Abstracts
Abstract
In this article I shall offer some considerations on the implications for political thought (broadly conceived) of the relatively new interdiscipline of biosemiotics. The semiological analysis associated with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure is a now familiar part of cultural and political analysis, but its weakness has always been, first, its narrow focus on human uses of language alone, and, second, its related inability to talk about biology. Given the extent to which human mind and behaviour are an effect of biological systems, this is a considerable omission. Joining culture and nature as part of the evolution of semiotic layers in recursive biocybernetic systems, biosemiotics insists there is an ontological and practical link between both that should be part of scientifically informed political theory and policies.
Keywords:
- Semiotics,
- Biosemiotics,
- Bioanthropology,
- Biology,
- Gregory Bateson,
- Charles Sanders Peirce,
- Metaphor,
- Culture,
- Nature,
- Evolution,
- Information,
- Sens
Résumé
Dans cet article je formulerai des considérations sur les implications que peut avoir l’interdiscipline émergente qu’est la biosémiotique sur la pensée politique (entendue au sens large). L’approche sémiologique associée à l’oeuvre de Ferdinand de Saussure est bien connue dans le contexte de l’analyse culturelle et politique. Or, sa faiblesse a toujours été, premièrement, d’avoir mis l’accent uniquement sur les usages humains langagiers et, deuxièmement, son incapacité corollaire à parler de biologie. Compte tenu du fait que l’esprit et le comportement humains sont des effets de systèmes biologiques, il s’agit là d’une omission considérable. La biosémiotique relie la culture et la nature et les intègre dans l’évolution des strates sémiotiques de systèmes récursifs biocybernétiques. Ce faisant, elle insiste sur le caractère ontologique et pratique de ce lien; de surcroît, elle insiste pour que ce lien soit reconnu dans les théories et pratiques politiques informées par la science.
Mots-clés :
- Sémiotique,
- biosémiotique,
- bioanthropologie,
- biologie,
- Gregory Bateson,
- Charles Sanders Peirce,
- métaphore,
- culture,
- nature,
- évolution,
- information,
- sens
Appendices
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