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Author: Alexei Sharov
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030894843
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
This book invites readers to embark on a journey into the world of agency encompassing humans, other organisms, cells, intracellular molecular agents, colonies, populations, ecological systems, and artificial autonomous systems. We combine mechanistic and non-mechanistic approaches in the analysis of the function and evolution of organisms, their subagents, and multi-organism systems, and in this way offer a theoretical platform for integrating biosemiotics with both natural science and the humanities/social sciences. Agents are autonomous systems that incorporate knowledge on how to make sense of their environment and use it to achieve their goals. The functions of all agents are supported by mechanisms at the lowest level; however, the explanatory power of mechanistic analysis is not sufficient for complex agents. Non-mechanistic methods rely on the goal-directedness of agents whose dynamics follow self-stabilized dynamic attractors. The properties of attractors depend on stable or slowly changing factors, and such dependencies can be interpreted as sign relations if they are adaptive in nature. Agents can replace or redirect mechanisms on demand in order to preserve their functions; for performing higher-level semiotic functions, mechanisms are thus only means. We assume that mechanism and semiosis are not mutually exclusive, and that simple agents can interpret signs mechanistically. This assumption allows us to extend semiotic analysis to all agents, including ribosomes in cells, computers, and robots. This book challenges established traditions in natural science and the humanities/social sciences: semiotics no longer appears as restricted to humans and rational thinking, and biology is no longer limited to rely exclusively on mechanistic reasoning.
Author: Alexei Sharov
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030894843
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book invites readers to embark on a journey into the world of agency encompassing humans, other organisms, cells, intracellular molecular agents, colonies, populations, ecological systems, and artificial autonomous systems. We combine mechanistic and non-mechanistic approaches in the analysis of the function and evolution of organisms, their subagents, and multi-organism systems, and in this way offer a theoretical platform for integrating biosemiotics with both natural science and the humanities/social sciences. Agents are autonomous systems that incorporate knowledge on how to make sense of their environment and use it to achieve their goals. The functions of all agents are supported by mechanisms at the lowest level; however, the explanatory power of mechanistic analysis is not sufficient for complex agents. Non-mechanistic methods rely on the goal-directedness of agents whose dynamics follow self-stabilized dynamic attractors. The properties of attractors depend on stable or slowly changing factors, and such dependencies can be interpreted as sign relations if they are adaptive in nature. Agents can replace or redirect mechanisms on demand in order to preserve their functions; for performing higher-level semiotic functions, mechanisms are thus only means. We assume that mechanism and semiosis are not mutually exclusive, and that simple agents can interpret signs mechanistically. This assumption allows us to extend semiotic analysis to all agents, including ribosomes in cells, computers, and robots. This book challenges established traditions in natural science and the humanities/social sciences: semiotics no longer appears as restricted to humans and rational thinking, and biology is no longer limited to rely exclusively on mechanistic reasoning.
Author: N. J. Enfield
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019065452X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
Distributed Agency presents an interdisciplinary inroad into the latest thinking about the distributed nature of agency: what it's like, what are its conditions of possibility, and what are its consequences. The book's 25 chapters are written by a wide range of scholars, from anthropology, biology, cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, geography, law, economics, and sociology. While each chapter takes up different materials using different methods, they all chart relations between the key elements of agency: intentionality, causality, flexibility and accountability. Each chapter seeks to explain how and why such relations are distributed-not just across individuals, but also across bodies and minds, people and things, spaces and times. To do this, the authors work through empirical studies of particular cases, while also offering reviews and syntheses of key ideas from the authors' respective research traditions. Our goals with this collection of essays are to assemble insights from new research on the anatomy of human agency, to address divergent framings of the issues from different disciplines, and to suggest directions for new debates and lines of research. We hope that it will be a resource for researchers working on allied topics, and for students learning about the elements of human-specific modes of shared action, from causality, intentionality, and personhood to ethics, punishment, and accountability.
Author: Paul Kockelman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199926980
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 251
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Book Description
This book offers both a naturalistic and critical theory of signs, minds, and meaning-in-the-world. It provides a reconstructive rather than deconstructive theory of the individual, one which both analytically separates and theoretically synthesizes a range of faculties that are often confused and conflated: agency (understood as a causal capacity), subjectivity (understood as a representational capacity), selfhood (understood as a reflexive capacity), and personhood (understood as a sociopolitical capacity attendant on being an agent, subject, or self). It argues that these facilities are best understood from a semiotic stance that supersedes the usual intentional stance. And, in so doing, it offers a pragmatism-grounded approach to meaning and mediation that is general enough to account for processes that are as embodied and embedded as they are articulated and enminded. In particular, while this theory is focused on human-specific modes of meaning, it also offers a general theory of meaning, such that the agents, subjects and selves in question need not always, or even usually, map onto persons. And while this theory foregrounds agents, persons, subjects and selves, it does this by theorizing processes that often remain in the background of such (often erroneously) individuated figures: ontologies (akin to culture, but generalized across agentive collectivities), interaction (not only between people, but also between people and things, and anything outside or in-between), and infrastructure (akin to context, but generalized to include mediation at any degree of remove).
Author: Evripides Zantides
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1036405494
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 630
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Book Description
The chapters in this book consist of selected papers which investigate the theme of ‘Myths Today’, paying homage to the notion of myth as defined by Roland Barthes in the late 1950’s which provided a theoretical framework under which daily habits, as well as consumer practices, can be examined as socially constructed signs, idealized through verbal narratives. While ‘myth is a type of speech’, it is also a type of image; typeface, cinema, photography, sports, online networks, politics, TV shows, sound, and fashion can all serve as groundwork for mythical discourses. Under this framework, the book explores myths today, in the context of global networks, globalisation, visuals and mass communication. The interdisciplinary nature of the book provides a platform for discussion and research, broadens the scope of semiotic and visual communication thinking, and challenges the boundaries of various disciplines.
