The cultural implications of biosemiotics

Article

Cobley, P. 2010. The cultural implications of biosemiotics. Biosemiotics. 3 (2), pp. 225-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-010-9089-6
TypeArticle
TitleThe cultural implications of biosemiotics
AuthorsCobley, P.
Abstract

This article focuses on the cultural implications of biosemiotics, considering the extent to which biosemiotics constitutes an “epistemological break” with modern modes of conceptualizing the world. To some extent, the article offers a series of footnotes to points made in the work of Jesper Hoffmeyer. However, it is argued that the move towards ‘agency’ represented in biosemiotics needs to be approached with caution in light of problems of translation between the humanities and the sciences. Notwithstanding these problems, biosemiotics is found to represent the potential for one of the most thoroughgoing shifts that cultural analysis has yet seen.

KeywordsCultural analysis; Humanities; Hoffmeyer; Subject; Agency; Individualism; Collectivity; Verbal; Nonverbal; Living nature; Semiotic freedom; Code duality; Umwelt
PublisherSpringer
JournalBiosemiotics
ISSN1875-1342
Electronic1875-1350
Publication dates
Online21 May 2010
PrintAug 2010
Publication process dates
Submitted05 Feb 2010
Accepted15 Mar 2010
Deposited02 Oct 2023
Output statusPublished
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-010-9089-6
Web of Science identifierWOS:000291731800007
LanguageEnglish
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