[Morten Tønnessen] Utopian Realism 2009

8/14/2019 [Morten Tnnessen] Utopian Realism 2009

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UTOPIAN REALISMU T O P I S M . * * * I N T H E L O N G R U N , N O T H I N G L E S S I S R E A L I S T I C . * * *

W E L C O M E T O T H E E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E B L O G O F M O R T E N T N N E S S E N ,

P H D S T U D E N T A T D E P A R T M E N T O F S E M I O T I C S , U N I V E R S I T Y O F T A R T U .

* * * J O I N M E I N D E V E L O P I N G A T R U E S E M I O T I C S O F B E I N G !

B L O G A R C H I V E

2009 (102)

December (6)o Festschrift contribution submittedo Play, love etc. - UiA Philosophy Forum in preparat...o Work title: "I, wolf"o Invitation to contribute to book by Nova Publisher...o Expanding horizons: Interdisciplinary integrationo Lotman piece to be co-written by Dinda L. Gorle

November (9)o Conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology...o Contribution on Lotman to Norwegian-Estonian Fests...o New colleagueso Titles - books I would like to have written (or re...o Course work on Uexkll - meetings at UiA - the phi...o Committee for UiA Philosophy Forumo Philosophy in Stavanger (siddisfilosofi)o Philosophy in Kristiansando "An ageing giant" - Arne Nss in memory

October (11)o The wolf as scapegoato Co-editing of special issue on biosemioticso First semioethics interview published + "Meditatio...o Proceedings of the world congress in semiotics 200...o Poster presentation presentationo Proceedingso Animal play article to appear in Decembero Mapping human impacto Poster presentation on the notion of ecological fo...o Chronicles in Norwegian media - wolf politicso New wolf essay

September (7)o Annotated bibliography, 3rd quartero "Outline of an Uexkllian bio-ontology" referred t...


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o On site in A Corua, Spaino The abstract book of the 2009 world congress in se...o Reflection piece in Hortus Semioticuso My first blurbo Research assistant (UiA) - multimodality

August (7)o Presentation in T seminar on the methodology of t...o New timetable for "Semiotics of Perception"o University teachero Report from China to appear in Norwegian mediao Where are the Estonians?o Q & A with Paul Crutzeno Copenhagen (WCEH)

July (6)o Existential universalso Brian Goodwin (1931-2009)o The Global Specieso Lecturer at University of Agdero Brief report from Gathering in Biosemiotics 9, Pra...o Climate change and the growth paradigm

June (11)o Defining biological meaningo Tolerant Tartuo Climate synthesis reporto 10th World Congress of Semiotics - Big Bad Wolf ac...o Academic news in brief III: Attested, revised, and...o Poster presentation in Tallinn in Octobero Proceedings from World Congress, Helsinki/Imatrao First ISI Web of Science publicationo First semioethics interviewo My question to Umberto Eco on science and fictiono Most viewed at Scribd

May (6)o Wolves, traffic lights and cultural mixo Exam seasono Biosemiotics abstract book - contrapunctualityo Book, book chaptero Umwelt ethics, deep ecology and Spinozao Academic news in brief II

o April (12) Abstract to X Congreso mundial de semitica Reminiscences on Arne Nss World Congress New biosemiotic research project in spe Food vs. Nature Climate survey in The Guardian Participation in research group Three texts


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Umwelt Transitions: Uexkll and Environmental Chan... Rescheduling of wolf presentation Update on Abram/Estonian media Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal p...

March (10)o Academic news in briefo Petition to include ethical expertise in the IPCCo My updated CVo New blog - The Schopenhauer Experienceo Norwegian teachero Page numberso Climate publication - IOP Conference Serieso My poster for the congress Climate Change: Global ...o Poster programme, Copenhageno Food vs. Nature

February (12)o Talk at Gatherings in Biosemiotics, Pragueo Global Voices: Estonia?o Homepage for zoosemiotics projecto The nature view held by environmentalistso Academic journals - open access publishingo Web stats Utopian Realismo SemioPhenomenon web statso David Abram's public lecture onlineo Contrapuntuality - Gatherings in biosemiotics 2009...o Estonian mediao Most viewed at Scribd ... and web statso My article "Umwelt Transitions: Uexkll and Enviro...

o January (5) Now I have seen wolves International participation at workshops Arne Nss First wolf article - Umwelt mapping New research project in zoosemiotics


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SUNDAY, 20 DECEMBER 2009

Festschrift contribution submitted

The festschrift contribution of me and Dinda Gorlee, now entitled "Da Lotman og semiotikkenkom til Norge" (When Lotman and semiotics came to Norway), has been finished andsubmitted to the editors.

Posted by Morten Tnnessen at 05:37 0 comments

Labels: Estonia, Festschrift, Lotman, Norway, Sebeok

THURSDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2009

Play, love etc. - UiA Philosophy Forum in preparation

I have previously mentioned the UiA Philosophy Forum (Filosofisk Forum) - see here, and here.

Today the committee of the forum gathered for the second time. We have made a draft ofthe spring programme, which looks more or less like this:

1) Tuesday, January 19th (16-18)

Morten Tnnessen: "Lek som sivilisasjonens opphav" (Play as the origin of civilization),followed by discussion

2) Tuesday, February 16th (16-18)

To filosofiske samtaler (Two philosophical dialogues)

3) Tuesday, March 16th (18-20)

Filosofisk samtale om tro (Philosophical dialogue on faith), led by Hvard Lkke

4) Tuesday, April 13th (16-18)

Hvard Lkke: Kjrlighet som moralsk flelse (Love as a moral emotion)

5) Tuesday, May 25th (18-20)

Public lecture with invited lecturer, in town. Name and title T.B.A.

In addition, there will be a course session in "philosophical dialogue" (filosofisk samtale) - in


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preparation of the February dialogue and the public event in March - February 2nd.

While events 1, 2 and 4 are "internal" (university area) events - though open to all - the 3rdand 5th event will take place outside of campus, and aim at engaging a wider audience, ineach their way (strictly speaking, this may apply to event 3 more than to event 5, which will

nevertheless be made available for a general audience). The methodology for the dialogicevents has in the Norwegian context been further developed by amongst others yvindOlsholt.

Besides talking at event 1, I will coordinate contacts for event 3, where we hope to gatherindividuals from different faiths etc. - protestants, catholics, muslims, agnostics and atheists- for a common philosophical dialogue.


Labels: animal play, belief, civilization, dialogue, emotion, faith, feeling, love, religion

THURSDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2009

Work title: "I, wolf"

The work title for my article-in-progress for the forthcoming anthology Environment,Embodiment and History, edited by Johannes Servan and Ane Faugstad Aar, is:

I, Wolf:The Ecology of Experience


Labels: Anthology, embodiment, environment, phenomenology, Uexkllian phenomenology,wolf, wolf ecology, wolf imagery, wolf politics

MONDAY, 7 DECEMBER 2009

Invitation to contribute to book by Nova Publishers

I have received an email from Nova Science Publishers (signed by editor-in-chief FrankColumbus) in which I am invited to contribute to a book entitled "Semiotics: Theory andapplications". They previously published 2 issues of "Journal of Biosemiotics".


Labels: applied semiotics, Nova Science Publishers, semiotics, theory

FRIDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2009

Expanding horizons: Interdisciplinary integration


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Today, at 2-4, I presented "Expanding horizons: Interdisciplinary integration", previouslyentitled "Methodological challenges in analyzing wolf ecology and wolf management within asemiotic-phenomenological framework" (a 30 min talk, accompanying Timo Maran's"Zoosemiotics: Disciplinary identity and methodological perspectives" (a good overview, withhistorical perspective)). The occasion was a seminar called "Methodology of the humanities",at University of Tartu (led by Peeter Torop).

Above: Sketch of a global ontological map (humankind in the center).

Posted by Morten Tnnessen at 11:46 0 commentsLabels: interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary, Ontological map, Ontological niche, semiotics,Tartu semiotics, Timo Maran, University of Tartu, zoosemiotics

Lotman piece to be co-written by Dinda L. Gorle


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I have agreed with Dinda L. Gorle (the Netherlands) that we will cowrite my (now our)aforementioned 2 pp contribution to a Norwegian-Estonian Festschrift, due for next spring.She was a central figure in Norwegian semiotics in the mid-1980s - the only time (so far)semiotics has flourished much in Norway.

Posted by Morten Tnnessen at 11:27 0 commentsLabels: Bergen 1986, Dinda L. Gorle, Estonia, Festschrift, Lotman, Norway

MONDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2009

Conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology, 2010

I have submitted the following...

Contribution to the 8th annual conference ofTHE NORDIC SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY

(Nordisk Selskab for Fnomenologi)under the general theme

/NEW ORIENTATIONS: IN PHENOMENOLOGY

to be arranged at Sdertrn University Collegein Stockholm, April 22-24, 2010

/

Individual presentation

by Morten Tnnessen

/

Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, University of TartuVindmllegangen 1, 4631 Kristiansand, NORWAY

Kuu 39-64, 50 104 Tartu, ESTONIAAcademic homepage: http://utopianrealism.blogspot.com/

/

Suggested titleSemiotics of Being and Uexkllian Phenomenology

/

German-Baltic biologist Jakob von Uexkll (1864-1944) did not regard himself as aphenomenologist. Neither did he conceive of himself as a semiotician. Nevertheless, hisUmwelt terminology has of late been utilized and further developed within the framework of


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semiotics and various other disciplines - and, as I will argue, essential points in his work canfruitfully be taken to represent a distinctive Uexkllian phenomenology, characterized notleast by an assumption of the (in the realm of life) universal existence of a genuine firstperson perspective, i.e., of experienced worlds.