Author: Alexei A. Sharov
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119865093
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 516
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Book Description
Pathways to the Origin and Evolition of Meanings in the Universe The book explains why meaning is a part of the universe populated by life, and how organisms generate meanings and then use them for creative transformation of the environment and themselves. This book focuses on interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biology, semiotics, philosophy, ethology, information theory, and the theory of evolution. Such a broad approach provides a rich context for the study of organisms and other semiotic agents in their environments. This methodology can be applied to robotics and artificial intelligence for developing robust, adaptable learning devices. In this book, leading interdisciplinary scholars reveal their vision on how to integrate natural sciences with semiotics, a theory of meaning-making and signification. Developments in biology indicate that the capacity to create and understand signs is not limited to humans or vertebrate animals, but exists in all living organisms - the fact that inspired the integration of biology and semiotics into biosemiotics. The authors discuss the nature of semiotic agents (organisms and other autonomous goal-directed units), meaning, signs, information, memory, evolution, and consciousness. Also discussed are issues including the origin of life, potential meaning and its actualization, top-down causality in physics and biology, capacity of organisms to encode their functions, the strategy of organisms to combine homeostasis with direct adaptation to new life-cycle phases or new environments, multi-level memory systems, increase of freedom via enabling constraints, creative modeling in evolution and learning, communication in animals and humans, the origin and function of language, and the distribution and transfer of life in space. This is the first book on biosemiotics in its global conceptual and spatial scope. Biosemiotics is presented using the language of natural sciences, which supports the scientific grounding of semiotic terms. Finally, the cosmic dimension of life and meaning-making leads to a reconsideration of ethical principles and ecological mentality here on earth and in space exploration. Audience Theoretical biologists, ethologists, astrobiologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, phenomenologists, semioticians, biosemioticians, molecular biologists, linguists, system scientists and engineers.
Author: Massimo Leone
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004691480
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 410
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Book Description
This book offers a comprehensive exploration of language and semiotic ideologies, focusing on how societies construct meaning through verbal and non-verbal communication. It distinguishes itself by adopting a novel approach that bridges linguistics, semiotics, and anthropology. The research dives into uncharted territory, shedding light on the intricate connections between language, culture, and cognition, offering a perspective less common in traditional linguistics or semiotics. Throughout the book, the reader will encounter rare, illustrative examples showcasing the rich tapestry of human communication. Additionally, previously undisclosed historical data adds depth to the analysis, providing fresh insights. This work is designed for scholars seeking a deeper understanding of meaning-making processes and their cultural variations. It also serves as a resource for those interested in the complex interplay of language and semiotics in everyday life.
Author: Alin Olteanu
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110857804
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
Semiotics has ever-changing vistas in consonance with changes in the ever-increasing complexity of life on Planet Earth. This book presents cutting-edge work in semiotics, projecting developments in the future of the field. Authored by leading semioticians, Semiotics and its Masters, Volume 2 contains essays on learning, transdisciplinarity, science, scaffolding, narrative, selfhood, ecosemiotics, agency, cybersemiotics, pornography, nostalgia, language and money. The volume presents a panorama of semiotics as it will develop in the third decade of the 21st century. This book will furnish the reader with an overview of the challenges that face explorers in the contemporary world of signs.
Author: Jamin Pelkey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350139335
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
Bloomsbury Semiotics offers a state-of-the-art overview of the entire field of semiotics by revealing its influence on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. With four volumes spanning theory, method and practice across the disciplines, this definitive reference work emphasizes and strengthens common bonds shared across intellectual cultures, and facilitates the discovery and recovery of meaning across fields. It comprises: Volume 1: History and Semiosis Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences Volume 4: Semiotic Movements Written by leading international experts, the chapters provide comprehensive overviews of the history and status of semiotic inquiry across a diverse range of traditions and disciplines. Together, they highlight key contemporary developments and debates along with ongoing research priorities. Providing the most comprehensive and united overview of the field, Bloomsbury Semiotics enables anyone, from students to seasoned practitioners, to better understand and benefit from semiotic insight and how it relates to their own area of study or research. Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences presents the state-of-the art in semiotic approaches to disciplines ranging from mathematics and biology to neuroscience and medicine, from evolutionary linguistics and animal behaviour studies to computing, finance, law, architecture, and design. Each chapter casts a vision for future research priorities, unanswered questions, and fresh openings for semiotic participation in these and related fields.
Author: Jana Švorcová
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031536266
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Author: W. John Coletta
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030724956
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 279
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Book Description
This volume is based to a large extent on the understanding of biosemiotic literary criticism as a semiotic-model-making enterprise. For Jurij Lotman and Thomas A. Sebeok, “nature writing is essentially a model of the relationship between humans and nature” (Timo Maran); biosemiotic literary criticism, itself a form of nature writing and thus itself an ecological-niche-making enterprise, will be considered to be a model of modeling, a model of nature naturing. Modes and models of analysis drawn from Thomas A. Sebeok and Marcel Danesi’s Forms of Meaning: Modeling Systems Theory and Semiotic Analysis as well as from Timo Maran’s work on “modeling the environment in literature,” Edwina Taborsky’s writing on Peircean semiosis, and, of course, Jesper Hoffmeyer’s formative work in biosemiotics are among the most important organizing elements for this volume.
