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Abstract
Biosemiotics holds that all forms of life are capable of interpretation. Regardless of the complexity of the inner world of the organism there is always found some rudimentary negotiation of code duality or the presence of incompatible codes, which necessitates a sort of 'translation' of those codes into meaningful action. The bioluminescent anti-predatory behavior known as counterillumination serves as an example of a relatively simple non-human behavior that nonetheless exhibits the traits of semiosis. These traits are described in detail using some semiotic terminology.

This article stages a critical-philosophical encounter between Derridean deconstruction and Peircean biosemiotic theory focussing on the role and status of metaphor within each. It argues that the biosemiotic understanding of metaphor as a structuring principle informing the sign-activity of living organisms and processes offers an alternative understanding of a generalised metaphoricity of life as such and an account of what might be called biological text, textuality or even, biosemiotic intertextuality. The article argues that biological textuality obeys a logic of semiotic immanence that is distinct from the logic of différance and of the quasi-transcendental as thought by Derrida. On this basis it elaborates the way in which metaphor in biosemiotic theory, and also the generalised biological metaphoricity informing the text of life, function as radically non-representational, inferential, and hermeneutic operators which model the semiotic processes of life and thereby enable an epistemologically weak or, in a certain sense, non-philosophical realism.

Abstract
This paper explores the various ways in which selfreferential loops are tacitly embedded in the interplay of some of the most basic and foundational notions of biosemiotics-notions ordinarily conveyed through the informal use of such terms as " signification", "information", and "purpose". The examination proceeds by proposing a new way of understanding Peirce's account of the triadic nature of semiosis. The manifold correlations that link representamens to their objects and interpretants are clarified through the disclosure and articulation of the implicit function of self-referential relations in semiotic action. These ideas are initially discussed at the level of human language and are subsequently generalized to the level of biosemiotics. This generalization is reached by considering how the disclosed correlations can be partially extended to the sphere of those basic semiotic transactions that obtain within and between organisms and among organic systems in general.
In a separate section there follows a brief account of the explicit role of self-referential processes in Robert Rosen's modeling of organisms in terms of non-formalizable circularity, as clarified and expanded in a recent revival of his ideas through the work of several authors. The triadic structures within semiotic transactions and those arising in Rosen's (M, R)-systems are compared.
Finally some realizations springing from the preceding discussions are pointed out. One is the need to integrate the conceptual restructuration sought by biosemiotics into a wider conception of natural philosophy-into a view that is receptive to new epistemic insights disclosed by current physics and mathematics. Another advances a heuristic strategy for reaching that goal.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Concerning Gaia—Semiosic Production of/in/by/for Our Planet -- Editing the Text of a Disease: Semiotic and Ethical Aspects of Therapeutic Genetic Engineering -- The Brain's Models and Communication -- Semiotics and Biosemiotics: Are Sign-Science and Life-Science Coextensive? -- Modeling Life: A Note on the Semiotics of Emergence and Computation in Artificial and Natural Living Systems -- Some Semiotic Aspects of the Psycho-Physical Relation: The Endo-Exosemiotic Boundary -- Organization of Biosystems: A Semiotic Approach -- Nature Semiotics: The Icons of Nature -- Ecogenesis and Echogenesis: Some Problems for Biosemiotics -- Phytosemiotics Revisited -- Evolution and Semiotics -- On the Specificity of Musculoskeletal Symptoms: A Biosemiotic Excursion -- As Signs Grow, So Life Goes -- The Neglect of Subjective Medical Data and the Cultural Construction of Pain Disease—A Cross-Cultural Study -- On Abductions from the X-Ray Screen: The Semiotic Potential of Radiology Illustrated by Two False Suspicions -- Species, Signs, and Intentionality -- 'Tell Me, Where is Fancy Bred?': The Biosemiotic Self -- Biosemiotics: A Functional-Evolutionary Approach to the Analysis of the Sense of Information -- Half of the Living World Was Unable to Communicate for about One Billion Years -- The Social Construction of Alzheimer's Disease -- Biosemiotics, Ethnographically Speaking -- Categorical Perception as a General Prerequisite to the Formation of Signs? On the Biological Range of a Deep Semiotic Problem in Hjelmslev's as Well as Peirce's Semiotics -- Varieties of Semiosis -- On the Emergence of Chemical Languages -- Index -- Backmatter

AbstractWe briefly review the impact of Paul Cobley (born 1963) on biosemiotics and list his works on the topic. These have links to communication studies and integrationism. After Thomas Sebeok, John Deely, and several others, Cobley has been a leader of the general semiotics movement, according to which "semiotics' project is most fully realized on a biosemiotic basis."