In the course of the presentation, I will briefly relate Uexkllian phenomenology toa) Immanuel Kant (1724-1804),

b) the eco-existentialism of Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899-1990)

c) eco-phenomenology (including David Abram and Ted Toadvine),

d) and semiotics of nature (biosemiotics, ecosemiotics, zoosemiotics)


Labels: eco-existentialism, existence, experience, experienced world, phenomenal world,phenomenology, semiotics, semiotics of being, Uexkll, Uexkllian phenomenology, Zapffe

FRIDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2009

Contribution on Lotman to Norwegian-Estonian Festschrift

I have agreed to contribute with a short (2 pp) article to the planned Festschrift of theNorwegian-Estonian Association (Norsk-Estisk Forening), at the occasion of its 25 yearanniversary. My article will be written in Norwegian, and deal with the (pretty recent) historyof Tartu semiotics, with special emphasis on Juri Lotman and his connection to Norway (notleast the 1986 conference in Bergen, where - for the first and last time - Thomas Sebeok metJuri Lotman).

This short article should be finished by December 20th. The Festschrift will be published in2010, at the occasion of the independence day of the Republic of Estonia (February 24th).


New colleagues

Two more researchers have joined the research project "The Cultural Heritage of

Environmental Spaces. A Comparative Analysis Between Estonia and Norway" (the firstreplacing Peder Anker as the Norwegian collaborator in a study of Estonian peat bogs etc.), inwhich I take part with my Ph.D. work as a "main researcher". First, Finn Arne Jrgensen,NTNU, who's involved in environmental history (and trying to establish a Norwegian networkwithin that field). I met him at the first world congress of environmental history inCopenhagen in August. Second, Renata Sukand - who happens to be one of the contributors


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to the special issue of Biosemiotics for which I am one of two guest-editors ('Semiotics ofperception').


Labels: comparative analysis, Cultual heritage, Estonia, Norway, peat bogs

THURSDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2009

Titles - books I would like to have written (or read)

Some of these are good titles (others contain but one word of special interest). Others aregood, or reputed, authors, or concern topics that interest me. Most of them will never beread by me. Some, perhaps, will maybe even be influential in my thinking. Time will(perhaps) tell.

Ahonen, Pertti. 1989. The meaning of money: Comparing a Peircean and Saussurean

perspective. In Kevelson, R., ed., 13-29.

Albone, Eric S. 1984. Mammalian Semiochemistry. Chichester: Wiley.

Anderson, Myrdene & Floyd Merrell, eds. 1991. On Semiotic Modeling. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter.

Aschenberg, Heidi. 1978. Phnomenologische Philosophie und Sprache. Tbingen: Narr.

Balat, Michel & Janice Deledalle-Rhodes, eds. 1992. Signs of Humanity. Berlin: Moutonde Gruyter.

Br, Eugen 1981. Die Zeichenlehre von Thomas A. Sebeok. In Krampen, M., et al., eds.,281-321.

Barnlund, Dean 1981. Toward an ecology of communication. In Mott, C. W. & J. H.Weakland, eds., 87-126.

Baudrillard, Jean. 1972. Pour une critique de lconomie politique du signe. Paris:Gallimard. Port. s.d. Para uma crtica da economia poltica do signo. Lisboa: MartinsFontes.

. 1976. Lchange symbolique et la mort. Paris: Gallimard.

Beck, Cave. 1657. The Universal Character, by Which All the Nations in the World MayUnderstand One Anothers Conceptions. London.

Bentley, Arthur F. 1947. The new semiotic. Philosophy and PhenomenologicalResearch 8.1: 107-31.


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Bernard-Donals, Michael F. 1994. Mikhail Bakhtin Between Phenomenology and Marxism.Cambridge: Univ. Press.

Bierman, Arthur K. 1962. That there are no iconic signs. Philosophy andPhenomenological Research 23: 243-49.

Bonner, John Tyler. 1980. The Evolution of Culture in Animals. Princeton: Univ. Press.

Borsche, Tilman & Werner Stegmaier, eds. 1992. Zur Philosophie des Zeichens. Berlin:de Gruyter.

Bttner, Margueritte. 1980. Zeichensysteme der Tiere: Ein Versuch angewandterSemiotik. Stuttgart: Diss. Phil.

Bouissac, Paul. 1989. What is a human? Ecological semiotics and the new animism.Semiotica 77: 497-516.

Bright, Michael. 1984. Animal Language. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.Brown, Jerram L. & Gordon H. Orians. 1970. Spacing patterns in mobile animals. AnnualReview of Ecological Systems 1: 239-62.

Buczyska-Garewicz, Hanna. 1984. The degenerate sign. In Borb, T., ed., vol. 1, 43-50.

Bunn, James H. 1981. The Dimensionality of Signs, Tools, and Models. Bloomington:Indiana Univ. Press.

Burkhardt, Dietrich, et al., eds. 1966. Signale der Tierwelt. Mnchen: Moos.

Busnel, Ren-Guy & Andr Classe. 1976. Whistled Languages. Berlin: Springer.Carnap, Rudolf. (1928) 1961. Der logische Aufbau der Welt. Hamburg: Meiner.

Carterette, Edward C. & Morton P. Friedman, eds. 1976. Handbook of Perception. NewYork: Academic Press.

Castaeda, Hector-Neri. 1990. Indicators: The semiotics of experience. In Jacobi, K. &H. Pape, 57-93.

Cheney, Dorothy & Robert M. Seyfarth. 1982. Recognition of individuals within andbetween groups of free-ranging vervet monkeys. American Zoologist 22: 519-529.

Classen, Constance, David Howes & Anthony Synnott. 1994. Aroma: The Cultural Historyof Smell. London: Routledge.

Coker, Wilson. 1972. Music and Meaning. New York: Free Press.

Colapietro, Vincent M. 1989. Peirces Approach to the Self. Albany: State Univ. of NewYork Press.


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Costadeau, Alphonse. (1717) 1983 (1717) 1983. Trait des signes, vol. 1,ed. Le Guern-Forel, O. Bern: Lang.

Crystal, David 1980. Introduction to Language Pathology. London: Arnold.

Dascal, Marcelo. 1978. La smiologie de Leibniz. Paris: Aubier-Montaigne.

Davidson, Donald 1978. What metaphors mean. Critical Inquiry 5: 31-47.

Dawkins, Richard & John R. Krebs. 1978. Animal signals: Information or manipulation. InKrebs, J. R. & N. B. Davies, eds., 282-309.

Deely, John N. 1974. The two approaches to language... Jean Poinsots semiotic. TheThomist 38: 856-907.

Dirven, Ren. 1993. Metonymy and metaphor. Leuvense Bijdragen 82: 1-28.

Dressler, Wolfgang U. 1989. Semiotische Parameter einer textlinguistischen

Natrlichkeitstheorie. Wien: sterr. Akad. der Wiss. (=. A. d. W., Phil.-Hist. Kl.,Sitzungsber., vol. 529).

Dutz, Klaus D. 1985. Historiographia Semioticae (= papmaks 18). Mnster: MAkS.

Ebert, Theodor. 1987. The origin of the Stoic theory of signs in Sextus Empiricus. OxfordStudies in Ancient Philosophy 5: 83-126.

Eco, Umberto 1984b. Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language. Bloomington: IndianaUniv. Press.

. 1985a. How culture conditions the colors we see. In Blonsky, M., ed., 157-75.. 1986. Travels in Hyperreality. New York: Harcourt.

Eimermacher, Karl, comp. 1974. Arbeiten sowjetischer Semiotiker der Moskauer undTartuer Schule (Auswahlbibliographie). Kronberg: Scriptor.

Ekman, Paul, ed. 1973. Darwin and Facial Expression. New York: Academic Press.

Emanuele, Pietro. 1982. Prsemiotik und Semiotik in Heidegger. Semiosis 25/26: 140-44.

Fill, Alwin. 1993. kolinguistik. Tbingen: Narr.

Finlay, Marike. 1988. The Romantic Irony of Semiotics: Friedrich Schlegel and the Crisisof Representation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Fleischer, Michael. 1987. Hund und Mensch: Eine semiotische Analyse ihrerKommunikation. Tbingen: Stauffenburg.


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Fraasen, Bas C. van. 1985. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space. NewYork: Columbia Univ. Press.

Garvin, Harry R., ed. 1976. Phenomenology, Structuralism, Semiology (= BucknellReview, April 1976). Lewisburg: Bucknell Univ. Press.

Gibson, James J. 1966. The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Boston: Mifflin.

. 1979. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Mifflin.

Glidden, David. 1983. Skeptic semiotics. Phronesis 28: 213-55.

Harrison, P. A. 1983. Behaving Brazilian: A Comparison of Brazilian and North AmericanSocial Behavior. Rowley: Newbury House.

Havelock, Eric A. 1963. Preface to Plato. Oxford: Blackwell.

Holenstein, Elmar. 1975. Roman Jakobsons phnomenologischer Strukturalismus.

Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp. Port. 1978. Introduo ao pensamento de Roman Jakobson.Rio de Janeiro: J. Zahar.

Jones, Roger S. 1982. Physics as Metaphor. New York: Meridian.

