-
311Life after Kant: Natural purposes and the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality (review)Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 1 (2): 97-125. 2002.This paper proposes a basic revision of the understanding of teleology in biological sciences. Since Kant, it has become customary to view purposiveness in organisms as a bias added by the observer; the recent notion of teleonomy expresses well this as-if character of natural purposes. In recent developments in science, however, notions such as self-organization (or complex systems) and the autopoiesis viewpoint, have displaced emergence and circular self-production as central features of life. …Read more
-
55How do endosymbionts become organelles? Understanding early events in plastid evolutionBioessays 29 (12): 1239-1246. 2007.What factors drove the transformation of the cyanobacterial progenitor of plastids (e.g. chloroplasts) from endosymbiont to bona fide organelle? This question lies at the heart of organelle genesis because, whereas intracellular endosymbionts are widespread in both unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes (e.g. rhizobial bacteria, Chlorella cells in ciliates, Buchnera in aphids), only two canonical eukaryotic organelles of endosymbiotic origin are recognized, the plastids of algae and plants and…Read more
-
48The Book of Desire: Toward a Biological PoeticsBiosemiotics 4 (2): 149-170. 2011.In this chapter I propose to understand the current paradigm shift in biology as the origination of a biology of subjects. A description of living beings as experiencing selves has the potential to transform the current mechanistic approach of biology into an embodied-hermeneutic one, culminating in a poetics of nature. We are at the right moment for that: The findings of complex systems research, autopoiesis theory, and evolutionary developmental biology are converging into a picture where the …Read more
-
45Feeling the signs: The origins of meaning in the biological philosophy of Susanne K. Langer and Hans JonasΣημιοτκή-Sign Systems Studies 1 (1): 183-200. 2002.This paper describes the semiotic approach to organism in two proto-biosemiotic thinkers, Susanne K. Langer and Hans Jonas. Both authors develop ideas that have become central terms of biosemiotics: the organism as subject, the realisation of the living as a closed circular self, the value concept, and, in the case of Langer, the concept of symbol. Langer tries to develop a theory of cultural symbolism based on a theory of organism as a self-realising entity creating meaning and value. This pape…Read more
-
43Feeling the signsSign Systems Studies 30 (1): 183-199. 2002.This paper describes the semiotic approach to organism in two proto-biosemiotic thinkers, Susanne K. Langer and Hans Jonas. Both authors develop ideas that have become central terms of biosemiotics: the organism as subject, the realisation of the living as a closed circular self, the value concept, and, in the case of Langer, the concept of symbol. Langer tries to develop a theory of cultural symbolism based on a theory of organism as a self-realising entity creating meaning and value. This pape…Read more
-
42Feeling the signsSign Systems Studies 30 (1): 183-199. 2002.This paper describes the semiotic approach to organism in two proto-biosemiotic thinkers, Susanne K. Langer and Hans Jonas. Both authors develop ideas that have become central terms of biosemiotics: the organism as subject, the realisation of the living as a closed circular self, the value concept, and, in the case of Langer, the concept of symbol. Langer tries to develop a theory of cultural symbolism based on a theory of organism as a self-realising entity creating meaning and value. This pape…Read more
-
32Horizontal gene acquisitions by eukaryotes as drivers of adaptive evolutionBioessays 36 (1): 9-20. 2014.In contrast to vertical gene transfer from parent to offspring, horizontal (or lateral) gene transfer moves genetic information between different species. Bacteria and archaea often adapt through horizontal gene transfer. Recent analyses indicate that eukaryotic genomes, too, have acquired numerous genes via horizontal transfer from prokaryotes and other lineages. Based on this we raise the hypothesis that horizontally acquired genes may have contributed more to adaptive evolution of eukaryotes …Read more
-
31Mimesis and MetaphorSign Systems Studies 32 (1-2): 297-307. 2004.In this paper I pursue the influences of Jakob von Uexküll’s biosemiotics on the anthropology of Ernst Cassirer. I propose that Cassirer in his Philosophy of the Symbolic Forms has written a cultural semiotics which in certain core ideas is grounded on biosemiotic presuppositions, some explicit (as the “emotive basic ground” of experience), some more implicit. I try to trace the connecting lines to a biosemiotic approach with the goal of formulating a comprehensive semiotic anthropology which un…Read more
