valid abduction (cf. Peirce in Hartshorne and Weiss 1931-1935) pragmatic mapping valid abduction diagrammatic view of the essential elements essential elements all other classes of representations all other classes of representations are dependent upon true narrative cases all other classes of representations depart from true narrative cases all other classes of representations cannot be related to true narrative cases Every true narrative representation has each of the three elements: facts, linking, representation erroneous report momentous representations Each true narrative case as narrated is linked to three kinds of evidence showing its material facts: perceptual evidences, memories of action, meanings that could be paraphrased or translated into another language kinds of evidence material facts perceptual evidences in the experience of one or more observers experience of one or more observers memories of action underway at the time of the narrated events meanings of the narrative representation that could be paraphrased or translated into another language time of the narrated events sights of the facts in any true narrative case sounds of the facts in any true narrative case tactile impressions of the facts in any true narrative case sights, sounds and tactile impressions are iconic as are the memories called up later in thinking about them iconic memories iconic sights of the facts iconic sounds of the facts iconic tactile impressions of the facts representations of the sensory kind are generally copies of the shapes, textures, densities, weights, colors, movements, resistances, chemical qualities, and so on of the logical objects of the true narrative representation (Peirce) representations of the sensory kind logical objects of the true narrative representation copies of the shapes copies of the textures copies of the densities copies of the weights copies of the colors copies of the movements copies of the resistances copies of the chemical qualities The facts in a true narrative representation are determined first by the sensory experience of those involved in the reported events sensory experience reported events the facts in a true narrative representation are determined secondarily by being pointed out by the representations that single them out for attention-indexing them, as might be done with a pointing finger linguistic forms material facts the particular meanings of the linguistic forms in the true narrative representation, are determined by the material facts (that is the events, persons, relations, etc.) in that context then and there If the material facts are taken out of that context, they become indeterminate Speaker real person imagines person non-existent person facts to determine a meaning Any representation without any particular facts to determine its meaning, by definition must be less determinate than a true narrative case whose meaning is determined by the very material facts that it singles out for attention Degree of material facts determination degree of separation of a fact from determinate facts structural peculiarities logical perfections Determination with respect to the meaning Connection to the material world of space and time Basis for achieving meaningful generalizations meaningful generalizations True narrative representations have three logical perfections not found in any other representations True narrative representations are more determinate with respect to their meaning True narrative representations are the only kind that are connected to the material world of space and time True narrative representations provide the only basis for achieving meaningful generalizations propositions susceptible of mathematical proof power of the theory thumbnail sketch of the proofs examine degenerate representations compare degenerate representations to true narrative representations There are three main categories of degenerate representations that purport to represent particular facts: fictions, errors, and lies Fictions are degenerate representations Lies are degenerate representations Errors are degenerate representations underlying logical structure of all fictions logical structure fictional case In a fictional representation the facts as represented are fictional, they are virtual Fictional facts Virtual facts In a fictional representation is missing the material properties spatial dimensions A fictional representation is properly linked with the purported 'fictional facts' In a true narrative case the meaning of the representation can be indefinitely refined by a suitably positioned observer by referring to the facts at hand facts at hand constellation of facts in finer and finer detail suitably positioned observer appropriate methods In a fictional representation the possibility of consulting the material facts to refine the determination of the meaning is entirely absent refine the determination of the meaning possibility of consulting the material facts In any fictional representation, the interpreter is completely dependent on the representation itself to determine whatever facts it may purport to represent purported facts In any fictional representation what is intended is indeterminate The logical structure of fictions includes many useful propositional forms such as hypothetical inferences, predictions about future events, expectancies, contrary-to-fact conditionals propositional forms hypothetical inferences predictions about future events contrary-to-fact conditionals expectancies Fictional representations are useful because in them only one degree of the triad is virtualized and some of that part is determined by the representation In any fictional representation the determination of the facts comes exclusively from the representation language learner For any language learner who does not already understand the representation, fictions provide a poor basis for finding out meanings and thus grammatical structure grammatical structure basis for finding out meanings true narrative structure Asher's TPR approach Rassias's dramatic approach Oller Sr.'s pragmatic approach Fictional representations can be made sufficiently similar to true narrative representations if they are instantiated with action, drama, or other sensory-motor representations to determine the meanings of the linguistic representations at hand in the way that true narrative cases would Action representation Drama representation sensory-motor representation linguistic representation In fictions the missing element is the perceptual part (the iconic aspect of the material facts) and its spatio-temporal connectedness to the material world missing element iconic aspect of the material facts perceptual part spatio-temporal connectedness to the material world writers of fiction teachers book editors article editors would-be readers in fictional representations sights, sounds, textures, tastes and smells must be supplied so that the reader at least will have the illusion of being dragged through the events of the story events of the story Any fiction involves a necessary incompleteness in one of its parts An error involves a second degree of degeneracy that incorporates an inconsistency in two of its parts: the facts and the representation Errors include the special cases of illusions, hallucinations, and the like In errors, the matching up of the facts with the representation that has gone wrong matching up of the facts with the representation In errors the facts that ought to be represented are not and the representations given (or taken for true) are also not as they should be In errors the linking of the purported facts with the representation taken to be true is understood to be correct error correction A third degree of degeneracy is found in the case of a deliberate deception deliberate deception linking is the indexical part of the act of representing In deliberate deception the inconsistency is not only known in advance, but it planned into the representation deliberately with the intent to deceive A lie is degenerate in all three of its parts: facts, linking and representation The facts may be perceived or imagined iconically The representation is a symbolic description The representation should correspond to the facts that do obtain representational form The only thing that is less determinate than a lie is nonsense surface form of a representation With nonsense there may be a resemblance to the surface form of a representation, but the rest of the structure of the true narrative case is missing meaning remains inaccessible to the learner True narrative cases or well-instantiated fictions (e.g., involving drama, role-play and the like) provide a greatly superior basis for language instruction Rommetveit (1979) bodily position in the space-time universe physical (material) existence senses presented to consciousness present to consciousness icons presented to consciousness theoretical justification discourse processing bodily movements Indices can be constructed only through bodily actions so as to determine anything in one's present acts of indexing act of classification act of naming act of referring perceived objective situations via symbols linguistic symbols The symbols articulately represent states of affairs as facts of experience facts of experience interaction with the physical world through actions actions constitute true narrative cases The interaction through actions involves an indissoluble linking of representations with the material world false generalizations generalizations of undetermined