Kalinowski, Georges. 1985. Smiotique et philosophie. Paris, Amsterdam: Hads-Benjamins.

Katz, David. (1925) 1969. Der Aufbau der Tastwelt. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchgesellschaft.

Kelemen, Jnos 1991. Kants semiotics. In Sebeok, T. A. & J. Umiker-Sebeok, eds., 201-

18.Kiefer, Georg R. 1970. Zur Semiotisierung der Umwelt. Stuttgart: Diss. Phil.

Klaus, Georg. (1963) 1973. Semiotik und Erkenntnistheorie. Mnchen: Fink.

Klinck, Dennis. 1993. The semiotics of money. In Kevelson, R., ed., 229-250.

Koch, Walter A. 1986c. Philosophie der Philologie und Semiotik. Literatur und Welt:Versuche zur Interdisziplinaritt der Philologie. Bochum: Brockmeyer.

. 1989. The Well of Tears: A Biosemiotic Essay on the Roots of Horror, Comic, and

Pathos. Bochum: Brockmeyer.. 1991b. Language in the Upper Pleistocene. Bochum: Brockmeyer.

. 1992. Ecogenesis und echogenesis. In Sebeok, T. A. & J. Umiker-Sebeok, eds.,171-211.

Koch, Walter A., ed. 1982. Semiogenesis. Frankfurt/Main: Lang.


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. 1990d. Semiotics in the Individual Sciences. 2 vols. Bochum: Brockmeyer.

. 1990f. Wissenschaftstheorie und Semiotik. Bochum: Brockmeyer.

Komar, Gerhard 1991. Geldzeichen. Zeitschrift fr Semiotik 13: 345-365.

Krampen, Martin, et al., eds. 1981. Die Welt als Zeichen: Klassiker der modernenSemiotik. Berlin: Severin & Siedler.

Kruse, Felicia 1990. Nature and semiosis. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society26.2: 211-224.

Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Univ. of ChicagoPress.

Lanigan, Richard L. 1977. Speech Act Phenomenology. The Hague: Nijhoff.

Larsen, Hanne Hartvig, et al., eds. 1991. Marketing and Semiotics. Copenhagen:

Handelshjskolen Forlag.

Lewis, Philip E. 1974. Revolutionary semiotics. Diacritics 4 (Fall): 28-32.

Lindgren, J. Ralph. 1993. The emergence of signs: The seminal convention of money. InKevelson, R., ed., 283-297.

Manning, Peter K. 1987. Semiotics and Fieldwork. Newbury Park: Sage.

Meier-Oeser, Stephan 1997a. Die Spur des Zeichens: Das Zeichen und seine Funktion inder Philosophie des Mittelalters und der frhen Neuzeit. Berlin: de Gruyter.

Merrell, Floyd 1996. Signs Grow: Semiosis and Life Processes. Toronto: Univ. Press.

Mick, David G. 1999. A global review of semiotic consumer research (= Working Paper,Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Business).

Montagu, Ashley. 1971. Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. New York:Columbia Univ. Press.

Oehler, Klaus, ed. 1984. Zeichen und Realitt. 3 vols. Tbingen: Stauffenburg.

Pittenger, Robert E., Charles F. Hockett & John J. Danehy. 1960. The First Five Minutes.

Ithaca, N.Y.: P. Martineau.Pogorzelski, H. A. & W. J. Ryan. 1982. Foundations of Semiological Theory of Numbers.Orono: Univ. of Maine Press.

Presnell, Michael. 1983. Sign, Image, and Desire: Semiotic Phenomenology and the FilmImage. Ann Arbor: Univ. Microfilms Int.


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Preziosi, Donald. 1979b. The Semiotics of the Built Environment. Bloomington: IndianaUniv. Press.

Reis, Carlos. 1993. Towards a Semiotics of Ideology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Romeo, Luigi. 1979d. Ecce Homo: A Lexicon of Man. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Rosenthal, Sandra B. 1998. Phenomenological semiotics. In Posner, R., et al., eds., vol.2, 2096-2112.

Salthe, Stanley. 1998. Naturalizing semiotics. Semiotica 120: 381-394.

Santaella, Lucia. 1996c. Semiosphere: The growth of signs. Semiotica 109: 173-186.

Schiff, William & Emerson Foulke, eds. 1982. Tactual Perception: A Sourcebook.Cambridge: Univ. Press.

Simmel, Georg. (1900) 1922. Philosophie des Geldes. Mnchen: Duncker & Humblot.

Tembrock, Gnter. 1971. Biokommunikation. 2 vols. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

Thom, Ren. (1988) 1990. Esquisse dune smiophysique. Ingl. 1990. Semiophysics: ASketch. Redwood City, Cal.: Addision-Wesley.

Thompson, Michael. 1979. Rubbish Theory. Oxford: Univ. Press.

Trampe, Wilhelm. 1990. kologische Linguistik. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.

Trevarthen, Colwyn. 1994. Infant semiosis. In Nth, W., ed., 219-252.

Valsiner, Jaan & Jri Allik. 1982. General semiotic capabilities of the higher primates. InKey, M. R., ed., 245-57.

Vincent Ferrer. (ca. 1400) 1977. Tractatus de suppositionibus. Ed. Trentman, J. A.Stuttgart: Frommann.

Walther, Fritz R. 1984. Communication and Expression in Hooved Mammals.Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.

Wescott, Roger W. 1984. Semiogenesis and paleogenesis. Semiotica 48: 181-85.

Yaguello, Marina. 1991. Lunatic Lovers of Language: Imaginary Languages and their

Inventors. London: Athlone.

Zarcadoolas, Christina. 1983. How to Do Things with Linguistics, Semiotics, Speech Acts,and Phenomenology. Ph. D. Thesis, Brown Univ. Ann Arbor: Univ. Microfilms Int.



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Labels: bibliography, books, semiotics, tidsklemma, titles

WEDNESDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2009

Course work on Uexkll - meetings at UiA - the philosophy business

I'm following the T course "Readings of Juri Lotman and Jakob von Uexkll", and the firsthalf, considering the work of Uexkll, has now finished. A couple of days ago I submitted the(first) term paper, "An Uexkllian Theory of Evolution?" (7 pp). I have further - since Iliterarily take the course as a reading course, from a distance - submitted 6 c3 pp papers withQ&As, covering the reading material.

Uexkll and evolution for many sounds like a topic that spells out a contradiction in terms.That, I believe, does not necessarily have to be the case. Whereas some biosemioticians (e.g.Stjernfelt 2001) have asserted that Uexkll was anti-evolution, others (e.g. Salthe 2001; Kull2004) have concluded that he was anti-Darwinian, but not hostile to the idea of evolution assuch. Here I must agree with the latter group, as I hope will shine through in the rest of thisexposition. And not only do I think Uexkll was not anti-evolution (though, as I explain inTnnessen 2009, he was programmatically not historically-minded) more than that; I believethat an Uexkllian perspective might actually prove to be enriching within the field ofevolutionary theory. Theres proof that Uexkll did not only have negative, but also positive,thought about evolution in his dictum (1928: 198) that each new appearing functional cycleverifies [the appearance of] a new animal species (my translation).

Meanwhile, the committee for the UiA Philosophy Forum has held its first meeting (thisMonday).

So has - today - UiA's "Fagfilosofisk seksjon" (Academic philosophical section), consisting of thephilosophers at Department of religion, philosophy and history. The topic, which has beendiscussed at one previous meeting as well and will be discussed further at the institute levelin December, concerns establishing new (more advanced) courses in philosophy as part of arevised bachelor degree (which is today a bachelor in religion). One day, some say, we mightoffer a master in philosophy. That would truly be of great value for the philosophy milieu atUiA, and its attraction for students and scholars alike. Today only a one-year studium isoffered (apart from the broader introductory course, Examen Philosophicum).

Meanwhile ... I have finished (yesterday) a catalogue, or leaflet (4 pp), presenting the paid

services offered by my one-man company, SPR FILOSOFEN (Ask the philosopher) - rangingfrom lectures and courses via writing and editing to consultancy activities. You'll find it onScribd.

And thus the world advances...



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Labels: bachelor, course, evolution, Lotman, philosophy, philosophy business, SPRFILOSOFEN, T biosemiotics, Uexkll, UiA, University of Agder, University of Tartu


Committee for UiA Philosophy Forum

The committee for the University of Agder Philosophy Forum (styringsgruppa for FilosofiskForum) now seems to be in place, counting the following members:

/

Hvard Lkke

Olav Andreas Opedal

Hege Stensland

Morten Tnnessen

Ralph Henk Vaags

/

The first meeting of the committee is likely to be arranged this Monday. The first Forum inthis round will likely take place in January.


Labels: forum, philosophy, styringsgruppa for Filosofisk forum, UiA, University of Agder

THURSDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2009

Philosophy in Stavanger (siddisfilosofi)


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This term - starting November 27th or so - I will take part in the marking at ExamenPhilosophicum at the University of Stavanger (the university of the town where I was born, onthe West coast of Norway), as an external examiner. Written exam is the genre, 3,000 wordsthe approximate length of the apparently 160 exam papers.

I am thus for the moment connected to no less than three universities - University ofStavanger (as an external examiner), University of Agder (as a lecturer, research assistant,and involved in philosophy forums) and University of Tartu (as a Ph.D. student, andparticipant in research projects etc.).



