Jakob Von Uexküll And Philosophy

Author : Francesca Michelini,Kristian Köchy
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2019-12-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781000766028

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Jakob von Uexküll and Philosophy by Francesca Michelini,Kristian Köchy Pdf

Dismissed by some as the last of the anti-Darwinians, his fame as a rigorous biologist even tainted by an alleged link to National Socialist ideology, it is undeniable that Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944) was eagerly read by many philosophers across the spectrum of philosophical schools, from Scheler to Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze and from Heidegger to Blumenberg and Agamben. What has then allowed his name to survive the misery of history as well as the usually fatal gap between science and humanities? This collection of essays attempts for the first time to do justice to Uexküll’s theoretical impact on Western culture. By highlighting his importance for philosophy, the book aims to contribute to the general interpretation of the relationship between biology and philosophy in the last century and explore the often neglected connection between continental philosophy and the sciences of life. Thanks to the exploration of Uexküll’s conceptual legacy, the origins of cybernetics, the overcoming of metaphysical dualisms, and a refined understanding of organisms appear variedly interconnected. Uexküll’s background and his relevance in current debates are thoroughly examined as to appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers in fields such as history of the life sciences, philosophy of biology, critical animal studies, philosophical anthropology, biosemiotics and biopolitics.

Author : Carlo Brentari
Publisher : Springer
Page : 249 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015-02-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789401796880

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Jakob von Uexküll by Carlo Brentari Pdf

The book is a comprehensive introduction to the work of the Estonian-German biologist Jakob von Uexküll. After a first introductory chapter by Morten Tønnessen and a second chapter on Uexküll's life and philosophical background, it contains four chapters devoted to the analysis of his main works. They are followed by a vast eighth chapter which deals with the influence Uexküll had on other philosophers and scientists. Finally, the author discloses his conclusions, focused on the possibility of updating Uexküll’s work. As far as the key issue is concerned, the Uexküllian Umwelt is the perceptive and operative world which surrounds animal species; it is a subjective species-specific construction which provides living organisms with great security and behaviour stability. The relationship that the animal carries out with its environment is a complex system of semiotic interactions: its behaviour is not a set of mechanical reactions, but a spontaneous attribution of meaning to the outside world.

Author : Jakob von Uexküll
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1452903794

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A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans by Jakob von Uexküll Pdf

“Is the tick a machine or a machine operator? Is it a mere object or a subject?” With these questions, the pioneering biophilosopher Jakob von Uexküll embarks on a remarkable exploration of the unique social and physical environments that individual animal species, as well as individuals within species, build and inhabit. This concept of the umwelt has become enormously important within posthumanist philosophy, influencing such figures as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze and Guattari, and, most recently, Giorgio Agamben, who has called Uexküll “a high point of modern antihumanism.” A key document in the genealogy of posthumanist thought, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans advances Uexküll’s revolutionary belief that nonhuman perceptions must be accounted for in any biology worth its name; it also contains his arguments against natural selection as an adequate explanation for the present orientation of a species’ morphology and behavior. A Theory of Meaning extends his thinking on the umwelt, while also identifying an overarching and perceptible unity in nature. Those coming to Uexküll’s work for the first time will find that his concept of the umwelt holds new possibilities for the terms of animality, life, and the framework of biopolitics.

Author : Brett Buchanan
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2008-10-22
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791477465

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Onto-Ethologies by Brett Buchanan Pdf

German biologist Jakob von Uexküll focused on how an animal, through its behavioral relations, both impacts and is impacted by its own unique environment. Onto-Ethologies traces the influence of Uexküll's ideas on the thought of Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Gilles Deleuze, as they explore how animal behavior might be said to approximate, but also differ from, human behavior. It is the relation between animal and environment that interests Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze, and yet it is the differences in their approach to Uexküll (and to concepts such as world, body, and affect) that prove so fascinating. This book explores the ramifications of these encounters, including how animal life both broadens and deepens the ontological significance of their respective philosophies.

