Karl Kuno Thure Freiherr von Uexküll (March 15, 1908,

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

– September 29, 2004,

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

) was a German scholar of

psychosomatic medicine Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebear of the modern field of ...

and

biosemiotics Biosemiotics (from the Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, p ...

. He developed the approach of his father,

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 ...

, in the study of living systems and applied it in medicine. His mother was Gudrun Baroness von Uexküll (Gräfin von Schwerin).

Career

;1955–1965: Director of the Medical Outpatient Department at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

;1966–1977: Director of the Department of Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics at the

University of Ulm Ulm University (german: Universität Ulm) is a public university in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1967 and focuses on natural sciences, medicine, engineering sciences, mathematics, economics and computer sci ...

Awards

Honorary Doctor of the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

(1994)

Works

*''Der Sinn des Lebens'' (with

). Godesberg: H.Küpper (1947). *''Der Mensch und die Natur. Grundzüge einer Naturphilosophie.'' Bern: Francke (1953). *''Grundfragen der psychosomatischen Medizin.'' Hamburg: Rowohlt (1963). *''Signs, Symbols and Systems.'' In: T. Sebeok, R. Posner (Hg): A semiotic Landscape. Den Haag, Paris, New York (1974), 487–492. *''Lehrbuch der psychosomatischen Medizin.'' Urban und Schwarzenberg, München; Wien; Baltimore (1979) *''Die Umweltlehre als Theorie der Zeichenprozesse.'' In: Th v. Uexküll (Hg): Kompositionslehre der Natur. Biologie als undogmatische Naturwissenschaft; ausgewählte Schriften. Frankfurt, Berlin, Wien: Ullstein (1980) *''Semiotics and medicine.'' In: Semiotica 38 (1982), 3/4: 205–215. *''Semiotics and the problem of the observer.'' In: Semiotica 48 (1984), 3/4: 187–195. *''Zeichen und Realität als anthroposemiotisches Problem.'' In: Oehler, Klaus (Hrsg.): Zeichen und Realität. Tübingen, Stauffenburg-Verlag (1984), 1: 61–72. *''Medicine and Semiotics.'' In: Semiotica, 61 (1986), 3/4: 201–217. *''Die Wissenschaft von dem Lebendigen.'' In: Perspektiven der Philosophie. Neues Jahrbuch (1987), 13: 451–461. *''Theorie der Humanmedizin. Grundlagen ärztlichen Denkens und Handelns.'' (with Wolfgang Wesiack): München: Urban und Schwarzenberg (1988) *''Naturwissenschaft als Zeichenlehre.'' In: Merkur (1989), 43: 225–234. *''Die Bedeutung der Semiotik für die Medizin.'' In: P. Rusterholz, M. Svilar (Ed). Welt der Zeichen - Welt der Wirklichkeit, Berner Universitätsschriften, Band 38, Verlag Paul Haupt (1993), 38: 85–100. *''Endosemiosis.'' (together with Werner Geigges und Jörg Hermann) In: Semiotica, (1993), 96, 1/2, 5–51. *''Biosemiose.'' In: R.Posner, K. Robering, T. Sebeok (Ed.). Semiotik. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, (1997), 447–457. *''Endosemiose.'' In: R. Posner, K. Robering, T. Sebeok (Hg.). Semiotik. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, (1997), 464–487. *''Psychosomatic Medicine''. München: Urban & Schwarzenberg (1997). *''Theorie der Humanmedizin'' (with Wolfgang Wesiack). München: Urban & Schwarzenberg (1998).

References

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 ...

2004. Thure von Uexküll - Arzt, Wissenschaftler, Semiotiker. ''Zeitschrift für Semiotik'' 26(3/4): 421–428. *

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 ...

;

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 ...

2005
Thure von Uexküll 1908–2004.
''

Sign Systems Studies ''Sign Systems Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on semiotics edited at the Department of Semiotics of the University of Tartu and published by the University of Tartu Press. It is the oldest periodical in the field. It was initially p ...

'' 33(2): 487–494. 1908 births 2004 deaths Physicians from Heidelberg People from the Grand Duchy of Baden German semioticians University of Giessen faculty University of Ulm faculty Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 5th Class {{semiotician-stub