Philosophy in Kristiansand

Today I met with Ralph Henk Vaags at UiA. We have agreed to restart 'Filosofisk fagforum'[Forum for academic philosophy], as well as 'Filosofisk forskerforum' [Philosophical researchforum] at the University of Agder (in both cases it's the first time I'm partaking). For now theplan for the former is to arrange monthly 2-hrs seminars next spring. The two of us expect toform the responsible committee, along with a student representative.

Independently of these activities, the town of Kristiansand also features a near-monthly'philosophical caf', Kristiansand Filosofikaf, dating back to 2001.

Not bad for a mid-size Norwegian town whose biggest celebrity is a chimpanzee called Julius(who happens to be one of the town's best painters, as well).


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Labels: forum, Julius, Kristiansand, Kristiansand Filosofikaf, philosophy of biology, UiA,University of Agder

W E D N E S D A Y , 4 N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9

"An ageing giant" - Arne Nss in memory

I have just come across the newsletter wherein my brief text "An ageing giant"

appears (p13).

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

NEWSLETTER

_____________________________________________________Volume 20, No. 2 Spring/Summer 2009

Morten Tnnessen, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, University of Tartu, Estonia:

An Ageing Giant

It is hard to summarize what Arne Nss has meant to mefirst of all because he has

been so decisive in forming me as a practicing philosopher. For years I had difficulties

seeing where, at all, I would disagree with him (a problem I have now to some extent

overcome). I was early on inspired by his interpretation of Gandhis political ethicsthats how I made the leap from activist to student of philosophy. As is the case for so

many Norwegians, it was his work that introduced me to philosophy. A course in deep

ecology at kerya in Norway in the late 1990s was central in giving me a more solid

basis for eco-philosophical reasoning (a couple years later Knut Olav Fossestl,

another course participant, and I founded the Eco-philosophical colloquium at the

University of Oslo). By then Arne was already a familiar face for me as a philosophy

student30 years after he retired as professor, he was still around offering public

lectures. In 2001 and 2003, I arranged public events with him myself. By 2003,however, it was clear that this brilliant mind struggled to remain intellectually alert

and coherent. A request to partake in a proposal (concerning the Norwegian Petro-

fund) from the Green Party of Norway, for which I was the national secretary at the

time, was therefore revoked.


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I interviewed him a couple of times. After the kerya seminar I sent him my first

booklong philosophical manuscript, Dialog. He had agreed to comment it, but now I

got it returned, with an exact explanation: 372 pages! I never knew whether to call

him Arne or Nss. Despite having met him around a dozen times, he never appeared

with certaintyto recognize me (I wish he had). Today I have the fortune of being in

contact with some of his closest colleagues at the eco-scene. The last time I was in

contact with him (through Kit-Fai) was in 2006, when I was conducting a survey of

attitudes in the Norwegian environmentalist establishmentpartly inspired by his own

little survey on attitudes to nature among Norwegian bureaucrats and others carried

out a generation or so earlier. As I heard the news of his death, I pondered home to

our house in Mag, Brazil, where we were at the time, and stepped into our outdoor

swimming pool, as the day darkened. A couple of bats joined me. I retreated to a

corner, offering the two nocturnal creatures (ecological!) space enough to rejoice

undisturbed in their playful bath.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 04:56 0 COMMENTS LABELS: ARNE NSS , BAT , DEATH , DEEP ECOLOGY , ENVIRONMENTALETHICS

M O N D A Y , 2 6 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

The wolf as scapegoat

My debate article "Ulven som syndebukk" [The wolf as scapegoat] is in print today in

the major Norwegian national daily Dagbladet.

A longer Norwegian version of the text is to be found in my Norwegian blog, Utopisk

Realisme.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 08:21 0 COMMENTS LABELS: WOLF IMAGERY , WOLF MANAGEMENT , WOLF POLITICS

F R I D A Y , 2 3 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9


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Co-editing of special issue on biosemiotics

Yesterday I agreed to co-edit a special issue of Hortus Semioticus on biosemiotics

(zoosemiotics etc. included) with Nelly Mekivi and Riin Magnus.

The special issue, which will feature articles in both English and Estonian and is

expected to appear as no. 7, 2010 (after no. 5 is published this year and no. 6 is

published as a regular number in the spring of 2010), will include an interview with

Kalevi Kull (link inactive at the time of writing this...), conducted by Riin Magnus and

me.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 07:19 0 COMMENTS

LABELS: BIOSEMIOTICS, ECOSEMIOTICS, HORTUS SEMIOTICUS , KALEVI KULL ,ZOOSEMIOTICS

First semioethics interview published + "Meditationes Semioticae"

Hortus Semioticus no. 4 (2009) appeared some days ago. My contributions:

Pp57-80 "Tell me, where is morality bred? The Semioethics Interviews I: John Deely"

PDF here

Pp81-84: "Meditationes Semioticae: Signs grow but should they? Semioethics and the

dominant semiosis of Homo sapiens sapiens" PDF here

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 07:14 0 COMMENTS LABELS: ETHICS, HOMO SAPIENS , HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS , JOHN DEELY ,SEMIOETHICS, SEMIOSIS , SIGNS, SIGNS GROW

W E D N E S D A Y , 2 1 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

Proceedings of the world congress in semiotics 2007


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At long last I have received the proceedings of the 9th congress of the IASS/AIS -

Helsinki-Imatra, 11-17 June, 2007, "Communication:

Understanding/Misunderstanding", edited by Eero Tarasti (associated editors: Paul

Forsell and Richard Littlefield). And quite a work it is, in 3 volumes (Acta Semiotica

Fennica XXXIV, International Semiotics Institute, Imatra/Semiotic Society of Finland,

Helsinki 2009).

My text "Where I end and you begin: The threshold of the self and the intrinsic value

of the phenomenal world" appears pp. 1798-1803 (vol. III). Here, for the first time in

Earth history (in print), I offer "a critique of a critique", namely of semioethics: "While

I agree with several of the foundational statements of a semioethics proper, i have

some critical remarks as to its present manifestation." I have now been engaged with

semioethics for 2 years plus, not least through this spring's first "semioethics

interviews" with John Deely, the first of which will sooner-than-ever be published.

The article also contains seeds to what I now call "semiotic economy".

In the article I refer to:

David Agler


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Gregory Bateson

Donald Favareau

Arne Nss

Susan Petrilli and Augusto Ponzio

David Rothenberg

and myself ("Umwelt ethics")

The name of my article appears in the Contents (vol. I, p. xx). I ("Tonnesen") is

further referred to in the Thematic index (vol. III) under the keywords "biosemiotics"

(p. 1971) - but not under "ethics", nor "politics", nor "semioethics".

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 12:52 0 COMMENTS LABELS: INDEX , INTRINSIC VALUE , JOHN DEELY , PHENOMENOLOGY,PROCEEDINGS, RADIOHEAD, SELF , SEMIOETHICS, SEMIOTIC ECONOMY ,SEMIOTICS, UEXKLL , UMWELT , WORLD CONGRESS

Poster presentation presentation

My poster "Mapping human impact: Ecological footprint vs. ontological niche" is on

display at the second CECT autumn conference, "Spatiality, memory and visualisation

of culture/nature relationships", tomorrow from 4 to 6 p.m. The 5 minute oral

presentation of my poster presentation has been scheduled for 17.00-17.05. Full

poster programme here.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 11:40 0 COMMENTS LABELS: CECT , ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT , MAP , ONTOLOGICAL NICHE ,SPATIALITY. CULTURE/NATURE

M O N D A Y , 1 9 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

Proceedings


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Last week I submitted my contribution to the 10th world congress in semiotics

proceedings, "The changing imagery of the big bad wolf".

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 10:37 0 COMMENTS LABELS: THE BIG BAD WOLF , WOLF IMAGERY , WOLF MANAGEMENT , WOLFPOLITICS

T H U R S D A Y , 1 5 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

Animal play article to appear in December

I expect my article "Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play" to appear in

December, in the special issue on zoosemiotics of the journal Sign Systems Studies.


LABELS: ANIMAL PLAY, ANIMAL STUDIES, SEMIOTICS, ZOOSEMIOTICS

W E D N E S D A Y , 1 4 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

Mapping human impact

My poster presentation for the Oct. 22-24 Tallinn conference on Spatiality, memory and

visualization of human/nature relations (text only):

MORTEN TNNESSEN: MAPPING HUMAN IMPACT

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT VS. ONTOLOGICAL NICHE

In this presentation I compare my ecosemiotic concept of a human ontological niche (cf.

Tnnessen 2009) with the concept of an ecological footprint, with respect to how either of

these can be applied as tools in mapping human impact in nature. An ontological niche aconcept derived from Jakob von Uexklls Umwelt concept can be defined as the set (or

whole) of ecological relations (or contrapuntal relations, be they somatic, social or ecological)

a being or life form partakes in at a certain point in natural history (figure: early version (1920)

of Uexkllsfunctional cycle).


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(fig.)

The ecological footprint concept, on its hand, first introduced in 1996, is now being used by

WWF (LIVING PLANET REPORT) and developed methodologically by THE GLOBAL FOOTPRINTNETWORK. Claimed to be a tool that makes sustainability measurable, it condenses a complex

array of consumption down into a single number.

The developers of the ecological footprint model stress that it includes only those aspects of

resource consumption and waste production for which the Earth has regenerative capacity.