Author : Doris L. MacKinnon,Jakob von Uexkull
Publisher : Franklin Classics Trade Press
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2018-11-11
Category : History
ISBN : 0353337579

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Theoretical Biology by Doris L. MacKinnon,Jakob von Uexkull Pdf

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author : Alain Berthoz
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2008-11-14
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9783540858973

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Neurobiology of "Umwelt" by Alain Berthoz Pdf

At the beginning of the 20th century, German biologist Jakob von Uexküll created the concept of "Umwelt" to denote the environment as experienced by a subject. This concept of environment differs from the idea of passive surroundings and is defined not just by physical surroundings, but is rather a "subjective universe", a space weighted with meaning. Today, neuroscience provides a new way to look at the brain’s capability to create a representation of the world. At the same time behavioural specialists are demonstrating that animals have a richer mental universe than previously known. Philosophical reflection thus finds itself with more experimental and objective data as well. Nearly a century after the publication of von Uexküll’s founding work ("Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere" was published in 1909), neurobiologists, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, ethologists, and philosophers revisit his mail concept at the light of modern science

Author : Filip Jaroš,Jiří Klouda
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2021-09-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030678104

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Adolf Portmann by Filip Jaroš,Jiří Klouda Pdf

This edited volume is the first specialized book in English about the Swiss zoologist and anthropologist Adolf Portmann (1897-1982). It provides a clarification and update of Portmann’s theoretical approach to the phenomenon of life, characterized by terms such as “inwardness” and “self-presentation.” Portmann’s concepts of secondary altriciality and the social uterus have become foundational in philosophical anthropology, providing a benchmark of the difference between humans and animals. In its content, this book brings together two approaches: historical and philosophical analysis of Portmann’s studies in the life sciences and application of Portmann’s thought in the fields of biology, anthropology, and biosemiotics. Significant attention is also paid to the methodological implications of his intended reform of biology. Besides contributions from contemporary biologists, philosophers, and historians of science, this volume also includes a translation of an original essay by Portmann and a previously unpublished manuscript from his most remarkable English-speaking interpreter, philosopher Marjorie Grene. Portmann’s conception of life is unique in its focus on the phenomenal appearance of organisms. Confronted with the enormous amount of scientific knowledge being produced today, it is even clearer than it was during Portmann’s lifetime that although biologists employ physical and chemical methods, biology itself is not (only) physics and chemistry. These exact methods must be applied according to what has meaning for living beings. If biology seeks to understand organisms as autonomous agents, it needs to take display and the interpretation of appearances as basic characteristics of life. The topic of this book is significantly relevant to the disciplines of theoretical biology, philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and biosemiotics. The recent epigenetic turn in biology, acknowledging the interconnections between organismal development, morphology and communication, presents an opportunity to revisit Portmann’s work and to reconsider and update his primary ideas in the contemporary context.

Author : Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Publisher : Northwestern University Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0810114461

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Nature by Maurice Merleau-Ponty Pdf

Collected in this text are the written notes of courses on the concept of nature give by Merleau-Ponty at the College de France in the 1950s. The ideas that animated the philosopher's lectures emerge in an early, fluid form in the process of being elaborated, negotiated, critiqued and reconsidered.

Author : Ezequiel A. Di Paolo,Manuel Heras-Escribano,Anthony Chemero,Marek McGann
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2021-02-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9782889664313

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Enaction and Ecological Psychology: Convergences and Complementarities by Ezequiel A. Di Paolo,Manuel Heras-Escribano,Anthony Chemero,Marek McGann Pdf

Author : Nima Rezaei,Amene Saghazadeh
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 796 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2022-09-05
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9783031040757

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Thinking by Nima Rezaei,Amene Saghazadeh Pdf

The “THINKING: Bioengineering of Science and Art” is to discuss about philosophical aspects of thinking at the context of Science and Art. External representations provide evidence that the fundamental process of thinking exists in both animal subjects and humans. However, the diversity and complexity of thinking in humans is astonishing because humans have been permitted to integrate scientific accounts into their accounts and create excellent illustrations for the effects of this integration. The book necessarily begins with the origins of human thinking and human thinking into self and others, body, and life. Multiple factors tend to modify the pattern of thinking. They all will come into play by this book that brings thinking into different disciplines: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, formal sciences, and applied sciences. The thinking demands full processing of information, and therefore, the book considers the economy of thinking as well. The book thoroughly intends to explore thinking beyond the boundaries. Specifically, several chapters are devoted to discipline this exploration either by artistic thinking alone or by art and mathematics-aided engineering of complexities. In this manner, the book models variations on thinking at the individual and systems levels and accumulates a list of solutions, each good for specific scenarios and maximal outcomes.

