Gathering in Biosemiotics 6, Salzburg 2006

Gathering in Biosemiotics 6, Salzburg 200

Biocommunication of Unicellular and Multicellular Organisms

Far from being mechanistic interactions, communication processes within and between organisms are sign-mediated interactions. Such interactions are the precondition for all cooperation and coordination between at least two biological agents such as organisms, organs, tissues, cells and even subcellular components. In most cases these communication processes are of a fine-tuned interconnected structure within a highly sophisticated hierarchical order. Signs of biocommunicative processes in most cases are chemical molecules. The signs that are used in a great variety of signaling processes follow syntactic, pragmatic and semantic rules. These three levels of semiotic rules are helpful tools in the investigation of the communication processes of unicellular and multicellular organisms. This article demonstrates a coherent biosemiotic categorization of communication processes found in the kingdoms of bacteria, fungi and plants. The investigation further shows that, apart from biotic sign use, a common trait is to interpret abiotic influences as indicators to generate appropriate adaptational behavior

From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science

The change could not be more radical. Biology, as a classical natural science, has celebrated numerous successes. Examining its subject matter from a reductionistic, materialistic point of view has led to exceptional knowledge and given rise to dozens of sub-disciplines. Unfortunately, by pursuing such detail, satisfactory answers to central questions – What is life? How did it originate and how do we view ourselves as living beings? – have been lost in a universe of analytical units. Yet not entirely! A transdisciplinary network is evolving: it goes beyond reductionistic biology, beyond vitalism or a rekindled (metaphysical) enchantment of nature. It is increasingly able to provide better answers to these questions than firmly established, traditional, mechanistic biology: (1.) a semiotics that transcends Peirce, James and Morris to serve as a basis for the interpretation of sign processes in biosemiotics (Kull 2005), (2.) developmental biologists, embryologists and epigeneticists who have turned the paradigm “DNA-RNA-Protein-everything else” (Arthur Kornberg) on its head and who try to understand protein bodies as context-dependent interpreters of the genetic text, (3.) a philosophy that reconstructs biology as an understanding social science which describes the rule-governed sign-mediated interactions of cell individuals to mega-populations in their lifeworlds

Uniform categorization of biocommunication in bacteria, fungi and plants

This article describes a coherent biocommunication categorization for the kingdoms of bacteria, fungi and plants. The investigation further shows that, besides biotic sign use in trans-, inter- and intraorganismic communication processes, a common trait is interpretation of abiotic influences as indicators to generate an appropriate adaptive behaviour. Far from being mechanistic interactions, communication processes within organisms and between organisms are sign-mediated interactions. Sign-mediated interactions are the precondition for every cooperation and coordination between at least two biological agents such as cells, tissues, organs and organisms. Signs of biocommunicative processes are chemical molecules in most cases. The signs that are used in a great variety of signaling processes follow syntactic (combinatorial), pragmatic (context-dependent) and semantic (content-specific) rules. These three levels of semiotic rules are helpful tools to investigate communication processes throughout all organismic kingdoms. It is not the aim to present the latest empirical data concerning communication in these three kingdoms but to present a unifying perspective that is able to interconnect transdisciplinary research on bacteria, fungi and plants