What it does is converting consumption into the land used in production, along with the land

theoretically needed to sequester the greenhouse gases produced. By dividing Humanitys

Ecological Footprint (currently 2,7 global hectares per person) by World Biocapacity which

is (oftentimes) modelled as being constant we arrive at the conclusion that humanity as a

whole has been unsustainable (accumulating ecological debt) since the late 80s. When the

footprint of a country does not surpass its biocapacity, it is said to be sustainable.

(fig.)

As we can see in the WWF figures below, global biocapacity is modelled as being potentially

decreasing (in case of sustained/accumulated ecological overshoot) or increasing (in case of

proper management).

(fig.)

(fig.)

The ecological footprint model has several limitations, not least the fact that there are many

environmental problems it cannot represent. It further says little or nothing about the

intensity of land use. From an ethical point of view, it is biased toward anthropocentricism in

assuming that sustainability entails that humanity can exploit the Earths biocapacity fully.

It is also anthropocentric from a methodological point of view, since it represents human

consumption and ecosystem services only both being purely human interests.


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The human ontological niche concept, in contrast, is designed in order to display the

ecological relations in which humanity partakes. As Nathan Fiala (2008: 519) remarks, better

measures of sustainability would address [environmental issues] directly. Whereas the

simplicity of the ecological footprint is not only its greatest advantage but also its greatest

disadvantage, the human ontological niche concept is better suited to account for variety

within and across ecosystems, because its biggest advantage is its (qualitative, rather than

quantitative) specificity. It further allows for disparate ethical assumptions.

I will now model selected global environmental data to demonstrate how the human

ontological niche concept can be applied as a modelling tool scrutinizing human impact in

nature. The basic problem is this: How can we model human impact in nature a crude,

aggregate measure based on a theory of the phenomenological experiences of individual

creatures (be they human or non-human)?

(fig.)

Above the global populations of selected livestock groups are represented in numerical terms

(data taken from Livestocks long shadow, FAO 2006). How could we represent these global

data in qualitative terms?

(fig.)

Here a few differences in the size of circles (3 categories) and thickness (3 categories) are

chosen to represent the relative importance of livestock groups and the character of our

relations to them. In more general terms some crucial traditional features of the human

ontological niche can be represented as depicted below (note that a positive attitude to

conservation can change the quality of our relation to big carnivores as well as to wasteland

species).

(fig.)

A few simple comments:


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Resources/individuals: While an ecological footprint approach tends to focus on biomass

(natural creatures qua resources), an ontological niche approach will tend to focus on

individuals/subjects, wherever there are individuals.

Relative/Absolute: From a phenomenological point of view everything is relative to thesubjects. But absolute numbers (i.e. the totals relative to the entire Earth system) matter

too.

Qualitative/quantitative: Quantitative data must be analyzed in qualitative (oversight)

terms. But qualities alone tell as little about a concrete empirical situation as quantities

alone. Volume matters and so does the quality (nature) of our ecological relations!

Simplifying/re-presenting complexity:All modelling entails simplification. What is decisive is

that qualitative analysis at all steps is to guide quantitative representations, and thatalienating decontextualization is to be avoided.

REFERENCES

Livestocks long shadow: Environmental issues and options. FAO 2006.

Living Planet Report 2008. WWF.

Fiala, Nathan 2008. Measuring sustain-ability: Why the ecological footprint is bad

economics and bad environmental science. Ecological Economics 67: 519-525.

Tnnessen, Morten 2009. Umwelt transitions: Uexkll and environmental change.

Biosemiotics 2.1: 47-64.

Uexkll, Jakob von 1920. Theoretische Biologie (first edition). Berlin: Julius Springer.

This poster presentation has been carried out aspart of the research projects THE CULTURALHERITAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SPACES: ACOMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN ESTONIA ANDNORWAY (EEAETF Grant EMP 54), DYNAMICALZOOSEMIOTICS AND ANIMAL REPRESENTATIONS


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(ETF/ESF 7790) and METHODS OF BIOSEMIOTICS(ETF/ESF 6669).


LABELS: CECT, ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT, ONTOLOGICAL NICHE, POSTER PRESENTATION,TALLINN

F R I D A Y , 9 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

Poster presentation on the notion of ecological footprints

I am in the process of preparing my poster presentation for the CECT (Center of excellence in

cultural theory) II conference "Spatiality, memory and visualisation of culture/nature

relationships: theoretical aspects", entitled "Mapping human impact: Ecological footprint vs.ontological niche".

Names of all poster presentations are to be found here, abstracts of oral presentations here.


LABELS: CECT, CULTURAL THEORY, ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT, NICHE, ONTOLOGICAL

NICHE, POSTER PRESENTATION, SEMIOTIC NICHE, TALLINN

W E D N E S D A Y , 7 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

Chronicles in Norwegian media - wolf politics

October 2nd my chronicle "Den kinesiske miljbevegelsen" [The Chinese Environmental

Movement] appeared in Adresseavisen, the major regional newspaper in mid-Norway (cf.

previous report).

Yesterday I wrote a chronicle entitled "Ulven som syndebukk" [The Wolf as a Scapegoat], that

I now submit to Dagbladet, Norway's third biggest national daily.

The political platform of the re-elected coalition government is said to be ready for


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announcement in one and a half hour. According to preliminary news reports, Senterpartiet

(which has around 6 % of the vote) has not succeeded in its efforts to reach an agreement

with the two other governing parties according to which all remaining wolves would be shot,

and no wolves would be tolerated on Norwegian land.


LABELS: ADRESSA, CHRONICLES, DAGBLADET, NORWEGIAN GOVERNMENT, SCAPEGOAT,

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION, WOLF MANAGEMENT, WOLF POLITICS, WOLVES

T H U R S D A Y , 1 O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9

New wolf essay

I have recently finished an article entitled "Is a wolf wild as long as it does not knowthat it is

being thoroughly man-handled?". The essay has been submitted to Humanimalia.

Abstract: The animals of the recovering Scandinavian wolf population are evidently shy, but

thoroughly man-handled, by wildlife managers as well as illegal hunters and others. After

much wilderness has vanished, the current wolf population dwells in a so-called multi-use

environment. Their interaction with human artefacts and constructions is substantial. The

author argues that the long-term conservation goal should be not simply viability, but

independent viability - i.e., viability independent of the continued actions of humans.


LABELS: ANIMAL STUDIES, HUMANIMALIA, WOLF ECOLOGY, WOLF MANAGEMENT, WOLF

POLITICS

W E D N E S D A Y , 3 0 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9

Annotated bibliography, 3rd quarter

As part of a 4-times-a-year report I am conducting as a researcher in one of the research

projects I am partaking in, I write a Selected Annotated Bibliography. Here's my annotated

bibliography for the last three months.


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Douglas W. MacCLEERY: American forests: A history of resilience and recovery. Forest

History Society, 1992. This publication offers a lot of interesting statistics and facts not

only since 1930 or so, when the proportion of US land that is forested has generally been

stable, after 300 years of deforestation, but also concerning times as far back as to year

1600 (even native indigenous forestry practices are briefly described). The last century

several wildlife species have recovered, not least due to the gradual introduction of

conservation measures. In conclusion, this work is a helpful source of references and

thoroughly examines the full implications of different attitudes to forests and utilization

of forest products. Though the situation of Norwegian forests is not identical with the

American situation, this book nevertheless provides useful knowledge about the

interconnections of conservation efforts and forestry practices/land use.

The Norwegian daily Nationen [The nation], Mon 31st of August Wed 9th of September.The latest national election in Norway took place September 14th. For 10 days close to

the conclusion of the election, I followed Nationen, Norways only national daily

devoted to matters of agriculture and rural policies. Every day in this period there were

articles etc. about carnivore policy; about half of the editions one of them featured on

the front page. In many rural areas, wolf and carnivore policy turned out to become one

of the defining topics of the electoral campaign, though only 3 parties (Senterpartiet,

Fremskrittspartiet and Sosialistisk Venstreparti) talked much about it. For the first time

the populist right-wing party Fremskrittspartiet competed seriously for the anti-wolfvotes though Senterpartiet, traditionally the farmers party, still dominated the

discourse. The carnivore policy for 2009-2013 is now up for negotiations within the re-

elected coalition government, which consists of Arbeiderpartiet (the social democrats),

Senterpartiet and Sosialistisk Venstreparti (a left-wing party which supports wolf

conservation).

Paolo VIRNO: Natural-historical diagrams: The new global movement and the biological

invariant. Pp. 131-147 in The Italian difference: Between nihilism and biopolitics (eds.

Lorenzo Chiesa and Alberto Toscano), Melbourne 2009: re.press. Translated from Italian

by Alberto Toscano. Virnos notion of the natural-historical diagrams of human nature

refers to concrete phenomena, socio-political states of affairs, historical events. He

thus offers an empirical (or emergent) notion of human nature which can be of


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interest in the context of my depicting of a natural history of the phenomenal world.

Crucial in Virnos observations is that human nature as we know it places us as an

indefinite animal, an animal without any definitive natural environment. This, he

claims, explains our instability as a species, and our constant urge for further

modifications of the environment. It would be interesting to integrate and try to

develop some of his main points in my own work.

Wendy WHEELER: The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of

Culture. London 2006: Lawrence & Wishart. In this valuable book, Wheeler outlines

some connections between biosemiotics and other complexity science on the one hand

and politics and cultural theory on the other. In the context of my work Wheelers book

represents an important step toward a proper understanding of the cultural implications

of competing scientific outlooks and worldviews. While Wheeler on some pointssimplifies the connections between capitalism and mainstream science, her portrayal

of the cultural and ethical (and political) implications of a world view of biosemiotic

relationism rather than one of capitalist atomism/individualism is in the main

informative and telling. The main message which I do subscribe to is that human

beings are social (and ecological) creatures which can not thrive or correctly be

described on a theoretical level as isolated individuals. Her stress of the social and

ecological aspects of cultural life bears implications not least for economic thought.