Author : Brett Buchanan
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2008-11-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0791476111

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Onto-Ethologies by Brett Buchanan Pdf

Examines the significance of animal environments in contemporary continental thought.

Author : Brett Buchanan,Matthew Chrulew,Michelle Bastian
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 166 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2021-05-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781000347005

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Field Philosophy and Other Experiments by Brett Buchanan,Matthew Chrulew,Michelle Bastian Pdf

This agenda-setting collection argues for the importance of fieldwork for philosophy and provides reflections on methods for such ‘field philosophy’ from the interdisciplinary vantage point of the environmental humanities. Field philosophy has emerged from multiple sources – including approaches focused on public and participatory research – and others focused on ethology, multispecies studies, and the environmental humanities more broadly. These approaches have yet to enter the mainstream of the discipline, however, and ‘field philosophy’ remains an open and uncharted terrain for philosophical pursuits. This book brings together leading and emerging philosophers who have engaged in critical and constructive forms of fieldwork, for some over decades, and who, through these articles, demonstrate new possibilities and new experiments for philosophical practices. This collection will be of interest to scholars working across the disciplines of continental philosophy, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, animal studies, cultural anthropology, art, and more. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Parallax.

Author : Jean-Marc Drouin
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2019-10-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780231540728

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A Philosophy of the Insect by Jean-Marc Drouin Pdf

The world of insects is at once beneath our feet and unfathomably alien. Small and innumerable, insects surround and disrupt us even as we scarcely pay them any mind. Insects confront us with the limits of what is imaginable, while at the same time being essential to the everyday functioning of all terrestrial ecosystems. In this book, the philosopher and historian of science Jean-Marc Drouin contends that insects pose a fundamental challenge to philosophy. Exploring the questions of what insects are and what scientific, aesthetic, ethical, and historical relationships they have with humanity, he argues that they force us to reconsider our ideas of the animal and the social. He traces the role that insects have played in language, mythology, literature, entomology, sociobiology, and taxonomy over the centuries. Drouin emphasizes the links between humanistic and scientific approaches—how we have projected human roles onto insects and seen ourselves in insect form. Caught between the animal and plant kingdoms, insects force us to confront and reevaluate our notions of gender, family, society, struggle, the division of labor, social organization, and individual and collective intelligence. A remarkably original and thought-provoking work, A Philosophy of the Insect is an important book for animal studies, environmental ethics, and the history and philosophy of science.

Author : Ananta Kumar Giri,John Clammer
Publisher : Anthem Press
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2013-12-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780857280817

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Philosophy and Anthropology by Ananta Kumar Giri,John Clammer Pdf

Philosophy and anthropology have many, but largely unexplored, links and interrelationships. Historically, they have informed each other in subtle ways. This volume of original essays explores and enhances this relationship through anthropological engagement with philosophy and vice versa, the nature, sources and history of philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and the practical, methodological and theoretical implications of a dialogue between the two subjects. ‘Philosophy and Anthropology: Border Crossings and Transformations’ seeks to enrich both the humanities and the social sciences through its informative and stimulating essays.

Author : James Williams
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2016-02-02
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780748695034

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Process Philosophy of Signs by James Williams Pdf

We usually think of signs as fixed relations: a red light signifies 'Stop'. In his bold new book, James Williams argues that signs are processes: you see the red light and think 'should I stop?', triggering a creative response. Williams develops this new process philosophy of signs through a formal model , in contrast to earlier structuralist definitions. He draws on the philosophies of Deleuze and Whitehead, criticises earlier work on the sign in biology by Jakob von Uexkull, and connects to contemporary work on process in the philosophy of biology by John Dupre. The process model has wide applications in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and informs their critical debates with science. In defining the sign as essentially political, this radical definition of the sign opens up new possibilities for social and political critique.