Technological Progress as a Problem in the Study of Culture

Lotman, Jurij M.; Gomel, Ilana

doi:10.2307/1772717

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Not only has cultural semiotics always been interested in similar interdiscplinary dialogues between itself and approaches to the study of techno-cultures (see Ibrus 2013;Lotman 1991), it may be suggested that the time is ripe for mutually useful dialogues between cultural semiotics and the explosively evolving new offspring of cultural studies. Cultural semiotics could help cultural studies to put a clearer emphasis on the complexity of dynamic processes in cultures, and offer rigorous analytical tools for that purpose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering and reinventing Juri Lotman for the digital age

Ibrus

Тороп

2014

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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This article introduces a special issue that is dedicated to the renowned Russian-Estonian scholar of semiotics and cultural theory -Juri Lotman . The aim of the issue is not only to re-introduce Lotman's work and his approach -the semiotics of culture -for the international community of cultural studies' scholars, but also to demonstrate its 'explosive' potential and its contemporary momentum -its applicability and unique analytic affordances for interpreting the most modern phenomena of global digital cultures. In this introductory article we discuss Lotman's original contribution regarding his conceptualizations of the evolutionary dynamics of culture and how his work could be potentially advancing the contemporary cultural studies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering and reinventing Juri Lotman for the digital age

Ibrus

Тороп

2014

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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“…Since the domain/ artefact distinction resembles the langue/parole opposition, technology appears as a system whose single concretizations obey its grammatical rules of combination (Arthur 2009: 77). Similarly, Lotman (1991) takes a semiotic perspective on the issue and his contextualization of technological progress within culture theory and semiotics of cultural points indirectly to a biosemiotic interpretation as well, by virtue of the well acknowledged analogy between the notions of biosphere and semiosphere (see for instance Markoš 2004;Kotov, Kull 2011;Lotman 2005). Finally, Innis (2009) claims for the application of diff erent semiotic conceptual tools and frameworks -Jakob von Uexküll's biologically based theory of meaning, Charles Sanders Peirce's typology of signs, Ferdinand de Saussure's model of language as a dynamic system of diff erences and Ernst Cassirer's model based on the triadic schematization of the forms of sense -to highlight quite diff erent, but nevertheless complementary, features of technology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaching a semiotics of exaptation: At the intersection between biological evolution and technological development

Weible

2013

SSS

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Abstract. Th is paper recognizes a specifi c correspondence between biological evolution and technological development and on this basis tries to set up a semiotic approach to the evolutionary phenomenon of exaptation. To do this, the existence of a historical-structural and pragmatic analogy between organs and tools is shown, which in turn implies on a communicative ground the dissolution of some of their traditional distinctive att ributes. Finally, a philosophical-analytical approach to natural and cultural functions is applied to defi ne three types of exaptations.

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“…Cf. alsoLotman 1991, where Yuri Lotman refers to the emergence of ancient bureaucracies, observing that their colossal growth (in terms of infrastructure and architecture) in the time of the first empires and states was made possible by the invention of writing.…”

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confidence: 99%

Steps to a Semiotics of Being

Tønnessen

2010

Biosemiotics

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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

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Technological Progress as a Problem in the Study of Culture

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

Remembering and reinventing Juri Lotman for the digital age

Remembering and reinventing Juri Lotman for the digital age

Approaching a semiotics of exaptation: At the intersection between biological evolution and technological development

Steps to a Semiotics of Being

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