Biosemiotics (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, production of signs and

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

s and

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

processes in the biological realm.Favareau, Donald (ed.) 2010. ''Essential Readings in Biosemiotics: Anthology and Commentary''. (Biosemiotics 3.) Berlin: Springer. Biosemiotics integrates the findings of biology and semiotics and proposes a

paradigmatic shift A paradigm shift, a concept brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a :Scientific disciplines, scientific discipline. Even ...

in the scientific view of

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

, in which

semiosis Semiosis (, ), or sign process, is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the sign itself, to the interpreter of the sign ...

(sign process, including meaning and interpretation) is one of its immanent and intrinsic features. The term ''biosemiotic'' was first used by Friedrich S. Rothschild in 1962, but

Thomas Sebeok Thomas Albert Sebeok ( hu, Sebők Tamás, ; 1920–2001) was a Hungarian-born American polymath,Cobley, Paul; Deely, John; Kull, Kalevi; Petrilli, Susan (eds.) (2011). Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs'. ...

and

Thure von Uexküll Karl Kuno Thure Freiherr von Uexküll (March 15, 1908, Heidelberg – September 29, 2004, Freiburg) was a German scholar of psychosomatic medicine and biosemiotics. He developed the approach of his father, Jakob von Uexküll, in the study of livi ...

have implemented the term and field. The field, which challenges normative views of biology, is generally divided between theoretical and applied biosemiotics. Insights from biosemiotics have also been adopted in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

and

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

, including human-animal studies, human-plant studies and cybersemiotics.

Definition

Biosemiotics is ''biology interpreted as a sign systems study'', or, to elaborate, a study of * signification,

and

habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

formation of

living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * ...

processes *

(creating and changing sign relations) in living nature * the biological basis of all signs and sign interpretation

Main branches

According to the basic types of semiosis under study, biosemiotics can be divided into *vegetative semiotics (also ''endosemiotics'', or

phytosemiotics Phytosemiotics is a branch of biosemiotics that studies the sign processes in plants, or more broadly, the vegetative semiosis. Vegetative semiosis is a type of sign processes that occurs at cellular and tissue level, including cellular recognition ...

), the study of semiosis at the cellular and molecular level (including the translation processes related to genome and the organic form or phenotype); vegetative semiosis occurs in all organisms at their cellular and tissue level; vegetative semiotics includes prokaryote semiotics, sign-mediated interactions in bacteria communities such as

quorum sensing In biology, quorum sensing or quorum signalling (QS) is the ability to detect and respond to cell population density by gene regulation. As one example, QS enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities at ...

and quorum quenching. *

zoosemiotics Zoosemiotics is the semiotic study of the use of signs among animals, more precisely the study of semiosis among animals, i.e. the study of how something comes to function as a sign to some animal. It is the study of animal forms of knowing. Consi ...

or animal semiotics, or the study of animal forms of knowing; animal semiosis occurs in the organisms with

neuromuscular A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. It allows the motor neuron to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction. Muscles require innervation ...

system, also includes

anthroposemiotics Human communication, or anthroposemiotics, is a field of study dedicated to understanding how humans communicate. Humans ability to communicate with one another would not be possible without an understanding of what we are referencing or thinki ...

, the study of semiotic behavior in humans. According to the dominant aspect of semiosis under study, the following labels have been used: biopragmatics, biosemantics, and biosyntactics.

History

Apart from

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

(1839–1914) and

Charles W. Morris Charles William Morris (May 23, 1901 – January 15, 1979) was an American philosopher and semiotician. Early life and education A son of Charles William and Laura (Campbell) Morris, Charles William Morris was born on May 23, 1901, in Denver, Co ...

(1903–1979), early pioneers of biosemiotics were

Jakob von Uexküll Jakob may refer to: People * Jakob (given name), including a list of people with the name * Jakob (surname), including a list of people with the name Other * Jakob (band), a New Zealand band, and the title of their 1999 EP * Max Jakob Memorial Aw ...

(1864–1944),

Heini Hediger Heini Hediger (30 November 1908 in Basel – 29 August 1992 in Bern) was a Swiss biologist noted for work in proxemics in animal behavior and is known as the "father of zoo biology". Hediger was formerly the director of Tierpark Dählhölzli (1 ...

(1908–1992), Giorgio Prodi (1928–1987),

Marcel Florkin Marcel Florkin (Liège, 15 August 1900 – 3 May 1979) was a Belgian biochemist. Florkin was graduated as a Doctor in Medicine and became a professor of biochemistry at the University of Liège. In 1951, he was the initiator of the Belgian Societ ...