LABELS: B IOSEMIOT ICS , COMPLEX ITY SC IENCE, DOUGLAS MACCLEERY, FORESTRY,

NATIONEN, NATURAL-HISTORICAL DIAGRAMS, PAOLO VIRNO, WENDY WHEELER, WILDLIFE

CONSERVAT ION

S A T U R D A Y , 2 6 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9

"Outline of an Uexkllian bio-ontology" referred to in encyclopedia

article

My article "Outline of an Uexkllian bio-ontology" - my very first academic article, published

in Sign Systems Studies in 2001 - is included in the literature list of the entry for "Uexkll,

Jacob Johann Baron von (1864-1944)" in volume XXIX of Biographisch-Bibliographisches

Kirchenlexikon (BBKL): Nachschlagewerk mit aktuellen Nachtrgen (columns 1455-1483 -


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author: Heike Delitz). This volume was published in 2008 in Nordhausen by the publisher

Traugott Bautz.

Full reference:

- Tnnessen, Morten: Outline of an Uexkllian bio-ontology, in: Sign Systems Studies 29

(2001), 683-691

The encyclopedia entry also appears on Spiegel Wissen.


LABELS: ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRY, OUTLINE OF AN UEXKLLIAN BIO-ONTOLOGY, SPIEGEL,

UEXKLL


On site in A Corua, Spain

I have just arrived in A Corua (Galicia), Spain, where the 10th world congress of

semiotics takes place. It has been a long journey. I have been travelling (first by

ferry, and then) by train - more than 3,000 km. It is my first time in Spain. Se my

approximate route here.

Friday I will be presenting my talk "The changing imagery of the big bad wolf" -

with examples from the Norwegian national election September 14th.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 13:52 0 COMMENTS LABELS: A CORUA , SPAIN , THE BIG BAD WOLF , WOLF IMAGERY , WOLFMANAGEMENT, WOLF POLITICS


The abstract book of the 2009 world congress in semiotics


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... is to be found here.

My contribution (p. 153) ends abruptly, with a word missing.

THE CHANGING IMAGERY OF THE BIG BAD WOLF

Autores/Autors: Morten Tnnessen (UNIVERSITY OF TARTU)

The current work is part of the authors ecosemiotic analysis of

Norwegian/Scandinavian wolf management in the period 1855-2010. In Norway, as in

several other countries, wolf management is controversial. For some on the

countryside it has come to symbolize the ignorant hostility (and imperialistic

tendencies) of the urban elites. There is a wide gap between perceptions on the

conservation side and in the antagonistic camp, and the proper role of folklore

which is considered by wolf ecologists as unscientific has never been agreed upon.

Field observations confirm that the political and cultural strife has little basis in

actual wolf ecology sheep, for instance, which play a marginal role in Scandinavian

wolf diet, are currently major players in popular imagery (and, ironically,

management policies) only. As symbols have grown and developed, cultural

representations of wolves appear, at least in part, to have decoupled from ecological

reality. In what ways have our conceptions of wolves changed from the extermination

campaigns of the 19th century to the conservation efforts of our generation? To what

extent have wolves, in modern times as well as earlier, symbolized human traits,

religious ideas etc., and to what extent have they represented actual phenomena of

nature? By offering a series of examples of animal representations involving wolves

in fiction and popular culture, in myths and in legends I will inquire into these

questions, aiming at approving our understanding of how human cultures has co-

evolved not only with wolves, but further with a rich human imagery of these

creatures, the infamous ancestors of mans best

FRIEND.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 08:21 0 COMMENTS LABELS: ANIMAL REPRESENTATIONS , ANIMAL STUDIES , FICTION, NORWAY,SEMIOTICS, SHEEP , THE BIG BAD WOLF , WOLF ECOLOGY , WOLF IMAGERY ,WOLF MANAGEMENT , WORLD CONGRESS


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Reflection piece in Hortus Semioticus

Yesterday Ifinished a little article entitled "Signs grow - but should they? Semioethics

and the dominant semiosis of Homo sapiens sapiens".

What is the nature of semiosis? And what is the culture of semiosis?

To be published in the soon-to-be-published Hortus Semioticus (where the first

semioethics interview - with John Deely - will be published as well). "Signs grow - but

should they?" represents the first in a series of reflections by young semioticians fully

occupied in "the semiotic garden".

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 05:08 0 COMMENTS LABELS: FLOYD MERRELL , JOHN DEELY , SEMIOETHICS

T U E S D A Y , 1 5 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9

My first blurb

Yesterday I delivered my first blurb.

Occasion: Paul Cobley (ed.): Realism for the 21st Century. A John Deely Reader-

to be published by Scranton University Press.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 03:39 0 COMMENTS LABELS: BLURB , JOHN DEELY , PAUL COBLEY , SCRANTON UNIVERSITY PRESS

M O N D A Y , 7 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9

Research assistant (UiA) - multimodality

I have been assigned as a research assistant of the UiA (Agder University) researchproject "Multimodalitet, leseopplring og lremidler (MULL)" - "Multimodality,

reading training and educational materials". In this position I will have some work to

do this autumn and next spring, related first of all to dissemination of results. The


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project sorts under the Department of Nordic and media Studies, Faculty of

Humanities and Education.

Norwegian language project site here.POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 06:31 2 COMMENTS LABELS: AGDER UNIVERSITY , MULTIMODALITY, READING , RESEARCHASSISTANT, UIA

S U N D A Y , 3 0 A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

Presentation in T seminar on the methodology of the humanities

Title for my talk: "Methodological challenges in analyzing wolf ecology and wolfmanagement within a semiotic-phenomenological framework".

The seminar takes place at the department of semiotics, and will be organized by

Peeter Torop.

Date T.B.A.


F R I D A Y , 2 8 A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

New timetable for "Semiotics of Perception"

Kati Lindstrm and I have just agreed with the editor-in-chief of Biosemiotics,

Marcello Barbieri, that the special issue "Semiotics of Perception", an outcome of the

SemioPhenomenon workshops in Tartu February 2009 ("The Ecology of Perception" and

"Animal Minds"), for which we are the guest editors, will be published as no. 2, 2010

(August) in stead of as no. 1, 2010 (April), as originally planned.

Contributors:

David Abram


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John Deely

Kalevi Kull

Kati Lindstrm

Timo Maran

Silver Rattasepp

Renata Sukand & Raivo Kalle

Morten Tnnessen

Wendy Wheeler

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 01:59 0 COMMENTS LABELS: BIOSEMIOTICS, PERCEPTION , PHENOMENOLOGY, SEMIOTICS OFPERCEPTION

T H U R S D A Y , 2 7 A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

University teacher


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Today I wrote the contract for teaching in the history of philosophy at Agder

University (UiA), Kristiansand, Norway this autumn. Hopefully I will be reassigned for

next spring (Kristiansand) and summer (Lesvos, Greece) at a later point.

First lecture took place this Monday, in the biggest auditorium of the university,

named after Henrik Ibsen, with some 200 students present - the second on Tuesday.

At the very first one, I took some time telling about the history of examen

philosophicum (which started out in Copenhagen in the 17th century) in Norway, not

least Arne Nss' role in modern times; and the ongoing debate on the place of

Ex.phil. in the Norwegian education system (after decades and centuries of revisions

and cuts).

I am now a:

- Ph.D. student

- Researcher (in 3 research projects)

- University teacher ("universitetslektor")

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 10:02 0 COMMENTS LABELS: AGDER UNIVERSITY , ARNE NSS , COPENHAGEN, EX.PHIL. , EXAMENPHILOSOPHICUM, KRISTIANSAND, LESVOS, TEACHER , TEACHING , UIA

F R I D A Y , 2 1 A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

Report from China to appear in Norwegian media

One of the talks I appreciated the most at the First World Congress of Environmental

History, in Copenhagen, August 4-8, was "The Rise, Development, and Influence of the

Environmental NGOs in China" by professor Xueqin Mei and Da Mao from Beijing,

China. I have composed an article based on their talk. This article has been accepted

for publication (possibly only in a few weeks) in a regional Norwegian newspaper with

fairly good circulation.



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LABELS: CHINA, ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY , ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT ,NGOS

T U E S D A Y , 4 A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

Where are the Estonians?

I am here at the First World Congress of Environmental History as the only Estonian

representative (as a Norwegian Ph.D. Student at Department of Semiotics, University

of Tartu). This March I was in Copenhagen at an international climate conference,

with around 1,500 participants - as the only Estonian representative. Where are the

Estonians?

Here at the environmental history congress there are maybe 550 participants, judgingby the list of participants. Though scholars from Europe and the US dominate (along

with participants from Canada, Australia, New Zealand), there are some

representation of other regions of the world as well, South America and Asia (China,

Japan, India, Taiwan, Nepal ...) included. As for Africa, there's 9 participants (15 % of

world population, 1-2 % of world congress participants) - in addition to South Africa,

Nigeria, Egypt and Lesotho are represented (Lesotho 2, Estonia 1).