meanings Fictions, errors, illusions, hallucinations, lies, false generalizations, or generalizations of undetermined meanings, are all dependent on true narrative cases principal mystery connectedness of mental representations and the physical world everything depends on the degree to which words and word-combinations correspond to the world of impression (Einstein 1956, p. 112) world of impression There is a logically uncrossable gulf that separates these two distinct realms – representations and world of impressions (Einstein 1944, p. 287) Einstein’s Gulf Language and world of impressions are connected through the bodily actions of intelligent beings The connection between the realm of representations and that of the material world is dependent on the crossing of Einstein's gulf mystery of physics central problem of mathematics Continuity is not only a major mystery of physics but also the central problem of mathematics, and that both of these are tied to the fundamental mysteries of intelligence (Peirce 1898) fundamental mysteries of intelligence unrepeated events of space and time the hic et nunc of every person's individual experience individual experience sense the continuity across time think we do sense the continuity across time In ordinary experience, the most distinctive characteristic is constant change Ordinary experience Permanence of objects Continuity remains a mystery Peirce's mathematical theory of continuity Ketner Putnam 1992 It seems that the present is transformed into the past exactly as the future arrives, but just what is it that enables us to make this connection? constant sense of change constant sense of motion present experience physical sameness of the past and future the constant sense of motion and change marks our present experience how come it is that the new experience arising every waking moment of our lives is not altogether surprising and uninterpretable? new experience the present is partly determined by the past, and in its turn partly determines the future the future is not precisely the same as the past What is known about the present? What is known about the present is a function in large measure of what has been experienced in the past (the true narrative representations already constructed) true narrative representations already constructed true narrative cases presently under construction possible true narrative cases yet to be determined What we perceive to be going on now (true narrative cases presently under construction)? What we expect about the future (possible true narrative cases yet to be determined)? The first level of connectedness between present and past is perceptual Apparent time Relatively determined past Emerging present Relatively undetermined future Realm of representations Realm of material facts Past, present, and future come together through representations as the intelligent organism rides through time actually straddling Einstein's gulf The mind at least is chiefly occupied with representations Our physical body and our feet are planted in the material world The realm of material facts meets the realm of representations precisely at the point where the present slides into the past At the point where the present meets the future, the material world is (relative to our perceptions of it) not yet materialized The material world as known to us stops right where the present meets the future What lies on the other side of the point where the present meets the future is known only through expectations which are mere representations of what may lie ahead expectations are mere representations of what may lie ahead Expectations are very real, as representations, but they remain fictions unless they become linked with material facts emerging into the present perception of objects immediately before us linking the present objects of a fact linking the present events of a fact linking the present qualities of a fact facts occurred at some point distant in time facts occurred at some point distant in space How can it be known that a certain object is the same one encountered on one or more previous occasions? How can it be known that the object has had a continued existence in the interim while it was not being perceived? Since an object not presented to the senses, cannot be perceived, its existence must be inferred if it is to be known of while it is not being perceived Piaget (1947, 1952) paradigm of research kinds of inferences from perception abduction involves the abstraction and generalization of an icon (i.e., of a perceptual representation) (Peirce) Abduction occurs at just the point where a particular fact is linked with a distinct representation Abduction crosses Einstein's gulf basic level elementary level bodily objects extended in time and space abductive inference material existence consistent form logical object Abduction is an inference to the temporal continuity of the bodily object higher sort of generality higher degree of continuity perception operating in the here and now knowledge perceived on a particular occasion knowledge perceived on some other occasion separate abductive inferences individual abductive inferences same logical object inductive inference abduction involves the abstraction of an iconic representation (a perceptual one) from a particular logical object in experience induction involves abstraction of an indexical representation from one or more discontinuous perceptual cases appearing at different points in time virtue of indexing occasions to the same logical object linking of two distinct occasions will require an inductive inference induction involves a linking of the past and present so as to form expectations about the future logical objects of experience kind of inference deductive inference deduction in deductive inference, reason works on the basis of an abstracted symbol which applies not only to the case in hand, but to all possible cases deductive inference takes us across all spatio-temporal barriers and must have its basis in the non-temporal realm of abstract meaning spatio-temporal barriers non-temporal realm of abstract meaning kinds of schemata applied linguistics literature abductive judgments particular facts particular states of affairs particular arrangements of things content schemata based on abductive judgments about particular facts and states of affairs content schemata are concerned with particular arrangements of things (i.e., with facts) in the material world as known through perceptions perceived relationships particular context of experience content schemata are the perceived relationships that obtain in a particular context of experience complexes of particular things complexes of particular qualities complexes of particular events particular relationships content schemata are structural to the extent that they involve complexes of particular things, qualities, events, etc., in particular relationships formal schemata are well documented in our literature formal schemata are the result mainly of inductive connections established across distinct states of affairs that are indexed as being similar in some respect distinct states of affairs indexed state of affairs similar state of affairs formal similarities identify facts identify things identify events distinguish facts distinguish things distinguish events similarities of the indexed facts facts judged by induction structures abstracted arrangements abstracted The similarities of the indexed facts judged by induction are dependent upon structures and arrangements abstracted to some degree from the particular facts of any given context formal structures remain relatively invariant in spite of the fact that the perceptual surrounds in which they are found, may differ radically from one occasion to the next Abstract schemata has not been recognized previously in schema theory as a distinct category (unless grammars themselves are taken to be schemata) Schema theory inductive integration abstract level of pure symbols general level of pure symbols non-material level of pure symbols non-syntacticized level of pure symbols Abstract schemata carry the inductive integration to the completely general (abstract, non-material, non-syntacticized) level of pure symbols (in Peirce's sense of the term `symbol') Abstract schema is necessary to draw inferences from representations that are independent of any particular case or any finite number of actual cases in the material world representations independent of any particular case representations independent of any finite number of actual cases in the material world finite number of actual cases in the material world deductive inferences give us a great deal of information about all facts that could not be acquired by merely examining or auditing the records of however many individual cases we might gain access to by whatever methods might be applied examining the records auditing the records Deductive inferences are not derived from the particulars of any given case, but are, to the extent that they are grounded in correct definitions of symbols, implicit in all possible cases to which the symbol might validly be applied with deduction, a higher level of integration is achieved beyond the inductive level level of integration inductive level conceptualization degree of integration degree of completeness in deductive inference if the definition of the symbol is sound, the inferences drawn from it must be equally valid. Except for the definitions upon which they are based, deductions, unlike abductions