(1900–1979) and Friedrich S. Rothschild (1899–1995); the founding fathers of the contemporary interdiscipline were

(1920–2001) and

(1908–2004). In the 1980s a circle of mathematicians active in Theoretical Biology, René Thom (

Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

), Yannick Kergosien (

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

and

), and Robert Rosen (

, also a former member of the Buffalo group with Howard H. Pattee), explored the relations between Semiotics and Biology using such headings as "Nature Semiotics", "Semiophysics", or "Anticipatory Systems" and taking a modeling approach. The contemporary period (as initiated by Copenhagen-Tartu school) include biologists

Jesper Hoffmeyer Jesper Hoffmeyer (21 February 1942 – 25 September 2019) was a professor at the University of Copenhagen Institute of Biology, and a leading figure in the emerging field of biosemiotics. He was the President of the International Society for Bios ...

Kalevi Kull Kalevi Kull (born 12 August 1952, Tartu) is a biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1975. His earlier work dealt with ethology and field ecology. He has studied the mechanisms ...

Claus Emmeche Claus Emmeche (born 1956) is a Danish theoretical biologist and philosopher, one of founders of contemporary biosemiotics. He is associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, and is head of the Center for the Philosophy of Nature and Sci ...

Terrence Deacon Terrence William Deacon (born 1950) is an American neuroanthropologist (Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology, Harvard University 1984). He taught at Harvard for eight years, relocated to Boston University in 1992, and is currently Professor of Anth ...

, semioticians

Martin Krampen Martin Krampen (March 9, 1928 in Siegen – June 18, 2015 in Ulm) was a leading German semiotician, semiotics Professor in Göttingen. Biography The son of a Protestant pastor, Krampen was born on March 9, 1928 in Siegen and was raised in Wuppert ...

, Paul Cobley, philosophers Donald Favareau,

John Deely John Deely (April 26, 1942 – January 7, 2017) was an American philosopher and semiotician. He was a professor of philosophy at Saint Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Prior to this, he held the Rudman Chair of Gra ...

, John Collier and complex systems scientists Howard H. Pattee,

Michael Conrad Michael Conrad (October 16, 1925November 22, 1983) was an American actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of veteran cop Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on ''Hill Street Blues'', in which he ended the introductory roll call to each week's show with "Le ...

, Luis M. Rocha,

Cliff Joslyn Cliff Joslyn (born 1963) is an American mathematician, cognitive scientist, and cybernetician. He is currently the Chief Knowledge Scientist and Team Lead for Mathematics of Data Science at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Seattle, Was ...

and León Croizat. In 2001, an annual international conference for biosemiotic research known as the ''Gatherings in Biosemiotics'' was inaugurated, and has taken place every year since. In 2004, a group of biosemioticians – Marcello Barbieri,

, and Anton Markos – decided to establish an international journal of biosemiotics. Under their editorship, the ''Journal of Biosemiotics'' was launched by

Nova Science Publishers Nova Science Publishers is an academic publisher of books, encyclopedias, handbooks, e-books and journals, based in Hauppauge, New York. It was founded in 1985. A prolific publisher of books, Nova has received criticism from librarians for not ...

in 2005 (two issues published), and with the same five editors ''Biosemiotics'' was launched by

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

in 2008. The book series ''Biosemiotics'' (Springer), edited by Claus Emmeche, Donald Favareau, Kalevi Kull, and Alexei Sharov, began in 2007 and since published 23 volumes. The

International Society for Biosemiotic Studies The International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) is an academic society for the researchers in semiotic biology. The Society was established in 2005. Its official journal is Biosemiotics, published by Springer and launched in 2008. The pu ...

was established in 2005 by Donald Favareau and the five editors listed above. A collective programmatic paper on the basic theses of biosemiotics appeared in 2009. and in 2010, an 800 page textbook and anthology, ''Essential Readings in Biosemiotics,'' was published, with bibliographies and commentary by Donald Favareau. In 2016, Springer published ''Biosemiotic Medicine: Healing in the World of Meaning,'' edited by Farzad Goli as part of Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality.

In the humanities

Since the work of Jakob von Uexküll and

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

, several scholars in the humanities have engaged with or appropriated ideas from biosemiotics in their own projects; conversely, biosemioticians have critically engaged with or reformulated humanistic theories using ideas from biosemiotics and complexity theory. For instance, Andreas Weber has reformulated some of Hans Jonas's ideas using concepts from biosemiotics, and biosemiotics have been used to interpret the poetry of

John Burnside John Burnside FRSL FRSE (born 19 March 1955) is a Scottish writer. He is one of only three poets (the others being Ted Hughes and Sean O'Brien) to have won both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for the same book (''Black C ...

. In 2021, the American philosopher

Jason Josephson Storm Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm (''né'' Josephson) is an American academic, philosopher, social scientist, and author. He is currently Professor and Chair in the Department of Religion and Chair in Science and Technology Studies at Williams Colle ...

has drawn on biosemiotics and empirical research on animal communication to propose ''hylosemiotics'', a theory of ontology and communication that Storm believes could allow the humanities to move beyond the

linguistic turn The linguistic turn was a major development in Western philosophy during the early 20th century, the most important characteristic of which is the focusing of philosophy and the other humanities primarily on the relations between language, langua ...

