Introduction to special issue online

"Being in the world of the living - Introduction to the Special Issue Semiotics of Perception", written by Kati Lindström and me, has been published online (April 20, 2010).

.
The article is accessible in full-length for subscribers only.

Abstract
This special issue on the semiotics of perception originates from two workshops arranged in Tartu, Estonia, in February 2009. We are located at the junction of nature and culture, and of semiotics and phenomenology. Can they be reconciled? More particularly, can subfields such as biosemiotics and ecophenomenology be mutually enriching? The authors of the current special issue believe that they can. Semiotic study of life and the living can emerge as properly informed only if it is capable of incorporating observations made in natural science, philosophy and cultural studies. The semiotic study of nature entails an experiential turn in the study of life processes. Perception is—or should be—at the heart of the life sciences.

Keywords Animal mind - Landscape - Perception - Semiotics and phenomenology - Uexküllian phenomenology - Umwelt