and inductions, are relatively impervious to errors kinds of inference and hence of schemata are only positive and accidental (neither probable nor improbable) at the abductive level kinds of inference and hence of schemata are bivalent (positive and negative) and with some degree of probability at the inductive level kinds of inference and hence of schemata are completely abstract, general, and logically necessary at the deductive level content schemata are owed mainly to the accidents of history content schemata just involve what is (or what appears to be) content schemata are determined mainly by the positive accidents of history as known through the senses positive accidents of history spatio-temporal judgments phenomenal present Formal schemata involve a higher degree of determinacy Formal schemata are probabilistic Formal schemata enable judgments about proportions of some range of facts observed in the past as contrasted with what can be expected in the future Formal schemata relate what is (and what is not) to what is likely (or unlikely) to be existing states of affairs induction is concerned mainly with existing states of affairs as contrasted with whatever states do not obtain induction is scientific thought as applied to experience induction is dualistic as concerning what is and what is not Abstract schemata, by contrast, concern everything that is contained within the meaning or definition of a symbol (including propositions, arguments, and discourses) Abstract schemata take all that possibly could be (as known through the symbols used) and relate it to whatever must be (provided the symbols are used truly) the abstract level of the symbol (as Peirce showed) reaches from outside of time and space into the material world and yet is itself neither temporal nor spatial in its compass Abstract schemata come nearer to human ideas of eternity, infinity, continuity, and universality than to anything known through our senses in the material world Abstract schemata involve what Peirce called a 'thirdness' beyond the duality of opposing forces clashing in the material realm in relative degrees of theoretical power, the connectedness afforded by deduction, is higher than any afforded by induction which in turn is higher than any afforded only by abduction discourse processing formal schemata will, other things being equal, have greater power than content schemata in facilitating discourse comprehension and hence communication, language acquisition abstract schemata involving symbols and their definitions abstract schemata are at a limit of generality and abstractness experimental applications episode hypothesis expectancy hypothesis vague way prediction of the results of numerous experiments comprehension of relatively well-organized representational forms acquisition of relatively well-organized representational forms Peircean perspective Prediction of the fact better organized discourse produce organized discourse comprehend organized discourse recall organized discourse summarize organized discourse benefit from organized discourse test the theory derive hypotheses competing theories suitable experimental tests distinguish a proposed theory from its possible competitors iconic level symbolic level predictions about the comprehension of icons comprehension of icons formulation of hypotheses triadic distinctions Peirce's logic of relatives still photographs National Geographic Journal prototypical categories multiple-choice format thematic categories human themes physical skill visible indices visible symbolic element interpreter formal elements indexical elements degree of agreement categorization of photos primitive abstract schemata object of interest indexical act of pointing content of the photograph symbolically determined content familiar element symbolic element in a linguistic form icon with a symbolic value thematic content abstract schematic elements formal schematic elements apparent movement purposes of the experiment color is an iconic aspect of the sensory information represented in a photograph color falls at the content level proportion of agreement content (iconic) effect effects of formal schemata effects of abstract schemata conceptual schemata highest agreement scores effects of content schemata proposed theory comprehension of oral discourse moving pictures (a voice-over with video) predictions of the theory factual content of the video logical character of the problem effects of `rhetorical structure' elaboration of schema theory normal arrangement of the narratives main structural relations advance in proficiency benefit from formal schemata test a hypothesis normal arrangement elimination of any effect of practice effect of practice effect of learning distribution of the effects scrambling procedure groups of subjects adjacent levels intermediate level cultural background affect content schemata more than formal or abstract ones differential performance linguistic group cultural group experience-based cultural expectations language instruction linguistic structures isolated sentences isolated sociocultural vignettes typical language lesson isolated elements detached elements effectively scrambled elements kinds of texts kinds of discourses ordinary experience language learners immediate implications obvious implications well-developed story-line procedural texts how to do something expository reports structure of the true narrative case series of experiments native speakers non-natives speakers beginning stage sequential version scrambled form empirical studies surface forms produce a formal schema story-line nonsensical variant making perfect sense form an abstract concept of the story concept of the story schema of the story syntactic arrangement bizarre arrangement paraphrase facts of the story formal connections independent of the particular arrangement of the surface forms of a text modified variant of the design computer assisted language learning episodically organized materials non-episodically organized materials temporal connectedness of experience series of lessons grammatical intuitions higher level of structure richer formal schema brief texts computerized instruction effects of episodic organization of a text foreign language study computer assisted language learning context parallel series of vignettes narrative series variants of the materials computer assisted language instruction experimental group series of connected conversations computer assisted cloze formats learning aids random order names of persons names of places sequential arrangement experimental subjects experimental controls independent of the instructional environment instructional environment results of pre-testing implicit learning grammatical control research projects doctoral dissertation assess the impact cultural content of a text subject population place names personal interactions conform to the expectations of expectations of subjects minor content adjustments culturally-based content schemata produce a gain expectations generated by other theories Peircean schema theory minor content changes gender bias replicate results original context American cultural expectations textual material sociocultural expectations reading test grammar test sociocultural adjustments generalized effect post-test condition minor sociocultural adjustments major sociocultural adjustments comprehension of English texts production of English texts predicted differential impacts processing of representations iconic phase processing of abstract discourse Formal schemata inductive reasoning indexing of particular cases abstract concepts greater impact generalized concepts context of experience absolute maximal limit particular individual facts non-repeatable individual facts strictly individual facts actual context of experience extreme limits abstracted generalizations particular facts of someone's individual experience linking the disparate realms sort of bodily action indexing of concrete entities of the material world abstract concepts of the ideal realm logical sense clarify certain ideas earlier theoreticians straightforward manner explicit manner story grammar rule system purpose of describing the regularities found in one kind of text describing the regularities units of which stories are composed constituent structure ordering of the units sequences of the constituents story schema mental structure sets of expectations way in which stories proceed close connection mental reflection of the regularities processor interacting with stories closer examination all representations of any kind are mental structures extracted from the kinds of representations that are found in true narratives different basis empirical data logico-mathematical proofs completely general way bottom-up processing of perceptual representations actual material facts implications for language implications for literacy teachers implications for educators moorings in experience reasonable motivations episodes of significant experience real material persons real events real places real sociocultural relations community and communication entail common ground in the material world classroom procedures need to involve facts embedded facts dynamic episodes of ordinary discourse requirements of the true narrative representation acquire a new language become literate in a new language achieve proficiency in new subject matter student make the connection abstract representations of the new learning material personal experience true narrative links actively