The following points, which represent a path to a semiotics of being, are pertinent to various sub-fields at the conjunction of semiotics of nature (biosemiotics, ecosemiotics, zoosemiotics) and semiotics of culture—semioethics and existential semiotics included. 1) Semiotics of being entails inquiry at all levels of biological organization, albeit, wherever there are individuals, with emphasis on the living qua individuals (integrated biological individualism). 2) An Umwelt is the public aspect (cf. the Innenwelt, the private aspect) of a phenomenal/experienced world that is (...) organism-specific (rather than species-specific) and ultimately refers to an existential realm. 3) Existential universals at work on Earth include seeking out the edible, dwelling in a medium, holding a phenomenal world (possibly an Umwelt) and being endowed with life, and consequently being mortal. 4) Human Umwelten include speechless Umwelten, spoken Umwelten and alphabetic Umwelten. 5) An Uexküllian phenomenology—stating that semiotic states represent the general class to which all mental/cognitive states belong—can draw on the works of the phenomenologists David Abram and Ted Toadvine (The notion of semiotic states is treated in Tønnessen 2009a: 62–63. For an introduction to eco-phenomenology, see Brown and Toadvine (eds.) 2003). 6) A task for such a phenomenology is to portray the natural history of the phenomenal world. 7) An imperative task in our contemporary world of faltering biological diversity is that of Umwelt mapping, i.e. a mapping of ontological niches. 8) The ecological crisis is an ontological crisis with historical roots in humankind’s domestication of animals and plants, which can be taken as archetypical for our attempted planet-scale taming of the wild. 9) The process of globalization is expressed by correlated trends of depletion of semiotic diversity and semiotic diversification. 10) Semiotic economy is a field which task it is to map the human ontological niche insofar as its semiotic relations are of an economic nature. All ten points will be commented (explicitly or implicitly) in due time. (shrink)

Background: People with progressive cancer experience that their bodies change due to disease and/or treatment. The body is integral to the unity of the human being, a unity that must be perceived as whole if dignity shall be experienced. Relatives are in touch with the suffering bodies of their dear ones, physically, socially, mentally, and existentially, and thus the relatives’ experiences of the bodies of their dear ones might yield insight into the concept of dignity. Aim: The aim of this (...) study is to explore relatives’ experiences of the patients’ bodily changes from a perspective of dignity. Research design and method: A total of 12 relatives from a hospice in Norway were interviewed. Gadamer’s ontological hermeneutics inspired the interpretation. Ethical considerations: The principles of voluntariness, confidentiality, withdrawal, and anonymity were respected during the whole research process. The Norwegian Social Science Data Services approved the study. Results and conclusion: The conversations about the body were conversations about ambivalent or paradoxical matters that shed light on the concept of dignity. The results show that the relatives got in touch with elements that otherwise would have remained tacit and unspoken, and which gave glimpses of a deeper truth, which might reveal the core of dignity. Furthermore, the relatives’ confirmation of the ambivalence might be understood as a strong ethical obligation to treat the other with dignity. The confirmation may also reveal the relatives’ unselfish love of the other, which can be understood as the core of ethics and ethos. Finally, the results reveal the relatives’ limited insight into their dear ones’ bodily changes, and we discuss the challenges of truly seeing the other. Body knowledge and the relationship between body and dignity as phenomena cannot be ignored and needs more attention and articulation in clinical nursing practice and in nursing research. (shrink)