What the humanities are for – a semiotic perspective

Learning and adaptation from a semiotic perspective

“…While the adaptation/ learning dichotomy particularly has been seldom addressed explicitly, many of its supporting dichotomies, such as, to begin with, individual/collectivity, and also agent/subject, verbal/nonverbal, human/non-human, matter/mind, living nature/ culture, have been discussed and dismissed in biosemiotics (e.g. Cobley 2010Cobley , 2016. By this it is not implied that these notions are not distinct, but that they can be formulated in a relation other than dichotomous, which proves more insightful and adequate for current epistemological demands.…”

“…Th us, biosemiotic theory can deliver the exaptation hypothesis, together with a full-blown modelling theory, to the vast area of communication studies. As regards cultural studies, Cobley (2010Cobley ( , 2016 opened the avenue for a non-dualist and nonanthropocentric framework, by recommending a biosemiotic approach, whereby "human aff airs", inclusive of all human culture, "are sought in the interrogation of modelling" (Cobley 2016: 28).…”

The (re)-introduction of semiotics into medical education: on the works of Thure von Uexküll

“…From a professional perspective as a clinical educator, it is the author's conjecture that in line with Cobley,17 humanities subjects such as medical semiotics could have a beneficial effect on medical students and their praxis. Some such as Jones and Carson18 have suggested that the role of humanities in clinical education is to encourage ethical and empathetic traits in doctors, a statement that has been met by others with scepticism 19 20.…”

Introductory Chapter: Semiotic Hauntologies of Ghosts and Machines

“…3). He spoke of epistēmē (1139 b [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] or universal knowledge, shared, circulated and preserved in cultural memory and heritage; techne (Nicomachean Ethics 1140 a 1-23), skills or capacities to accomplish tasks that operate on variable spheres, and related in chapter 4 to a trained capacity to create through reason (logos); and, in other words, knowledge of speciic principles and paterns, and frequently translated as "craft" or "art" in its meaning of systematic use of organizational know-how or codiied knowledge oriented towards intelligent human action. And inally, he also deined phronesis (Nicomachean Ethics 1140 a 24-1140 b 12) as a sort of practical wisdom and idiosyncratic knowledge that comes from life experiences as a result of trial and error; to some extent, it is intuitive and cannot be shared.…”

“…Writing also in 2014, semiotician Paul Cobley emphasizes the role of biosemiotics in challenging the mechanist worldview and placing consciousness in relation to nature and in a continuum with plant-animal existence. To Cobley, biosemiotics also serves to question the role of agency as inherently human and shows that diferent forms of agency can be found at very lower biological levels in the most rudimentary of organisms [29].…”