Abstract This article conceptualizes contemporary geopolitical violence in the Arctic through a semiotic register. Different living beings perceive different things, and these differences amount to different worlds, not merely different worldviews. Building on Eduardo Kohn's reading of the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce, and theorists of biosemiotics and ecosemiotics, the article analyses how signs in and between living organisms and their environments are political matters of life and death. Via the themes of invisibility, colors, and snow, the article traces semiotic relations between different living beings and their Arctic ecologies to weave a semiotic understanding of contemporary geopolitical violence in the Arctic and the role of climate change therein. The article defines the violence of climate change as a violence of not being able to recognize oneself, and builds on Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's concept of multinaturalism to explain what it means that one world ruins other worlds.

Abstract
This study explicates conditions of application of the terms 'subject' and 'subjectivity' in both contemporary biosemiotic discourse and the theory of umwelt by Uexkull. The article contrasts biosemiotics with the posthumanist attempt to bridge an ontological gap between human and animal by way of transforming the concept of subject. The limitations on the introduction of 'subject' and 'subjectivity' in biosemiotics are specified with reference to the biosemiotic project of Jesper Hoffmeyer. The imposition of metaphysical connotations of 'subject' are avoided here due to the self being regarded as a result of semiotic processes and the accent on the first-person perspective of experiential life in the notion of subjectivity. The theory of umwelt is examined in view of preconditions of a biosemiotic approach to self.

AbstractThe postdigital condition is discussed from the perspective of Paul Cobley's biosemiotic approach to culture. While semiotics is often concerned with cultural criticism, there has been no explicit biosemiotic approach to culture, until only recently with Cobley unfurling such a research program. The key to this is the biosemiotic notion ofmodeling, which accounts for co-evolutionary processes encompassing biology and culture. This approach responds to recent calls in the humanities and social sciences to understand culture as constituted through technology, but also as something not strictly human (more-than-human). By undermining both vitalism and reductionism, biosemiotics avoids biologism and culturalism, which is of much importance for theorizing culture and learning in light of evolution. This has consequences for construing cultural pluralism. Mainstream notions of multiculturalism rely on cultural holism and, hence, advocate the separation of communities and languages for the pretense of maintaining diversity. Cobley's theory avoids this pitfall, offering a view of cultures as intrinsically heterogeneous and open systems. This suggests further implications for how we understand the aims of literacy and state-run education. We present an account of biocultural learning that accommodates contemporary posthumanist and postdigital orientations. Construing learning as ecologically contextual is necessary for addressing ongoing technological transformations.

AbstractBirdsongs are acoustic signs that evince parallels to the symbols of verbal language. Learning is the semiotic feature that makes a birdsong more similar to typical symbolic signs than a birdcall. In contrast to calls, most birdsongs have to be learned. The aim of this paper is to emphasize that the similarities between birdsong and verbal language can be addressed by following a biological standpoint, given the shared mechanisms underlying vocal learning in birds and humans, to take a comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of these species. The reason for language's appearance in the evolutionary scene could be explained as the chance to remain grounded in communication skills that existed in other animals. Even if the referential power of animal vocalizations is far from that of our words, both objectively and mentally, the comparative data mentioned here allows us to support the idea that the vocal production of some bird species and others animals can be considered a natural precursor of language.

