Semiotic scaffolding: a biosemiotic link between sema and soma

TY - CHAP

T1 - Semiotic scaffolding

T2 - a biosemiotic link between sema and soma

AU - Hoffmeyer, Jesper

PY - 2014/1/1

Y1 - 2014/1/1

N2 - While organic life is the product of myriads of biochemical processes it usually escapes notice that the chemistry of life cannot be understood exclusively in terms of chemistry. What must be added is an understanding of the particular organized dynamics, which makes the integration of all these processes into real living creatures possible. This dynamics, however, is not itself part of chemistry, but is evolutionarily tailored to suit a communicative or semiotic (=sign theoretical) logic (Hoffmeyer 2008). Reframing our biological thinking in terms of semiotics, i.e., biosemiotics, deeply challenges basic ontological intuitions that for centuries have informed our thinking in philosophy as well as science. It is claimed that the taboo against final causation (in science) and the rejection of the possibility to know the "thing in it self" (in phenomenology) are interconnected errors reflecting a general failure to recognize the fundamentally semiotic nature of life and cognition. While Cartesian dualism has often enough been critisized, such criticism has rarely touched upon one of its core elements: the belief that our understanding of the world around us is based on sensory mechanics, a belief that is still widely held by scientists and thinkers of today. Replacing sensory mechanics with sensory semiotics opens hitherto not fully explored ways of integrating life and cognition. Human interaction is embedded in semiotic activity that easily penetrates to processes deep in the body and brain and back again. One of the main structuring and enabling principles in the semiotic dynamics across levels has been called semiotic scaffolding a concept that relates to psychological catalyses in interesting ways to be furthe explored.

AB - While organic life is the product of myriads of biochemical processes it usually escapes notice that the chemistry of life cannot be understood exclusively in terms of chemistry. What must be added is an understanding of the particular organized dynamics, which makes the integration of all these processes into real living creatures possible. This dynamics, however, is not itself part of chemistry, but is evolutionarily tailored to suit a communicative or semiotic (=sign theoretical) logic (Hoffmeyer 2008). Reframing our biological thinking in terms of semiotics, i.e., biosemiotics, deeply challenges basic ontological intuitions that for centuries have informed our thinking in philosophy as well as science. It is claimed that the taboo against final causation (in science) and the rejection of the possibility to know the "thing in it self" (in phenomenology) are interconnected errors reflecting a general failure to recognize the fundamentally semiotic nature of life and cognition. While Cartesian dualism has often enough been critisized, such criticism has rarely touched upon one of its core elements: the belief that our understanding of the world around us is based on sensory mechanics, a belief that is still widely held by scientists and thinkers of today. Replacing sensory mechanics with sensory semiotics opens hitherto not fully explored ways of integrating life and cognition. Human interaction is embedded in semiotic activity that easily penetrates to processes deep in the body and brain and back again. One of the main structuring and enabling principles in the semiotic dynamics across levels has been called semiotic scaffolding a concept that relates to psychological catalyses in interesting ways to be furthe explored.

U2 - 10.1007/978-1-4614-8821-7_5

DO - 10.1007/978-1-4614-8821-7_5

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-4614-8820-0

T3 - Annals of Theoretical Psychology

SP - 95

EP - 110

BT - The catalyzing mind

A2 - Cabell, Kenneth R.

A2 - Valsiner, Jaan

PB - Springer Science+Business Media

CY - Dordrecht

ER -