From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science
The change could not be more radical. Biology, as a classical natural science, has celebrated numerous successes. Examining its subject matter from a reductionistic, materialistic point of view has led to exceptional knowledge and given rise to dozens of sub-disciplines. Unfortunately, by pursuing s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
2008-07-01
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| Series: | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/22 |
| _version_ | 1797708831827951616 |
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| author | Günther Witzany |
| author_facet | Günther Witzany |
| author_sort | Günther Witzany |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The change could not be more radical. Biology, as a classical natural science, has celebrated numerous successes. Examining its subject matter from a reductionistic, materialistic point of view has led to exceptional knowledge and given rise to dozens of sub-disciplines. Unfortunately, by pursuing such detail, satisfactory answers to central questions – What is life? How did it originate and how do we view ourselves as living beings? – have been lost in a universe of analytical units. Yet not entirely! A transdisciplinary network is evolving: it goes beyond reductionistic biology, beyond vitalism or a rekindled (metaphysical) enchantment of nature. It is increasingly able to provide better answers to these questions than firmly established, traditional, mechanistic biology: (1.) a semiotics that transcends Peirce, James and Morris to serve as a basis for the interpretation of sign processes in biosemiotics (Kull 2005), (2.) developmental biologists, embryologists and epigeneticists who have turned the paradigm “DNA-RNA-Protein-everything else” (Arthur Kornberg) on its head and who try to understand protein bodies as context-dependent interpreters of the genetic text, (3.) a philosophy that reconstructs biology as an understanding social science which describes the rule-governed sign-mediated interactions of cell individuals to mega-populations in their lifeworlds. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T06:28:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c43f5026304249cea2cb175436642bd3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1726-670X 1726-670X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T06:28:24Z |
| publishDate | 2008-07-01 |
| publisher | Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| spelling | doaj.art-c43f5026304249cea2cb175436642bd32023-09-03T01:49:28ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X1726-670X2008-07-0132517410.31269/triplec.v3i2.2222From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social ScienceGünther Witzany0telos – Philosophische PraxisThe change could not be more radical. Biology, as a classical natural science, has celebrated numerous successes. Examining its subject matter from a reductionistic, materialistic point of view has led to exceptional knowledge and given rise to dozens of sub-disciplines. Unfortunately, by pursuing such detail, satisfactory answers to central questions – What is life? How did it originate and how do we view ourselves as living beings? – have been lost in a universe of analytical units. Yet not entirely! A transdisciplinary network is evolving: it goes beyond reductionistic biology, beyond vitalism or a rekindled (metaphysical) enchantment of nature. It is increasingly able to provide better answers to these questions than firmly established, traditional, mechanistic biology: (1.) a semiotics that transcends Peirce, James and Morris to serve as a basis for the interpretation of sign processes in biosemiotics (Kull 2005), (2.) developmental biologists, embryologists and epigeneticists who have turned the paradigm “DNA-RNA-Protein-everything else” (Arthur Kornberg) on its head and who try to understand protein bodies as context-dependent interpreters of the genetic text, (3.) a philosophy that reconstructs biology as an understanding social science which describes the rule-governed sign-mediated interactions of cell individuals to mega-populations in their lifeworlds.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/22pragmatic turnrule-governed sign-mediated interactionsMitweltsymbiogenesisglobal symbiotic interdependence |
| spellingShingle | Günther Witzany From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique pragmatic turn rule-governed sign-mediated interactions Mitwelt symbiogenesis global symbiotic interdependence |
| title | From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science |
| title_full | From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science |
| title_fullStr | From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science |
| title_short | From Biosphere to Semiosphere to Social Lifeworlds. Biology as an Understanding Social Science |
| title_sort | from biosphere to semiosphere to social lifeworlds biology as an understanding social science |
| topic | pragmatic turn rule-governed sign-mediated interactions Mitwelt symbiogenesis global symbiotic interdependence |
| url | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/22 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT guntherwitzany frombiospheretosemiospheretosociallifeworldsbiologyasanunderstandingsocialscience |