Intro -- Foreword -- Reference -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: The Relevance of Uexküll's Umwelt Theory Today -- 1.1 Life and Work -- 1.2 The Reception of Uexküll in Norwegian Eco-philosophy -- 1.3 Updating the Umwelt Theory -- 1.4 Codes and Interpretation in Perception -- 1.5 Describing Cultural Affordances by Conducting Comparative Umwelt Mapping -- References -- 2 The Life and Education of Jakob von Uexküll -- 2.1 The First Studies in Philosophy and Science -- 2.2 Research Trips and Contributions to Physiology -- 2.3 Arising of Political and Philosophical Interests and the Transition to Theoretical Biology -- 2.4 The Institut für Umweltforschung in Hamburg -- 2.5 Frictions with the Nazi Regime and Death -- References -- 3 The Basis of the Environmental Theory -- 3.1 Uexküll's Position in the Mechanist-Vitalist Debate -- 3.2 Periodization of Uexküll's Production -- 3.3 For a Teleological Biology: The Concept of Bauplan -- 3.4 Towards the Umwelt: The Concept of Milieu -- 3.5 The Issue of Protoplasm -- References -- 4 The Subjective World of the Umwelt -- 4.1 The Origin of the Concept -- 4.2 The Gegenwelt -- 4.3 The Reperceived Environment as a Species-Specific Transcendental Construction -- References -- 5 The Structure of the Umwelt -- 5.1 The Functional Circle -- 5.2 The Human Observer's Environment -- 5.3 The Foundation of Theoretical Biology -- 5.3.1 Signs in the Environment: The Transcendental Biosemiotics of Uexküll -- 5.3.2 Towards a Theory of Animal Action -- 5.3.3 Embryogenesis in Theoretische Biologie -- 5.3.4 The Origin of Species in Theoretische Biologie -- References -- 6 Environment and Meaning -- 6.1 Between Theoretical Biology and Ethology: A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans -- 6.2 Lines of Action in the Subjective Environment: Operative Images.

AbstractAmong the different orientations in biosemiotics, those moved by Peircean ideas tend to agree that the organization of non-living parts into organisms cannot be made intelligible without supplementing the traditional resources of the physical sciences with novel kinds of causation. This is particularly true with regard tosemiosis– the influence by which signs mediate the determination of interpretants by their objects.Consideration of special forms of causation and explanation is important for assessing the place of biosemiotics within biology. In my view the promise of biosemiotics far exceeds its role as a biological sub-discipline governing the semiotic aspects of living processes (cellular signaling, organic codes, etc.). Beyond this, biosemiotic research should include two other important endeavors: first, if semiosis is essential to the constitution of the objects of biological science, biosemiotic ideas must have foundational and integrative roles comparable to those of evolutionary conceptions; and second, these roles should promote a wholesale redefinition of the place of biology within the sciences.This examination seeks to clarify the relations between semiosis and ordinary physical causation. It also proposes a new perspective on the evolutionary nature of emergence by taking into account the increasing importance of evolutionary explanations in some branches of contemporary physics.

This article conceptualizes contemporary geopolitical violence in the Arctic through a semiotic register. Different living beings perceive different things, and these differences amount to different worlds, not merely different worldviews. Building on Eduardo Kohn's reading of the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce, and theorists of biosemiotics and ecosemiotics, the article analyses how signs in and between living organisms and their environments are political matters of life and death. Via the themes of invisibility, colors, and snow, the article traces semiotic relations between different living beings and their Arctic ecologies to weave a semiotic understanding of contemporary geopolitical violence in the Arctic and the role of climate change therein. The article defines the violence of climate change as a violence of not being able to recognize oneself, and builds on Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's concept of multinaturalism to explain what it means that one world ruins other worlds. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

Abstract
I would like to present some new perspectives on the reciprocal foundational links which are discemable between Peirce's general semiotics on the one hand and anthroposemiotic and biosemiotic inquiry on the other. To this end I offer an examination of the peculiar place occupied by temporal relations within the relational framework of Peirce's semiotics. I support these considerations by drawing on previous work about a relational world-view presently emerging as a unifying perspective within diverse fields of inquiry (biology, quantum physics, philosophy of inquiry, and mathematics), which I have previously characterized as a "relational tum". A common, positive feature of these developments is the recognition of the relational nature of physical reality. This portends an implicit repudiation of the traditional nominalistic bias of the physical sciences and removes an important obstacle to the acceptance of semiotic ideas. However these new approaches have, up to now, failed to consider any relations other than dyadic relations or their dyadic combinations. I argue for the need to supplement the Peircean elucidation of semiosis in terms of triadic relations with other equally unique relational features, which I characterize as " radical temporality" and selfreference. A brief sketch of the different roles played by relations of temporality in organisms in general ( biosemiotics) as opposed to organisms immersed in a historically constituted culture of symbols and artifacts (anthroposemiotics) serves to disclose the relations of mutual epistemic dependence that underlie these disciplines.