made by desired learning How could natural history become cultural history? How did something become “someone”? Explanation regarding the nature of empirically observed Real-world sign processes Fields of origin Iinterdisciplinary project of biosemiotics Cognitive neuroscience Issues of experiential “meaning” Studying the mechanics of Electro-chemical transmission events Hybrid research projects Neurophilosophy Evolutionary psychology Dynamic systems theory Cognitive neuroscience Artificial Intelligence/Artificial Life What is the relation between mental experience, biological organization, and the law-like processes of inanimate matter? How does the human brain produce the mind? Cartesian sense “mind” as an immaterial system property either emergently produced by, or actually reducible to, the activity of a material brain Mind is an “inherently unknowable” phenomenon (McGinn 1999) “dualist-and-immaterialist” view “reductionist-and-determinist” view Interdependent reality of sign relations and material relations The phenomenon of “mind” “the mind produces sign relations” Problem of language origins Charles S. Peirce’s architectonic of “sign relations” Human manifestation of mental experience Archetypal example of the system needing explanation Products of the natural world Arose ex nihilo Persists sui generis Fundamental relationship Purposive organisms Subjective experience Broader set Natural relations Natural phenomena “Subjective experience is something that arises wholly out of, and remains forever locked away within, brains” “Self-reference in a system is a map which is so detailed that the cartographer and the map that he is making are swept up into it” Contemporary neuroscientific theory Intersubjectivity Mirror neurons Animal ethology Robotics Evolutionary psychology Philosophy of semiotics Philosophy of mind Theoretical biology “Science only studies observable phenomena. It functions in the realm of matter and energy [and therefore] it is a serious mistake to think that the methods of science can be applied in areas of investigation involving other aspects of human experience, e.g., matters of the mind” (Miller and Harley’s Zoology, 1994:11) “Most neuroscientists and philosophers now take for granted that all biological phenomena, including consciousness, are properties of matter” as writes Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel at the conclusion of his authoritative Principals of Neural Science (2000:1318,) “Is the ‘problem of consciousness’ real, however?” (Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel “Some philosophers and many neuroscientists believe that consciousness is an illusion” (Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel) Communal knowledge-generating system par excellence Individual knowledge-generating systems Historical processes History of biosemiotics Resistance Studying “subjective experience” Studying the interactions of material substrate Anti-science Pseudo-science Proto-science Scientifically distinguishing Scientifically explaining Use of sign relations between organisms Use of sign relations within organisms René Descartes (1596–1650) Bifurcation between modernity and pre-modernity in sciences Bifurcation between modernity and pre-modernity in philosophy Bifurcation between the mental and material “realms” Shaping Trajectory of modern science History of biosemiotics Contingent products of history Relationship of biosemiotics to the modern science Relation of modern science to the practices of the natural world Relation of modern science to the understandings about the natural world “Biosemiotics vis-à-vis modern science” “Modern science vis-à-vis everything that preceded it” “The goal of biosemiotics is to extend and to broaden modern science, while adhering strictly to its foundational epistemological and methodological commitments” Modern science parent traditions Ancient Greek thought Medieval scholasticism Founders of modern science History of science Modern age of the 16th and 17th centuries Aristotle. Observational thinking Life processes Symbolic thinking Sign processes View of the conceptual entanglements (εμπλοκή, μπλέξιμο, μπέρδεμα) between signs and nature Job of biosemiotics is to begin weaving this thread together again, we must first discover just how and why it got tangled up in the way that it did in the first place. Naturally occurring continuum Humans Nature Animals Culture SEMIOTICS WITHOUT SCIENCE Ancient Greeks Vocabulary for biosemiotics Philosophical interest Natural signs Cultural signs Historian John Deely (2001) Roman period “semeion for the Greeks remained primarily a medical term - roughly akin to the modern concept of symptom - that referred only to the outward manifestations of an internal condition or overall state of affairs” “sign - something that suggests the presence or existence of some other fact, condition, or quality Present and observable Present and unobservable Non-present and unobservable “semeion has the two following characteristics: (1) The phenomenon of relation is inextricable (αναπόσπαστος ) from the concept; the semeion is always a symptom “of” something other than itself or just itself (and is so, presumably, whether or not any physician or patient is looking at it, as it necessarily pre-exists both of their awarenesses of it). (2) Something “unobservable” is being educed (εξάγω ή βγάζω (από λανθάνουσα ή δυνητική κατάσταση)) in the process of observing” “Given” signs “realist” versus “idealist” debate about what it is to be a sign Historical resolution Augustine of Hippo (354–430) De Dialectica by Augustine of Hippo “Sign (the Latinized signum) as constituting anything perceived, which in so doing, causes something other than itself to come into awareness (Signum est quod se ipsum sensui et praeter se aliquid animo ostendit.” De Doctrina Christiana (398) by Augustine “a sign is something which, offering itself to the senses, conveys something other to the intellect (Signum...est res praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus, aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire).” Semiotic capacity of the agent Semiotic capacity of the sign vehicle per se (αυτό(ς) καθαυτό(ς)) General formulation Mode of actuality in the real world Higher-order category “mind-dependant relations” “mind-independent relations” Category of relations qua(ως) relations “sign relations” per se. Middle Ages Modernity History of sign study “cultural signs” - but that Augustine himself calls “given signs” (signa data) “Natural signs (Signa naturalia), for Augustine, are those signs that apart from any intention or desire of using them as signs, do yet lead to the knowledge of something else” by Augustine Relations of physical contiguity Relation of smoke to fire Footprint in the ground to the animal “Given signs” (signa data), on the other hand, are those [signs] which living beings mutually exchange in order to show, as well as they can, the feelings of their minds, or their perceptions, or their thoughts” by Augustine Talk Gestures Marks Augustine’s Confessions For whom do such natural signs “lead to knowledge of something else”... other than those with the “intention or desire for using them” as such? And must the given signs that “living beings mutually exchange in order to show... the feelings of their minds” be deliberately (σκόπιμα) and expressly “exchanged” - or may they be subconsciously performed and regis¬tered? Do animals use signa naturalia or signa data? In what relation towards each other do these two categories of “natural” and “given” sign relations ontologically stand? Is it “perception” and “awareness” on the part of some agent that gives a sign its representational efficacy - or does the agent merely “apprehend” a relation in the world that is already there, regardless of its apprehension? Natural indexical sign Cnventional linguistic sign “Sign is primarily being constituted by a relation between one aspect of the natural world and another (one which just so happens to be constituted as a “perceiver”)” Commonsensical Augustine’s definitions World of sign relations per se Homo sapiens “A sign relation is not something that was created ex nihilo by the minds of human beings - but rather, that the minds of human beings are themselves the product of a de novo (υπό ίδρυση) use of absolutely natural and biological sign relations Natural sign relations Biological sign relations Contingencies (δυσάρεστη εξέλιξη) actualized by history Understandings about sign relations Notion of “sign” relations Experimentalist instrument Francis Bacon’s Novum Organon Primary instrument of logic Promary instrument of investigation Natural world Aristotle’s six books on logic known collectively as the Organon Scientific investigation from the deductive to the inductive Impoverished notion of “sign relations” Mind-body dualism Dualism between material relations and sign relations Practices of modern science Premises of modern science Necessary amount of time Retracing the historical trajectory “A science is devoted to investigating the myriad ways in which material relations could come to function as sign relations in the lives of living beings” Boethius (480–524) Andronicus around 40 B.C. Present the reader Structured system of logic Instrument of knowledge Instrument of well-ordered thought Logic of human reasoning Logic of the natural world Aristotle’s works Understanding of how the logic of human relations comes out of and fits in with the logic of the natural world “Biosemiotic” understanding Centrality