The article deals with the relationships between the concepts of life process and sign process, arguing against the simplified equation of these concepts. Assuming that organism (and its particular case — cell) is the carrier of what is called ‘life’, we attempt to find a correspondent notion in semiotics that can be equalled to the feature of being alive. A candidate for this is the textual process as a multiple sign action. Considering that biological texts are generally non-linguistic, the concept (...) of biotext should be used instead of ‘text’ in biology. (shrink)

Three hundred entries by leading scholars in a variety of fields--from anthropology and literary theory to linguistics and philosophy--survey the study of signs and symbols in human culture in this new work. The articles cover key concepts, theories, theorists, schools, and issues in communications, cognition, and cultural theory. From introductions to Barthes and Bakhtin to analyses of gossip and myth, this is a valuable reference for students and scholars.

Réinventer l'humanisme. Retrouver le sens de l'humain. Et pour y parvenir, redéfinir des notions simples l'Autre, l'amour, la liberté, la responsabilité... Humanisme de l'autre homme éclaire les grands thèmes de la pensée d'Emmanuel Lévinas. Texte intégral.

What makes a living system a living system? What kind of biological phenomenon is the phenomenon of cognition? These two questions have been frequently considered, but, in this volume, the authors consider them as concrete biological questions. Their analysis is bold and provocative, for the authors have constructed a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as objects of observation and description, nor even as interacting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to themselves. The (...) consequence of their investigations and of their living systems as self-making, self-referring autonomous unities, is that they discovered that the two questions have a common answer: living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. The result of their investigations is a completely new perspective of biological (human) phenomena. During the investigations, it was found that a complete linguistic description pertaining to the ‘organization of the living’ was lacking and, in fact, was hampering the reporting of results. Hence, the authors have coined the word ‘autopoiesis’ to replace the expression ‘circular organization’. Autopoiesis conveys, by itself, the central feature of the organization of the living, which is autonomy. (shrink)

In 1943 the first edition of the main work of the great Danish linguist Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965) appeared, and bore the title "Omkring Sprogteoriens Grundlæggelse". The work was translated into English as "Prolegomena to a Theory of Language" This work came to represent a breakthrough in linguistics and formed an entirely new branch of this field. The author begins by ascertaining that language is an inexhaustible wealth of manifold values; language is the tool with which man moulds thought and feeling, (...) mood, aspiring, will and action, the tool with which he influences and is influenced, the last and deepest condition of human society. Although his analysis of the forms of language employs mathematical models, Hjelmslev was also determined not to neglect the human subject who uses language, which led him to an interest in psychology and Psychoanalysis. (shrink)