Two realities II, part 5 of 8

Two realities II, part 5 of 8

Thomas A. Seboek, 'signs: an introduction to semiotics', 2001               [ ]

[p.33]
     Umwelt-Forschung - approximately translated as 're-search in subjective universes'

     elementary sensations (Merkzeichen, 'perceptual signs')
     action impulses (Wirkzeichen, 'operation signs')
     phenomenal world (Umwelt) - the subjective world each animal models out of its 'true' environment (Natur, 'reality'), which reveals itself solely through signs.
     (Thomas A. Seboek, 'signs: an introduction to semiotics', © 2001, p.33.)

[p.144]
     The term Umwelt has proved notoriously recalcitrant to translation(the act or process of making plain and making clear to the mind), although 'subjective universe,' 'phenomenal world,' and 'self-world' variously approximate the author's intent.  However, 'model' renders it more incisively, especially in view of his credo that 'every subject is the constructor of its its Umwelt' (Uexkull 1982: 87)
     (Thomas A. Seboek, 'signs: an introduction to semiotics', © 2001, p.144.)
     Uexkull, J. von. (1909).  Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tierre.  Berlin: Springer.
              - (1973 [1928]).  Theorestische Biologie.  Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
              - (1982a).  The Theory of Meaning.  Semiotica 42: 1-87.
              - (1982b).  Semiotics and Medicine.  Semiotica 38: 205-215.

[p.145]
 As Jacob (1982: 55) has explained with utmost clarity, 'every organism is so equipped as to obtain a certain perception of the outer world.  Each species thus lives in its own unique sensory world, to which other species may be partially or totally blind ... What an organism detects in its environment is always but a part of what is around.  And this part differs according to the organism.'
     Every beings--humans, animals, insects, micro-organisms, fishes, plants--are equipped with a set of sensors that enable that life-form to experience the surrounding environment(man-made or natural) with a point of view and view of the world.  "Each species thus lives in its own unique sensory world, to which other species may be partially or totally blind ... What an organism detects in its environment is always but a part of what is around.  And this part differs according to the organism.";--(Jacob, F.(1982).  The Possible and the Actual.  Seattle: University of Washington Press.  p.55)
     Jacob, F.(1982).  The Possible and the Actual.  Seattle: University of Washington Press.
     ... But the inclusive behavioural resources of any organism must be reasonably aligned with its model of 'reality' (Natur), that is, the system of signs its nervous system is capable of assembling - or it will surely be doomed, by natural selection, to extinction.
     (Thomas A. Seboek, 'signs: an introduction to semiotics', © 2001, p.145.)

[p.27]
     In the age-old philosophical quest for reality, two alternative points of departure have been suggested: that the structure of being is reflected in semiotic structures, which thus constitute models, or maps, of reality; or that the reverse is the case, namely, that semiotic structures are independent variables so that reality becomes the dependent variable.  Although both views are beset by many difficulties, a version of the second, proposed by the remarkably seminal Estonian biologist Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944), under the watchword Umwelt-Forschung - approximately translated as 're-search in subjective universes' - has proved to be in the conformity with modern semiotics (as well as with ethology).  The same attitude was expressed by Niels Bohr when he answered an objection that reality is more fundamental than the language it underlies; Bohr replied: 'We are suspended in language in such a way what we cannot say what is up and what is down' (French and Kennedy 1985: 302).  Signs have acquired their effectiveness through evolutionary adaptation to the vagaries of the sign wielder's Umwelt.  When the Umwelt changes, these signs can become obstacles, and the signer, extinct.
     (Thomas A. Seboek, 'signs: an introduction to semiotics', © 2001, p.27.)

     (Thomas A. Seboek, 'signs: an introduction to semiotics', © 2001, )
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