Translated by

Jesper Hoffmeyer  and

Donald Favareau

Edited by Donald Favareau

In John Deely (series ed.): “Approaches to Postmodernity”, University of Scranton Press, Scranton, US. June 2008

Orders can be placed online here.

Originally published in Denmark 2005 as: “Biosemiotik. En afhandling om Livets tegn og tegnenes liv”, Copenhagen: Ries Forlag.

Table of Contents

Summary

Molecules and information have long been considered the major conceptual players at the core of scientific biology. In the present book it is suggested that both these concepts fail to fully specify what life-processes are all about, namely semiosis – i.e.,  the sign processes by which living organisms must organize their internal and external relations. A sign is not the same thing as a piece of information. It is related to information but only becomes “information” through an act of interpretation. Only when an interpretant is formed (in a cell, in a tissue and, of course, in a brain) does “information” acquire biological meaning. Bio-molecules are always carriers of signs in this sense, and their function in the organism cannot be understood simply through an analysis of their chemistry. The Greek word for ‘sign’ is ‘semeion’ and biosemiotics literally means “the study of living systems from a semiotic (i.e., sign-theoretical) perspective.”

It is the aim of the present book to give a comprehensive account of the state of the art of this new approach to biology, and to explore the scientific landscapes brought to life through a broader application of its core idea. It should be emphasized here that biosemiotics does not imply any denial of the anchoring of biological processes in well-established physical and chemical lawfulness. Rather, it is claimed that life-processes are both part of – and are organized in obedience to –  a semiotic dynamic, and that this fact cannot be omitted from a true science of life.

The book consists of three parts and a postscript. Part one contains a general discussion of the biosemiotic project as a strategy in life science and Part two contains a detailed exposition of biosemiotics as it may be employed in the understanding of life processes at different levels of animate nature. Part 3 addresses the radical consequences that the biosemiotic perspective will have on our thinking in a range of other areas: i.e., the origin of language, ethics, aesthetics, biomedicine, environmental understanding, health, cognitive science and biotechnology. In the Postscript is given a brief account of the historical development of the discipline, as well as a prognosis for its future growth.