of the Aristotelian Organon Primary instrument of logic Human experience De Interpretatione by Aristotle Semantics Hermeneutics Propositional logic Relations of words Relations of sentences Spoken words Symbols of mental experience Written words Symbols of spoken words Writing Speech sounds Mental experiences Human beings Soul De Anima by Aristotle Life Platonic tradition Christian tradition Cartesian tradition “The soul is the first actuality of a natural body that is potentially alive”(Aristotle) “Life is the emergent system property of the interactions of a self-catalyzing system that can adapt to its environment to persevere” Hylomorphism “The biological “form” of such life is the product of its (for us: evolutionary and ontogenetic) embedding in the world, and itself consists of those particular sets of systemic relations that serve to organize a material substrate into a particular kind of organism” Aristotle’s biology “animal form is shaped in regard to organisms’ interaction with the world, and vice-versa (Aristotle) Aristotle was assuming the fixity of systemic organism-world arrangements, and not their evolution “the organisms’ actions upon the world (which subsequently change that world) are both enabled by and constrained by the organism’s systemic biological constitution, including its perceptual capacities (Aristotle) “there is a both a “realism” to sign relations and a deep necessity for the joining together of the extra-biological relations of external reality to the embedded biological relations within organisms such that “what occurs in the case of the perceiving [system] is conceivably analogous to what holds true in that of the things themselves” (Aristotle) extra-biological relations] external reality biological relations Imagination “it is not the stone which is present in the soul but its form” (Aristotle Aristotle’s conceptual system of hylomorphism “there exists a structural coupling between the relations constituting organisms and the relations constituting the external world that ensures a veridical alignment between the two that holds across the scala naturae” structural coupling relations constituting organisms relations constituting the external world Scala naturae veridical alignment Development of evolutionary theory Evolutionary theory Animal perceptual worlds Bio-reality Semiotic- reality Nominalist (ονοματοκράτης) Knowers Symbolic overcoding system Relations of the material world Subordinate study of human words Human propo¬sitions (θέση, πρόταση) De Interpretatione by Aristotle Superordinate study of animal organization Superordinate study of animal interaction in the world De Anima by Aristotle Bio-logic Semeio-logic Mental word (verbum interius) Linguistically mediated experience Natural starting point Focus of sign study Essence of a “sign” per se to be an object that is mediated through the mental experience of human beings, conflates (συνδυάζω, συγχωνεύω) what is merely one example of the superordinate category of “sign relations” into the definition of the entire category itself Logical conflation Explanatory reduction Philosophic inquiry Modern scientific thought Appearance of humans Kind of “mental experience” Animals’ interactions with each other Animals’ interactions with the external world Primitive multicellular animals Processes of organization Living cells Co-ordinate interactions with each other External environment Negotiate in order to survive Proto-semiotic “substitution relations” Biologically instantiated processes Thinkers Examination of the role of sign relations in life Roger Bacon (1214–1293) Robert Kilwardby (1215–1279) Science of signs (scientia de signis) Universal notion Phenomena of particular signs Misunderstanding human symbol use Archetypal sign relation General sign processes Fundamental sign processes Application of criteria Specific sign processes Derivative sign processes Investigations into the nature of “sign relations” Nature of “sign relations” A triad of relations Extra-mental world of agents Actions Objects “mental speech” (oratio mentalis) Intellect (intellectus) Grammar of the spoken word (vox verbi) Propositions Human mentation Psycho¬logical states Linguistic relations Conceptual understandings Scientific principles Scientific paradig¬matic assumptions William of Ockham (1287–1347) Dualism between extra-mental relations and sign relations Universal properties of things Universalizing mental signum (signs) of human minds Mentation-centric nominalism Humanification of the sign progress Reconceptualization of the sign Sign is a relation that may supercede any given human way of being “a sign, in every case, imports something relative to something else (aliquid stans pro alio)” (Augustine) John Poinsot (1589–1644) Tractatus de Signis by John Poinsot Platonic realist Ockhamist nominalist “the most formal rationale (σκεπτικό, επιχειρηματολογία) of a sign consists in being something substituted for a significate (έννοια, σημασία), whether as an object external, or as representable within” (Poinsot 1632) “the sign is something that is in its very essence a triadic relation of x as y to z” (Poinsot) Instantiated realization of a relation A mental sign to a human knower A odorant molecule to an opossum Naturalistic Aristotelian understanding of a world Mind-dependant relations Mind-independent relations John Deely Identification of signs Pure relations Definite class of things Physical reality Psychological reality Relation between sign-vehicle and object-signified Suprasubjective Perceived object vehicles of signi¬fication neurons nucleotides second messenger molecules spoken sounds Ink marks “the discoverable relevant relations of system x as well as those of entity, state or event y during the course of interaction whereby y is acted upon as a sign of z for x becomes the focus of investigation” complex calculations advanced dynamics systems theory scientific explanation naturalistic explanation sufficient explanation “the relations proper to biologically organized systems are enmattered formulable essences” Aristotle affection of soul dialectician Assigns the material conditions Assigns the form or formulable essence form in that material with that purpose or end generative dynamics of autopoetic systems recursive dynamics of autopoetic systems the “double character” of “enmattered formulable essences” is that sign relations are those genuinely existing, materially manifested relations that join system-internal and system-external relations into a web of utilizable experience for all organisms System-internal relations System-external relations Web of utilizable experience Utilizable experience Materially manifested relations Nature of sign relations mind-dependent relations classic-scholastic tradition of thinking So wrote René Descartes in 1641, expressing his resistance to the prospect of becoming a biosemiotician, right at the outset of modernity – a modernity that this particular resistance not only helped to shape, but to actually bring into being. ordinary human understanding Bruno Latour Inheritors Descartes’ legacy experiential debate ideas ex nihilo Meditations (1641) (Descartes) Aristotelian expla¬nation of natural phenomena “what it is to do science?” Church authorities Copernicus Galileo Kepler Individualistic society Mercantile society Utilitarian efficiency Static absolutism Aristotelian physics Buridan (1300-1358) Oresme (1323-1382) Autonomy of the individual Zeitgeist Humanism The Renaissance The Reformation Anticlericalism Antagonism between change and conservatism Knowledge that could be found in myself History of Western thought Human culture of symbolic reference Evolution of symbolic culture Solipsist (εγωμονιστής) “that all the things that I see are false; I persuade myself that nothing has ever existed of all that my fallacious memory represents to me. I consider that I possess no senses; I imagine that body, figure, extension, movement and place are but the fictions of my mind... and of my former opinions I shall withdraw all that might even in a small degree be invalidated by the reasons which I have just brought forward, in order that there may be nothing at all left beyond what is absolutely certain and indubitable (αδιαμφισβήτητος/αναμφίβολος)” (Descartes 1641 [1973:150]) Descartes’ project is a quest for “absolute” (read: non-relative) certainty - and the discovery of at least one contextless and necessarily true axiom or assertion that will serve as the foundation for a sturdy system of reliable and correct knowledge to be constructed Sturdy knowledge-bearing system System of analytic geometry Cartesian co-ordinate system Subtractive (αφαιρετική) method Archimedean point of truth Primacy of embodied sense experience Fundamental route to “knowing” Descartes decides to consider as “false until proven otherwise” the entirety of both tradition and sensation and to seek absolute certainty in the only place then left available to him - i.e., in “the thoughts which of themselves spring up in my mind, and which were not inspired by anything beyond my own nature alone” Methodological solipsism Veridical science Empirical science Firm and permanent structure in the sciences Alisdair MacIntyre Search for truth Thinking about “knowing” in the West “Descartes starts from the assumption that he knows nothing whatsoever until he can discover a presuppositionless first principle on which all else can be founded” (Alisdair MacIntyre) Descartes invents an unhistorical self-endorsed self-consciousness and tries to describe his