Norway, with its 7 representatives - me not included - almost compares to Africa in

participation. That's not surprising, however, given that Norway is a neighboring

country. Then again, so is practically Estonia. And yet, I am the only one here - nor

are there any participants from Latvia or Lithuania; making me the sole

representative from the Baltic states.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 08:00 0 COMMENTS LABELS: BALTIC STATES , BALTICUM , ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY , ESTONIA,LESOTHO, UNIVERSITY OF TARTU , US , WORLD CONGRESS

Q & A with Paul Crutzen

Here at the First World Congress of Environmental History (Copenhagen/Malm August

4-8) Nobel laureate in chemistry Paul J. Crutzen gave the first traditional plenary


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talk, entitled "The Anthropocene: Humans as a force in global environmental cycles".

A good talk it was (though in the context of climate change I would not pragmatically

allude to geo-engineering - which Crutzen did refer to in conclusion, "out of despair"

(being clear, to be fair, that it was only a "last resort", and that other solutions should

be sought).

I asked him a question in the Q & A session following Crutzen's talk. First I referred to

his mention of the incredible economic growth of the last century, and said I

understood his despair with regard to climate change. But what role has the economy

to play in this context? Is our current economic model viable, or not?

Paul Crutzen answered, after a moment of hesitation, that he though the current

economic crisis is evidence that our current economic model is not viable (laughter

from the audience).

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 03:19 0 COMMENTS LABELS: ANTHROPOCENE, CRUTZEN, ECONOMIC CRISIS , ENVIRONMENTALHISTORY

S A T U R D A Y , 1 A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

Copenhagen (WCEH)

The full program - including abstracts - of the world congress in environmental

history, to take place in Copenhagen next week, is available at

https://whec2009.ruc.dk/program/pdf.

/

Why is it that so many academic events have such high-society profiles? At WCEH2009,

lunch + coffee can be bought for 2000 DKK - 400 DKK (around 50 Euros) per day! Such

prices discourage participation from low-income countries, and persons (as well as forscholars and students who don't mind - or even prefer - normal standards).

/


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Same story with hotels (pensions and B&B are more often than not not even

mentioned as options - cf. the upcoming world congress in semiotics in La Coruna,

Spain).

/

As for the program, I am to be found at p.7 (program) and 183 (abstract).

1001 Estranged, Endangered, Extinct. Lessons from the Extinction of the

Scandinavian Wolf

Morten Tnnessen, University of Tartu

/

After thousands of wolves had been shot, the Scandinavian wolf went extinct.

But it reappeared and in Norway its had the status of a protected species since

1972. For many sheep farmers widely regarded as the clearest antagonists of

the wolves the current wolf management remains a symbol of their modern

estrangement. In what way does the estrangement of sheep farmers relate to

the equally evident estrangement of the still endangered wolves?

Other Norwegian topics at WHEC2009:

380 Making yourself at home in nature: The conflict between public access toland and leisure cabin ownership in Norway, 1850-2000

Finn Arne Jrgensen, [email protected], NTNU

/

473 Local knowledge in a global industry: the formation and movement of the

science of salmonaquaculture

Stephen Bocking, [email protected], Trent University

/

914 War over Whales: Radical Environmentalist Organizations and ScientificKnowledge in Whaling Controversies

Morten Haugdahl, [email protected], Norwegian University of

Science and Technology (NTNU)


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/

959 The standard of living, consumption and the environment in Norway 1726-

2006

Kjell Bjrn Minde, [email protected], Stord University College

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 06:15 2 COMMENTS LABELS: COPENHAGEN, ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY , HIGH SOCIETY , PRICES,SEMIOTICS, WCEH , WOLF ECOLOGY , WOLF MANAGEMENT , WORLDCONGRESS

F R I D A Y , 3 1 J U L Y 2 0 0 9

Existential universals

Yesterday I finished my article "Existential universals: Biosemiosis and existential

semiosis", for Eero Tarasti's anthology Transcending Signs.

Contents:

"Semiotics of being"

"Universals of biosemiosis"

"On Earth - the natural setting of the human condition"

"On the alienation of the semiotic animal"

Let there be no doubt: Existential universals can be articulated and

conceptualized in a variety of ways. Any numbered list would be likely to be

incomplete - and any chronological exposition may well be at least in part

arbitrary. That being said, this is my bid.


S U N D A Y , 2 6 J U L Y 2 0 0 9

Brian Goodwin (1931-2009)

I just got the news that Brian Goodwin is dead, since July 15th.


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B.G. held a PhD in theoretical biology. Among his books are How The Leopard

Changed Its Spots (1994). He liked climbing trees. B.G. will be remembered for his

pioneering contributions to theoretical biology and complexity science, not least

through his development of biological structuralism (incomplete Wikipedia-article

here). For many years at the end of his life (ten, or a bit more) Brian taught at

Schumacher College, UK. His latest title there was "Scholar in residence". In addition

to contributing to short courses he taught at their groundbreaking MSc in Holistic

science - for which he was of foundational importance, along with staff ecologist

(deep ecologist, James Lovelock-colleague) Stephan Harding.

Personally I encountered Goodwin at two occasions. First, when - the autumn of 1999- I resided at Schumacher college for three months as a volunteer. B.G. was at that

point the main responsible for the newly created MSc in Holistic science, which I

believe was in its second year. Now and then I got to listen to his talks in the MSc or

in courses, or talk with him at dinner etc. My second encounter with Goodwin occured

in the summer/autumn of 2006. At the age of 75, he accepted an invitation to figure

in the advisory board of a Nordic-Baltic Research Network for Philosophy of Biology.

The network never got funding, and therefore never materialised. I was onboard as

the assigned secretary of this network.

POSTED BY MORTEN TNNESSEN AT 01:15 0 COMMENTS LABELS: CLIMBING TREES , COMPLEXITY, GOODWIN, HOLISM , HOLISTICSCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY , SCHUMACHER COLLEGE ,STRUCTURALISM, THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

W E D N E S D A Y , 1 5 J U L Y 2 0 0 9

The Global Species

I have just finished my journal article 'The Global Species', for New formations.


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In this article I will attempt to demonstrate that the historical process of globalization -

in the long term - can be outlined in terms of the expanding and eventually practically

global range (occurrence) not only of our own species, but of several of our affiliated

species as well.

Contents:

The Ecosemiotics of Globalisation

The Beginnings of Globalisation

The Ecology of Capitalism

The Politics of Biosemiotics


LABELS: B IOSEMIOTICS, CAPITALISM, ECOSEMIOTICS, GLOBAL, GLOBALISATION,GLOBALIZATION, HOMO SAPIENS, HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS, POLITICS, RANGE, SPECIES,

THE GLOBAL SPECIES, WOLF ECOLOGY

F R I D A Y , 1 0 J U L Y 2 0 0 9

Lecturer at University of Agder

I have agreed to give lectures this autumn at the Department of Religion, Philosophy and

History, Faculty of Humanities and Education, University of Agder (Norway). The lectures, in

the history of philosophy, are part of Examen Philosophicum (Ex.Phil.), the Norwegian

compulsory introduction to philosophy.

Philosophers covered will include the following:

Plato

Aristotle

Augustin

Macchiavelli

Hobbes

Descartes

Hume

Kant

Kierkegaard


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Classes start August 24th.


T H U R S D A Y , 9 J U L Y 2 0 0 9

Brief report from Gathering in Biosemiotics 9, Prague

The 9th Gathering in biosemiotics took place in Prague, The Czech republic, June 30th-July

4th. 48 presentations were scheduled in the programme (abstract book here), a few of which

were cancelled.

Some talks I enjoyed (I did not attend all talks):

Edward BAENZIGER: "Photosemiosis in orchids"

Eliseo FERNNDEZ: "Biosemiotics and the relational turn in biology"

Jonathan HOPE: "Umweltrume and multi-sensory integration"

Timo MARAN and Karel KLEISNER: "Semiotic selection, cooption, and good old Darwin: Is there

a common basis for the explanation of mimicry, sexual selection, and domestication?"

My talk, "On contrapuntuality: Semiotic niche vs. ontological niche: the case of the

Scandinavian wolf population" was given Friday 3rd of July - and went well, with positive

response and useful feedback.


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I further enjoyed the spirited company of (among others) Myrdene ANDERSON, Luis Emileo

BRUNI, Sara CANNIZZARO, Paul COBLEY, Stephen PAIN, Riin MAGNUS, Rex ALEXANDER and

Prisca AUGUSTYN.

Augustyn held an interesting workshop on Uexkll translation (she is currently translating

Theoretische Biologie (1928), among other texts). The gathering also featured a lively

roundtable on the concept of meaning within biology, to which there were 20 suggestions for

definitions.

The next gatherings will be arranged the following places (main responsible in

parenthesis):2010: Portugal ... (Joo Carlos MAJOR)

2011: New York (Victoria ALEXANDER)

2012: Tartu (Kalevi KULL)


LABELS: B IOSEMIOTICS, CONTRAPUNTUALITY, MEANING, PRAGUE, SEMIOTIC NICHE,

THEORETICAL B IOLOGY, UEXKLL, UMWELT, WOLF ECOLOGY, WOLF MANAGEMENT

T U E S D A Y , 7 J U L Y 2 0 0 9

Climate change and the growth paradigm

Stephen Purdey (University of Toronto) has composed a short text addressing "the link

between science and society regarding climate change" (email distributed via the adaptation-

list for participants at the March 2009 Copenhagen climate conference). More specifically, he

writes about "The Growth Paradigm" (cf. his book Economic Growth, the Environment andInternational Relations, to be published in November by Routledge).

