On semiotic causality, levels of life, and the reification of resification
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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On semiotic causality, levels of life, and the reification of resification. / Emmeche, Claus.
Semiotics in the Wild. : Essays in Honour of Kalevi Kull on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday.. ed. / Timo Maran; Kati Lindström; Riin Magnus; Morten Tønnesen. Tartu University Press, 2012. p. 131-137.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - On semiotic causality, levels of life, and the reification of resification
AU - Emmeche, Claus
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - A biosemiotic perspective upon modeling causation and levels of life can help inform our search for a deeper understanding of complex living systems. We attempt, first, to reify the notion of abstraction to include emergent natural processes of some kind, and second, to warrant the claim that it possible to find a kind of natural abstraction in natural systems when seen in a macro-historical perspective. The tradition of systems theory and non-linear dynamics see life as having emerged from non-living systems in an open process of generating new levels of organization. However, this perspective is incomplete and must be complemented with a conceptual model of how the newer more complex higher levels constrain and thus interpret, i.e., determine, processes and components at lower levels in the hierarchy, and that this kind of ‘downward causation’ is a semiotic process in the sense of involving natural interpretation and creation of new signification.
AB - A biosemiotic perspective upon modeling causation and levels of life can help inform our search for a deeper understanding of complex living systems. We attempt, first, to reify the notion of abstraction to include emergent natural processes of some kind, and second, to warrant the claim that it possible to find a kind of natural abstraction in natural systems when seen in a macro-historical perspective. The tradition of systems theory and non-linear dynamics see life as having emerged from non-living systems in an open process of generating new levels of organization. However, this perspective is incomplete and must be complemented with a conceptual model of how the newer more complex higher levels constrain and thus interpret, i.e., determine, processes and components at lower levels in the hierarchy, and that this kind of ‘downward causation’ is a semiotic process in the sense of involving natural interpretation and creation of new signification.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - philosophy of nature
KW - ontology
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-9949-32-041-7
SP - 131
EP - 137
BT - Semiotics in the Wild.
A2 - Maran, Timo
A2 - Lindström, Kati
A2 - Magnus, Riin
A2 - Tønnesen, Morten
PB - Tartu University Press
ER -
ID: 40748201