epistemological crisis in terms of it (Alisdair MacIntyre) Descartes does not recognize that he is not putting in doubt is his own capacity to use the French and Latin languages as well as what he has inherited in and with these languages namely, a way of ordering both thought and the world expressed in a set of meanings. These meanings have a history... [but] because the presence of his languages was invisible to Descartes [he does not realize that] how much of what he took to be the spontaneous reflections of his own mind is in fact a repetition of sentences and phrases from his school textbooks - even the Cogito is to be found in Saint Augustine” ((Alisdair MacIntyre) 1974:60) Reformationist Roman Empire “the Dark Ages” of human thought The multiple European “Renaissances,” the Protestant Reformation the rise of mercantilism idealization of the individual “over and above” history and nature “scientific revolution” “how an isolated mind could be absolutely as opposed to relatively sure of anything in the outside world?” Bruno Latour Doctrine of signs The worlds of mind-dependent relations The world of mind-independent relations Cognitive agent Relation of sign use Opposition of realism to idealism define the “mind-body” debate define the “knowledge/fact” debate priority of signs to objects objects of experience Revelation of surrounding nature and culture Immaterial world Scientifically unexaminable world William of Ockham (1285–1349) Thought-objects in the mind (objectivum in anima) Aquinas (1225–1274) Apprehension of sign relations Novum Organon by Francis Bacon daily intercourse of life conversation of life Effective functioning of symbolic reasoning Bacon’s mind-correcting machinery Communally objective project of empirical experimentalism and induction Descartes’ mind-correcting machinery Truth of mathematics Truth of logical deduction Abduction is the mind-producing process of acting upon what is presently given in an exploratory fashion, equipped only with the underdetermined understandings that have proved most effective thus far self-reflection Bacon’s error-reducing inductive method Descartes’ error-reducing deductive method Mathematical-experimentalist methodologies Engine of generatively recursive collectivism Royal Society Securing of veridical knowledge Descartes’ radical bifurcation Organizational principles of the world Bacon’s experimentalism Robert Boyle (1627–1692) Public science The laboratory is the theatre of evidence and what could not be shown there was outside the realm of science proper (Robert Boyle) Domain of the visible and the material Isaac Newton (1643–1727) Error-correcting mechanisms of induction and deduction Group of interacting agents Formalized system Study of “bodies” Material relations Natural world of material and logical relations Mind internal relations Sensation Perception Subjective experience Knowledge Language Symbolic thought Cure subjective error by disappearing the subject from scientific inquiry altogether Absolutely natural property of living organization called “the mind” neuroscientist Rudolfo Llinás (2001) the property of being minded biological system property of “mind” is no more synonymous with “human (symbolic, linguaform) mind” than the term “body” is synonymous with “human (biped, mammalian) body biological system property of “mind” “human (symbolic, linguaform) mind” ability for abstractive thought functional sense biological sense those creatures lacking language and the ability for abstractive thought are no “less” minded in the functional and biological sense than those lacking opposable thumbs (or, for that matter, gills or wings) are any “less embodied” Capability Capacity Structures Meet the real-world challenges of life Respiration Digestion Locomotion Reproduction Live birth Sexual copulation Egg-laying practices Pollination strategies Spore formation Species-specific adaptations Biologically analogous end Biological function of “knowing” Universal attributes of living organisms Our very idea of what constitutes “knowing” has been warped by Descartes’ conflation of “mindedness” per se with “human mindedness” and “knowing” per se with “symbolic cognition” Life processes Persistently, in the back of our minds we equate “mind” and “knowing” only with our particular form of adaptation to this universal biological need Purposive behavior Responsive behavior Evasive behavior Interactive behavior Anticipatory behavior Self-reflexive ability to symbolize its own experience Articulate a set of symbols to another Criteria for “knowing” If all animals other than human beings are now and have always been mind-less, how did the human being “evolve” its own mind ex nihilo? “supernatural” explanations Divine plan Unexamined conflation of “mind” with “human mind” Species-specific peculiarity Product of biological evolution Abstractive reasoning Symbolic reasoning Self-reflective intellection “Language games” Ability to imaginatively manipulate reality “off-line” Physical structure of the brain Andy Clark (1997) Distributed cognitive prostheses of the surrounding environment Symbolic representations Cognitive exploitation Cartesian conflation of “mind” Species-particular form of linguistic representation and symbolic reference Self-realizing autonomous “entity.” “body” sciences “body” aspects of the biological sciences Subjective knowing in general “material reality” (res extensa) “knowing reality” (res cogitans) Geological change Momentum Biological knowledge Leeuwenhook Deployment of the microscope Cellular structures of plants and animals Exchange of nutrients and gases Developmental stages of life from inception to death Synthesis of organic compounds from inorganic materials Wilhelm Johannsen’s (1857-1927) Introduction of the “gene” concept “infor¬mation” Product of material interactions Operating under mathematico-logical conditions Catalyst Agonist von Baer (1792-1876) Discovery of the epigenetic development of the fertilized ovum into structures expressing hereditary traits “gene” is “the functional unit of heredity” Non-preformationist germ layer theory of embryonic development (von Baer 1827) Organism’s cellular structure is not pre-given but developmental - as von Baer’s experiments in comparative embry¬ology showed it to be “information exchange” undifferentiated cells to become differen¬tiated tissue Johannsen Galton Mendel Flemming Weismann Germ theories of Exactly how the interaction of this “germ” with the rest of the cellular material could result in? Hereditary genotype Metabolic phenotype “problem of information” “the genetic code” what just sense information sequence of nucleotides functional relation of nucleotides to a system “sequences of code” Property of things Francis Crick “central dogma” of genetic inheritance “information” was synonymous with “the sequence of amino acid residues” per se (Francis Crick 1985) “information” is the diminution of uncertainty in a system absolutely without regard to cognitive or semantic considerations (Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver 1949:8) “information flow” from gene to protein Mathematical theory of “commu¬nication across a channel” (Shannon and Weaver) “meaning” material relations symbolic relations matter anti-matter all “true meaning” is symbolic meaning (Crick, Shannon, Weaver) talk using language think in terms of abstract representations “signal” in molecular biology “message” in neuroscience “communication” in animal ethology “the code for talking about the genetic code is that the term “genetic code” is only a metaphor, and should not be understood as denoting what it would denote in everyday usage” (cf. Griffith 2001; also Barbieri 2003a and this volume) “genetic code is a metaphor of processes we do not yet understand,” Informational processes Representative processes meaningful processes semiotic processes all things in the natural world evolved out of that natural world and nowhere else biological creatures use symbols exchange meanings have culture can deal in counterfactuals can think abstractly genetic processes structures of the natural world events of the natural world principles of the natural world relations of the natural world human symbolic understanding primate indexical understanding iconic relations chemotaxis amoeba environmental restructuring primitive organizational sense digital “differences” in electronic pulses down an axon sequential differences in base pairs affixed to the phosphate backbone of a DNA molecule reductionist anthropomorphism of “all things in nature as human” Biosemiotics scope is a principled evolutionary and biological understanding of how all things in human (and in animal) life are natural – including “knowing”, including “meaning”, including “thought” and, because of these last three, including “signs” biological set of relations constituting “sign processes” organically organized material interactions physicalist symbolic human mental processes Descartes’ bifurcation, in other words, is continuing to keep the sciences of material interaction and the sciences of semiotic interaction apart constructive message mainstream scientific community a semiotic process is not a ghostly, mental, human thought process, rather, it is, in the first instance, nothing more nor less mysterious than that natural interface by which an organism actively negotiates the present demands of its internal biological organization with the present demands of the organization of its external surround negotiation of present demands natural interface demands of