. John Deely's work also represents an engagement between humanistic and biosemiotic approaches. Deely was trained as a historian and not a biologist but discussed biosemiotics and zoosemiotics extensively in his introductory works on semiotics and clarified terms that are relevant for biosemiotics. Although his idea of physiosemiotics was criticized by practicing biosemioticians, Paul Cobley, Donald Favareau, and Kalevi Kull wrote that "the debates on this conceptual point between Deely and the biosemiotics community were always civil and marked by a mutual admiration for the contributions of the other towards the advancement of our understanding of sign relations."

References

Bibliography

*Alexander, V. N. (2011). ''The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature and Nature''. Litchfield Park AZ: Emergent Publications. * Barbieri, Marcello (ed.) (2008). ''The Codes of Life: The Rules of Macroevolution.'' Berlin: Springer. * Emmeche, Claus;

Kull, Kalevi Kalevi Kull (born 12 August 1952, Tartu) is a biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1975. His earlier work dealt with ethology and field ecology. He has studied the mechanisms ...

(eds.) (2011). ''Towards a Semiotic Biology: Life is the Action of Signs''. London: Imperial College Pres

*Emmeche, Claus; Kalevi Kull and Frederik Stjernfelt. (2002): ''Reading Hoffmeyer, Rethinking Biology.'' (Tartu Semiotics Library 3). Tartu:

Tartu University Press University of Tartu Press ( et, Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus) is a university press and publishing house owned by the University of Tartu, Estonia. Tartu University Press dates its history back to 1632, when University of Tartu was founded. It is ...

br>
*Favareau, D. (ed.) (2010)
Essential Readings in Biosemiotics: Anthology and Commentary.
Berlin: Springer. *Favareau, D. (2006). The evolutionary history of biosemiotics. In "Introduction to Biosemiotics: The New Biological Synthesis." Marcello Barbieri (Ed.) Berlin: Springer. pp 1–67. * Jesper Hoffmeyer, Hoffmeyer, Jesper. (1996): ''Signs of Meaning in the Universe.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (special issue of Semiotica vol. 120 (no.3-4), 1998, includes 13 reviews of the book and a rejoinder by the author). * Jesper Hoffmeyer, Hoffmeyer, Jesper (2008). ''Biosemiotics: An Examination into the Signs of Life and the Life of Signs.'' Scranton:

University of Scranton Press The University of Scranton Press was the university press of the University of Scranton, headquartered on its campus in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The press published more than 200 books and other publications between 1988 and 2010. The majority of t ...

. * Jesper Hoffmeyer, Hoffmeyer, Jesper (ed.)(2008). ''A Legacy for Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as a Precursor to Biosemiotics.'' Berlin: Springer. * Hoffmeyer Jesper; Kull, Kalevi (2003): Baldwin and Biosemiotics: What Intelligence Is For. In: Bruce H. Weber and David J. Depew (eds.), ''Evolution and Learning - The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered'.'' Cambridge: The MIT Press. *Kull, Kalevi, eds. (2001). ''Jakob von Uexküll: A Paradigm for Biology and Semiotics.'' Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. =_'' =_''Semiotica''_vol._134_(no.1-4)">Semiotica.html"_;"title="=_''Semiotica">=_''Semiotica''_vol._134_(no.1-4) *Friedrich_Rothschild.html" ;"title="Semiotica''_vol._134_(no.1-4).html" ;"title="Semiotica.html" ;"title="= '' =_''Semiotica''_vol._134_(no.1-4)">Semiotica.html"_;"title="=_''Semiotica">=_''Semiotica''_vol._134_(no.1-4) *Friedrich_Rothschild">Rothschild,_Friedrich_S._(2000)._''Creation_and_Evolution:_A_Biosemiotic_Approach''._Edison,_New_Jersey:_Transaction_Publishers. *Thomas_Sebeok.html" ;"title="Semiotica">= ''Semiotica'' vol. 134 (no.1-4)">Semiotica.html" ;"title="= ''Semiotica">= ''Semiotica'' vol. 134 (no.1-4) *Friedrich Rothschild">Rothschild, Friedrich S. (2000). ''Creation and Evolution: A Biosemiotic Approach''. Edison, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. *Thomas Sebeok">Sebeok, Thomas A.; Umiker-Sebeok, Jean (eds.) (1992): ''Biosemiotics. The Semiotic Web 1991.'' Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. *Sebeok, Thomas A.; Hoffmeyer, Jesper; Emmeche, Claus (eds.) (1999). ''Biosemiotica.'' Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. [ = ''Semiotica'' vol. 127 (no.1-4)]. *

External links

International Society for Biosemiotics Studies

older version

New Scientist article on Biosemiotics

Overview of Gatherings in Biosemiotics
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20040428080815/http://www.zbi.ee/~uexkull/ Jakob von Uexküll Centre]
Zoosemiotics Home Page
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