Excerpts:


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Mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change are important objectives, but

the biggest obstacle to achieving those objectives, and to successfully maintaining a

stable planetary climate, is the deep-seated commitment among policy-makers to

continuous economic growth.

... Continuous growth depends irrevocably on the continuous transformation and

consumption of energy. The socio-political commitment to unending economic growth

will inevitably overwhelm any effort to conserve energy, or to shift energy supplies from

carbon-based to renewable sources, and it is fundamentally incompatible with any

absolute reduction in the amount of energy consumed. Greenhouse gas emissions can be

significantly reduced per unit of economic production in the global economy, but if

production itself continues to increase, then those relative reductions will ultimately befutile.

... at its root, climate change is a socio-political, indeed a cultural issue and as such

requires from scientists a kind of social and moral awareness which often falls outside

their normal range of professional interests. ... Now scientists have the ... obligation of

pointing out that the core policy priority of governments around the world is at odds

with immutable physical laws which preclude unending economic growth.

And here's my response (sent to Purdey only):

Dear Stephen,

I do believe this is a very important point (see my article "The Statistician's Guide to

Utopia: The Future of Growth").

In this context I think it is further crucial to emphasize the shift in attention and

political priority that is going on today as part of the rising global awareness about

climate change, wherein climate issues tends to dominate and almost monopolize

environmental policies. Just think about energy: Even if we did manage to use only


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renewable energy etc., that energy consumption (and the economic activity that goes

along with it) would, within a paradigm if never-ending growth, be likely to have severe

environmental consequences; even it the climate problem was hypothetically solved

(which is in itself a totally unrealistic assumption, of course).

A further consequence of the prospect of continued growth is that policies increasinglydepend on high-tech solutions, which further commits us to a technologically dominated

society and in effect limits our range of policy options.

By the way, have you read "Surviving 1,000 centuries: Can we do it?" - A very informing

book about the physical limits of our long-term global activities.

Best,

(morten tnnessen)

Academic homepage: http://utopianrealism.blogspot.com


LABELS: CL IMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, GROWTH, L IMITS TO GROWTH, PARADIGM,

PHYS ICAL REAL ITY, PURDEY, RENEWABLE ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY, TORONTO

W E D N E S D A Y , 2 4 J U N E 2 0 0 9

Defining biological meaning


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Here's my provisional definition of the concept of meaning within the life sciences (submitted

ahead of Gatherings in biosemiotics 9, to be arranged in Prague - where there will be an open

roundtable discussion on this very topic):

"It is the meaning-ful character of the encounter between physical, organic bodies and thematerial externalization of their life worlds that mediates between the inner and the outer,

the self and the world."


S A T U R D A Y , 2 0 J U N E 2 0 0 9

Tolerant Tartu

I have joined the Tolerant Tartu Advocacy Network (Tolerantse Tartu eestkostevrgustik).

According to its mission statement, the network "support, enhance and promote societal,

cultural and scientific activities in Estonia, specifically in Tartu."

The general aim of the project Tolerant Tartu Advocacy Network" is to develop a model of

Tartu as a city of tolerance where people enjoy living together, regardless of their race,

ethnicity, religious beliefs, and other personal characteristics."

The project is funded by "Sihtasutus Kodanikuhiskonna Sihtkapital" (KSK) - The National

Foundation of Civil Society, and organized under Domus Dorpatensis. Events for the coming

year here.


T H U R S D A Y , 1 8 J U N E 2 0 0 9

Climate synthesis report

The synthesis report from the conference 'Climate Change: Global risks, challenges and

decisions' (Copenhagen, March 2009) has been published. It is written by Nicholas Stern,

Daniel M. Kammen, Katherine Richardson and nine others.


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It is based on the 16 plenary talks given at the Congress as well as input from over 80 chairs

and co-chairs of the 58 parallel sessions held at the Congress.

The preface refers to the proceedings, where my abstract 'The nature view held by

environmentalists: Attitudes in the Norwegian environmental establishment' is included,among 1,400 others. "Most of the approximately 2500 people attending the Congress were

researchers, many of whom have also been contributors to the IPCC reports. Participants

came from nearly 80 different countries" (I was there as the only representative from

Estonia).


W E D N E S D A Y , 1 7 J U N E 2 0 0 9

10th World Congress of Semiotics - Big Bad Wolf accepted

I have been informed that my submission "The Changing Imagery of the Big Bad Wolf"

has been accepted for the 10th World Congress of Semiotics, to be arranged in A

Corua, Spain, September 22-26. My presentation will take place September 25th.

A written version, to be submitted to the congress proceedings, will be prepared

within October 15th.


T U E S D A Y , 1 6 J U N E 2 0 0 9

Academic news in brief III: Attested, revised, and wild

1. The annual attestation review for doctoral students at Department of Semiotics will

take place this Friday. Last Thursday I submitted my 6 pp. Attestation review for the

academic year 2008-2009 (with a 'Revised plan of study and research' for theacademic year 2009-2010 included).

2. The Journal of Environmental philosophy has responded to my submission 'Notes

toward a natural history of the phenomenal world', which they want me to re-submit


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in a partly rewritten form. I am currently studying the naturalization of

phenomenology.

3. The anthology now entitled 'Environment, embodiment and history', to be edited by

Johannes Servan (University of Bergen) and Ane Faugstad Aar (Hermes Text/UiB)

moves forward. Of 10 confirmed contributors so far, I am the most Junior one.

"The anthology will have a theoretical approach that is grounded in phenomenology,

but we welcome contributions from various theoretical schools that will address,

criticize or discuss the phenomenological tradition within the questions of

environment and embodiment."

My contribution might concern both the conception of an Uexkllian phenomenology

and my work with Scandinavian wolf management. The editors are further challenging

me to address the topic of 'wildness' in its relation to taming, control and domination.


M O N D A Y , 1 5 J U N E 2 0 0 9

Poster presentation in Tallinn in OctoberMy submission to the Tallinn October 22-24 conference 'Spatiality, memory and

visualisation of culture/nature relationships: theoretical aspects', 'Mapping Human

Impact: Ecological Footprint vs. Ontological Niche', has been accepted by the

organizing committee as a poster presentation.

In this presentation I will compare my ecosemiotic concept of a human

ontological niche with the concept of an ecological footprint, with respect to

how either of these can be applied as tools in mapping human impact in nature.

This will be my second poster presentation, following March's 'The nature view held by

environmentalists. Attitudes in the Norwegian environmental establishment'.


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T H U R S D A Y , 1 1 J U N E 2 0 0 9

Proceedings from World Congress, Helsinki/Imatra

The 9th IASS World Congress Proceedings is reported to be in preparation, and

expected to appear in July, as part of the publication series Acta Semiotica Fennica

(ASF). They will include my text 'Where I end and you begin: The threshold of the self

and the intrinsic value of the phenomenal world' (wherein my pointed critique of the

semioethics as phrased by Susan Petrilli appears).


M O N D A Y , 8 J U N E 2 0 0 9

First ISI Web of Science publication

"The statistician's guide to Utopia: The future of growth" is listed as an ISI Web of

Science publication, since TRAMES is now indexed by them.


W E D N E S D A Y , 3 J U N E 2 0 0 9

First semioethics interview

This Sunday I finished 'The Semioethics Interviews I: John Deely / 'Tell me, where is

morality bred?'" (31 pp. manuscript), submitted to Hortus Semioticus.

Contents:

A whole new beginning for ethics?

A call for moral treatment

Agents and their subjects (and their needs)

An explicit account of otherness (or: a pretty good reason for hitting someone)


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You may recognize otherness and still shoot the guy

Kalevi Kull on why good is to be done

Dog with puppies vs. mafia chieftain

Illegitimate semiosis

An animal nevertheless (a being of Gaia)

Becoming a semiotic animal

Semioethics: A household word

A revolutionary of sorts


My question to Umberto Eco on science and fiction

The University of Tartu has published a complete video of Umberto Eco's lecture in

Tartu May 6th, 'On the Ontology of Fictional Characters: a Semiotic Study'. My

question - and Eco's subsequent answer - is to be found in the interval 01:11:25 -

01:14:15.

The transcript reads:

MT My name is Morten Tnnessen, Im a PhD student at Department of

Semiotics. And you talked about the difference between physical existence and

fictional existence. And I would like you to say something about what role

fiction can be said to play within natural science, or applied science.

UE No... No, I missed ... the real question.

MT Let me finish. First, its obvious of course that imagination and creativity

are fundamental traits of humans in many walks of life. And often in applied

science, we start out with imagining something that does not exist its totally


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mind-dependent; and then we carry it into life. So it actually turns into

something with a physical existence. Isnt that the work of fiction?

UE No! I... Take, for instance the cold fusion. Typical example of a scientific

hoax. It was untrue. I dont say that fiction is mistake which is different.Ptolemy believed in good faith the Earth was still immobile, huh? and the Sun

turned. It was not making fiction it was committing a mistake. Simple and

believed. I say that there is fiction when the author pretends to say the truth,

and asks you to pretend that you are believing it. In this case you are in a

fictional world. If not, its a lie. If I tell you there is an elephant outside, and you

naively go out to see whether it is there or not, that is not a case of fiction, I am

only a damn liar, thats all. And you are too much naive, hehe. E

[Morten Tønnessen] Utopian Realism 2009

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