internal biological organization demands of the organization of external surround moment-to-moment activity enacted accomplishment bio-logical side of living organisms’ material interactions material interactions genuine sign relations in nature singular symbolic manifestation “mental thoughts” “human words” Descartes’ divine birthright of human intelligence Darwin George Romanes (1848–1894) Edward Thorndike (1874–1949) human intelligence J. B. Watson (1878–1958) B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) human mental states “eliminative materialism” (Paul and Patricia Churchland (1984; 2002)) Descartes’ destructive dualism need to keep “subjectivity” out of science not only in its methodology, but also as a focus of investigation the natural world is full of subjective agents subjective agents the natural world itself must have produced these subjective agents once one rules out the possibility of supernaturalism as a legitimate scientific explanation supernaturalism legitimate scientific explanation subjective experiences it is the subjective experiences of these agents that leads them to act upon the natural world in ways that materially change that world (and in so doing change the substrate that world then becomes for the evolution of subsequent subjective agents) undeniable natural phenomena “knowing” operation purposive behavior knowing beings material beings purposively acting beings biological beings informational capacity of the genetic code group of interdisciplinarians evolutionary turn in the natural history of biosemiotics Thomas A. Sebeok (1920-2001) is the founder of biosemiotics problem of information processing problem of intercellular communication problem of behavioral psychology problem of neurobiology and animal ecology “interdisciplinary fields” “artificial intelligence” “dynamic systems research” “cognitive neuroscience” internal organization of linguistic systems higher-order manifestations of linguistic systems Anthropology Folklore studies Comparative literature organization of semiotic systems computer analyses of verbal texts use of nonverbal signs in human communication Psycholinguistics communication practices of animals zoösemiotics – “a discipline within which the science of signs intersects with ethology, devoted to the scientific study of signaling behaviour in and across animal species” (1963) science of signs study of signaling behaviour in and across animal species Indiana University Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies International Association for Semiotic Studies book editor conference convener journal contributor facilitator Approaches to Semiotics book series (Sebeok 1964) Journal Semiotica Catalysts Reactants interdisciplinary network symbiotic niche Heini Hediger (1908–1992) communicative practices of animals (and between animals and humans in the practices of animal training) Giorgio Prodi (1929–1988) semiotics of immunology “natural semiotics” Genetic sign-exchange processes of the human body Metabolic sign-exchange processes of the human body Neural sign-exchange processes of the human body Immunological sign-exchange processes of the human body “endosemiotics” (Sebeok 1976) Juri Lotman (1922–1993) Vyacheslav Vsevolodovitch Ivanov (1929-) (O Semiosfere) by Juri Lotman realm of sign relationships semiosphere biosphere is the organizational space wherein living beings occur and interact autopoetic nature of sets of sign relations “modeling systems” Jesper Hoffmeyer human and symbolic realm of interactions Vernadsky noosphere species-specific use materially conse¬quential sign relationships natural forces cultural forces mutually exclusive forces antagonistic forces symbiotic relationship set of sign relations human symbolic semiosphere underestimations overestimations anthropomorphisms machino-morphisms animal cognition ability to use “language” iconic levels indexical (stimulus-response) level associative reflexes equivalent of “language” animal communication truncated form of human language language origins “Do animals have language the way that we do, and if not, why not?” “As animals ourselves, how is it that we have language?” map sounds onto physically co-present things map gestures onto physically co-present things referents manipulate representations of non-present conditions semiotic logic of relations Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914 Perceptual worlds of animals Jakob von Uexküll (1864–1944) logic of sign relations or “semeiotic” (as Peirce had called it) C.K. Ogden, (1889–1957) Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) Charles Morris (1901–1979) Peirce’s “architectonic of triadic logic” Sebeok’s biosemiotic vision genus of relations potentiality actualized realized actualities pattern successive recursive change literal physical possibilities possibility is actualized set of possibilities set of constraints see retrospectively see schematically uncoupling of the unified force unified force generation of quarks generation of hadrons generation of neutrons neutrons join together with protons to form the universe of atoms ad infinitum finitum Peirce’s notions of firstness Peirce’s notions of secondness Peirce’s notions of thirdness fundamental sense scientifically examinable scien¬tifically necessary possibility existence law conceptualizations of chaos complexity theory iteration interaction emergence downward causation autopoesis Peirce’s “logic of relations” Peirce’s logic of sign relations last-most-current state of affairs “given” state of affairs perceiving agent firstness as an unlabeled “raw feel” (what others have termed its qualia) set of existing possibilities set of existing constraints biological organization set of prior associations “experiences” secondness of experience web of brute sensations web of meaningful perceptions relations of sensations to perceptions relations of perceptions to other perceptions representable as signs musical notation mathematical notation linguistic notation convention¬ality of thirdness re-contextualization of both firstness and secondness re-contextualization of both sensation and perception symbolic understanding use of thirdness theoretical logic of Peirce animals sign behavior Marcello Barbieri Absolutely naturalistic way of understanding the link between the human world of signs and the animal world of signs Jakob von Uexküll is the founder of the modern discipline of ethology Study of perceptual worlds of animals Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) Nico Tinbergen (1901–1972) Jakob von Uexküll (1864–1944) study of animals Uexküll’s law of neuromuscular regulation is often cited as the “first formulation of the principle of negative feedback [and thus reafferent control] in living organisms” (Lagerspetz 2001:646) . A dedicated physiologist and biologist, Uexküll drew a distinction between the two projects that is worth quoting in the words of his contemporary archivist in full: Physiology should organize the knowledge about organic systems by looking for causalities physiology should help to [inform] biology biology has to use the scientific method to go beyond the investigation of causalities by exploring the laws that [account for] the purposefulness of living matter biology should study organisms not as objects, but as active subjects, thus focusing on the organism’s purposeful abilities that provide for the active integration into a complex environment Biology therefore had to deal with holistic units and to maintain a broader scope than physiology in order to grasp the interactive unity of the organism and the world sensed by it Umwelt is the unity of the organism and the world (1909) (Uexküll) study of feedback study of reafferent control complex, adaptive self-organizing systems Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s (1901–1972) “general systems theory” Cybernetics catastrophe theory chaos theory complexity theory von Uexküll’s notion of the Funktionskreis or “functional cycle” of perception and action that effectively “couples” the ever-changing system that is the organism to the ever-changing system that is the world “emergent system properties” “recursive downward causation” “dynamic instability” “autopoesis” purely material and efficient relations of brute physiological stimulus-response regularities higher-order “systemic” relations between world and organism (as well as organism parts to whole) bottom-up product of top-down shaper of physiological interactions real-time evolutionary time conceptualization of feedback systems feedback systems von Uexküll’s Baerian resis¬tance to the Darwinism Uexküll felt that Darwin “treated the concept of causality incorrectly and did not consider the internal [component in the active self-organization and creation] of individual organisms” (cited in Kull 1999c) genetic knowledge “reverse but complementary” side of the picture nineteenth century Romantic intellectual culture science of Darwin’s England was increasing utilitarian, mechanistic and Malthusian internal strive for perfection of individual organisms” teleologically “loaded” description systemic interaction Mendelian genetics theory of evolution transmutation of species natural selection subjective experience of living creatures the subject – Nature” biosemiotics goal is nothing less than a scientific understanding of how the subjective experience of organisms – as enabled differently by each species’ particular biological constitution – comes to play a genuinely causal role in the ongoing co-organization of nature subjective experience of organisms causal role co-organization of nature Sebeok’s work Sebeok’s thought Human communication practices animal communication practices theory of signs Uexküll’s umwelt theory Thure von Uexküll (1908–2004) semiotics of psychosomatic disorder field of psychosomatic medicine Giorgio Prodi (1929–1988) “endosemiotics” of immunological self-organization and cell signaling “cybernetic loop” “self-excited circuit” Peircean semiotics Uexküllian umwelt theory framework of dynamic systems theory Peircean perspective primacy of perceptual umwelt “semioticians” molecular biologists embryologists philosophers of science zoologists roboticists neurobiologists psychologists dynamic systems theorists relationship of signs to biology field of neurobiology field of clinical psychology field of molecular biology field of artificial intelligence field of philosophy of mind Cartesian dichotomy Gerald Edelman (1992) Antonio Damasio (1994) Walter Freeman (2000) Joaquin Fuster (2003) “distributed cognition” theories Andy Clark (1997) Rodney Brooks (1999) Marvin Minsky (1988) Douglas Hofstadter (1979) Walter M. Elsasser (1998) Richard Lewontin (1992) Robert Rosen (1991) Howard Pattee (1982, 1988) Edward Lorenz (1963) René Thom (1989) Ilya Prigogine (1984) Susan Oyama (1985) Stuart Kauffman (1995, 2000) interdiscipline of biosemiotics research agendas network of researchers interdisciplinary networking groups Sergei Chebanov Aleksei Sharov Conrad Hal Waddington (1905–1975) Lewis Wolpert Brian Goodwin R.C. Lewontin David Bohm W.L. Elsasser René Thom Howard Pattee Ernst Mayr John Maynard Smith phenomenon of “self-organization” in complex systems Jesper Hoffmeyer (1942–) Biochemist intersection of nature and culture writer journalist university professor molecular biologist intellectuals cybernetician anthropologist Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) articulate a non-reductionist understanding of the relationship of organisms to their genomes gene sequencing technology Richard Dawkins “the selfish gene” historical consequence making dead nature the model of nature cultural sphere humanities culture scientific-technological culture hereditary efficacy of DNA DNA-organism system ‘the wonder of the code’ state space deterministic physics life-world pure subjective experience nature of the ‘code’ continuous message discontinuous message physical message law bound message nucleotide sequence free message mode of existence the maxim of St. Augustine late-scholasticism John Poinsot semiotic logic of relations between organisms and their environment semiotic logic of relations between organisms and each other semiotic logic of relations within organisms semiotic logic of relations in the triadic logic Charles S. Peirce semiotics of nature phenomena of inherent meaning and signification in living nature level of sign processes in unicellular organisms cognitive behavior of animals social behavior of animals theory of analog-digital “code-duality” in biology Claus Emmeche Peder Voetmann Christiansen Frederik Stjernfelt “Helmuth Hansen Study Circle” Mathematician theoretical biologist René Thom Microbiologist Mogens Kilstrup Biologist Cyberbetician Søren Brier (1995, 1998, 2001) Journal Cybernetics and Human Knowing self-description biophysicist systems theorist Howard Pattee (1969, 1972, 1982). “the semiosis of life” journal OMverden (roughly: “Umwelt”) psycho-neuro-immunology John Deely (1986) Myrdene Anderson (1990) Floyd Merrell (1996) Martin Krampen (1981) Claus Emmeche Søren Brier Mogens Kilstrup Frederik Stjernfelt Peder Voetmann Christensen Anderson and Merrell’s anthology On Semiotic Modeling journal Semiotica Biosemiotics: The Semiotic Web Danish Society for the Semiotics of Nature Kalevi Kull Signs of Meaning in the Universe (Jesper Hoffmeyer, 1996) evolution of single-celled life multicelluars variety of animals’ sensory capacities evolution of human cultural cognition roles in the ecological theatre making private experiences public property turning the subjective into the objective fields of systems theory fields of self-organizing complex systems fields of cognitive science fields of general semiotics fields of media and communication workshops for biosemiotics symposia for biosemiotics dynamism in autopoetic systems Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics Biosemiotics Group at the University of Copenhagen Neurobiology Zoology artificial intelligence linguistics molecular biology cybernetics meta-systems transition theory history of science philosophy of science Journal of Biosemiotics International Society for Biosemiotic Study interdis¬ciplinary convergences interdis¬ciplinary Anton Markoš Fatima Cvrcˇková hermeneutic understanding of living Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) self-regulatory symbiotic systems theories Lovelock (1996) Margulis (1987) actual conditions memory forgetting re-interpretations of the remembered Readers of the Book of Life (Markoš) living organization of an organism moment-to-moment basis machine logic mathematical formalization novel state spaces characteristics of a field characteristics of a culture characteristics of a statement characteristics of a machine the nature of knowledge is hermeneutical and is rooted in experience, history and in structures that are themselves ever-changing as each new moment is changed as a result of the actions taken in the one prior world of living-acting-perceiving-and-signifying incomplete descriptions reduced descriptions flattened descriptions objectivist scientific model Hoffmeyer’s self-referential notion of creating “a map which is so detailed that the map maker and the map that he is making are swept up into it” world-modeling organism objectify Korzybski’s admonition that “the map is not the territory” Yagˇmur Denizhan Vefa Karatay dynamic systems engineer theoretical physicist computer scientist Valentin Turchin meta-systems transition theory model the dynamics of self-increasing complexity in embedded system dynamics of self-increasing complexity self-increasing complexity embedded system model the subsequent emergence of bottom-up system properties emergence of bottom-up system properties bottom-up system properties system properties recursive function top-down biases top-down constraints Edwina Taborsky (1998) Peder Voetmann Christensen (2000) subset of a logic of relations understand how any set of relations hold together Peirce’s highly complex archi¬tectonic regarding possibility, being, and law may yet prove to be a rich mine for physicists, as well as for biosemioticians organization and interactions of energy and matter from a triadically interactive perspective biophysicist Howard Pattee study of “precisely those dynamical aspects of physics (time, energy) that are necessary to implement codified instructions” dynamical aspects of physics implement codified instructions codified instructions What are the physics necessary (if not sufficient) for semiosis? The problem of life will move from the evolution of the building blocks and the elementary operations of joining them together, to the more difficult problem of the evolution of control in complex organizations (Howard Pattee) idea of ‘control’ defined in a sense a live cell and a dead collection of the identical biochemicals in the same structural organization differ essentially in the amount of intermolecular control that exists in each unit (Howard Pattee, 1965:405–406) intermolecular control generate the conceptual frame¬works generate vocabularies general principles of bottom-up and top-down “intermolecular control” would later be codified as “autopoiesis” by Maturana and Varela (1973, 1974) and as “dissipative structure” by Ilya Prigogine (1969) the concepts of the epistemic cut and semantic closure are necessary to a complete understanding of how and in what scientifically examinable way, matter can come to “stand for” something other than itself in and to a system (Howard Pattee) non-mystical role of “representation” and its “meaning” in the organization and interactions of living organisms role of “representation” meaning of representation organization of living organisms interactions of living organisms field of animal studies field of ethology field of zoology Dominque Lestel (2002) Timo Maran (2003) Mette Böll (2002) Dario Martinelli (2005) Aleksei Turovski (2000) Examination into the relations of intercellular signaling processes relations of intercellular signaling processes intercellular signaling processes Luis Emilio Bruni (1997, 2001) Mia Trolle Borup (2005) Mogens Kilstrup (1997) Abir Igamberdiev (1999) immunologist Marcella Faria (2005) Embryologists Johannes Huber Ingolf Schmid-Tannwald (2005) pharmacologist Sungchul Ji (2002) incorporate biosemiotics into models Hernán Burbano (2005) Stephen Pain (2002) Toshiyuki Nakajima (2005) Assen Dimitrov (2004) Wolfgang Hofkirchner (2002) João Queiroz (2005) Charbel Niño El-Hani (2005) László Hajnal (2003) Karel Kleisner (2004) “Neurosemiotic” approaches to brain research and consciousness studies Brain research consciousness studies Andreas Roepstorff (2004) Anton Fürlinger (1998) Sidarta Ribeiro (2003) Alessandro Villa (2005) Favareau 2001, 2002) biosemiotically informed approach to Artificial Intelligence and cognitive robotics Tom Ziemke (2003) Noel and Amanda Sharkey (1999, 2002) cognitive robotics Maricela Yip (2005) Pierre Madl (2005) Almo Farina (2004) Apply a biosemiotic approach to their research into sustainable ecosystems biosemiotic approach research