-
26Beyond Emptiness 'Compassion' as the Hidden Ground of Francisco Varela's ThinkingJournal of Consciousness Studies 30 (11): 259-281. 2023.Francisco Varela highlighted many links between his philosophy of cognition and Buddhism. This paper focuses on those connections which Varela did not make explicit. Varela was a disciple of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a renowned master of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. This school emphasizes the direct experience of the 'nature of the mind' — hence, reality. Only by taking into account how this experience formed Varela's thinking do we understand the full scope of his idea of life. For Vare…Read more
-
20Mimesis and MetaphorSign Systems Studies 32 (1-2): 297-307. 2004.In this paper I pursue the influences of Jakob von Uexküll’s biosemiotics on the anthropology of Ernst Cassirer. I propose that Cassirer in his Philosophy of the Symbolic Forms has written a cultural semiotics which in certain core ideas is grounded on biosemiotic presuppositions, some explicit (as the “emotive basic ground” of experience), some more implicit. I try to trace the connecting lines to a biosemiotic approach with the goal of formulating a comprehensive semiotic anthropology which un…Read more
-
15Mimesis and MetaphorSign Systems Studies 32 (1-2): 297-307. 2004.In this paper I pursue the influences of Jakob von Uexküll’s biosemiotics on the anthropology of Ernst Cassirer. I propose that Cassirer in his Philosophy of the Symbolic Forms has written a cultural semiotics which in certain core ideas is grounded on biosemiotic presuppositions, some explicit (as the “emotive basic ground” of experience), some more implicit. I try to trace the connecting lines to a biosemiotic approach with the goal of formulating a comprehensive semiotic anthropology which un…Read more
-
15Notes on the Reviewing of Learned Websites, Digital Resources, and ToolsIsis 109 (4): 796-800. 2018.
-
14Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer ExistenzTranscript Verlag. 2017.Sein heißt Teilen. Teilen heißt Sein, auf allen Ebenen, vom Atom bis zu unserer Erfahrung von Glück. Lebendigsein folgt der Sehnsucht, ganz Individuum zu werden - und diese erfüllt sich nur in Austausch und Verwandlung. Erst aus Teilhabe entsteht Stimmigkeit, das Gefühl, ein eigenes Selbst, Zentrum der eigenen Erfahrung zu sein. Unser Stoffwechsel, gelingende Beziehungen, Sinnerfahrungen, aber auch der Austausch von Gütern und Leistungen können nur gedeihen, wenn wir sie als gemeinsame Teilhabe …Read more
-
13A Path to Poetic SpaceConstructivist Foundations 16 (2): 192-195. 2021.Lived experience can be viewed as the unfolding of “poetic space.” This is neither “just” matter nor experience, but the collective exploration of felt embodied meanings by individuals, …
-
12FrontmatterIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 1-4. 2017.
-
12AnmerkungenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 129-140. 2017.
-
11Kapitel 4 – LiebenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 57-76. 2017.
-
11Kapitel 3 – FühlenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 43-56. 2017.
-
10Bitter fruits of accumulation: The case of Caspar Georg Carl ReinwardtHistory of Science 52 (3): 297-318. 2014.This essay analyses the career of the German chemist and government functionary Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt through the layered lens of governance and management. By conceptualizing governance as the historical result of the interaction between locally situated accumulation and management projects and the ‘metropolitan’ assessment of their value, it uses Reinwardt’s experiences to shed fresh light on the idiosyncrasies through which Europe and Southeast Asia were linked in the early nineteenth c…Read more
-
9Kapitel 5 – TauschenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 77-98. 2017.
-
9Feeling the signsSign Systems Studies 30 (1): 183-199. 2002.This paper describes the semiotic approach to organism in two proto-biosemiotic thinkers, Susanne K. Langer and Hans Jonas. Both authors develop ideas that have become central terms of biosemiotics: the organism as subject, the realisation of the living as a closed circular self, the value concept, and, in the case of Langer, the concept of symbol. Langer tries to develop a theory of cultural symbolism based on a theory of organism as a self-realising entity creating meaning and value. This pape…Read more
-
9DankIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 127-128. 2017.
-
9Enlivenment: toward a poetics for the anthropoceneMIT Press. 2019.A poetics of the real -- The ideology of death -- Bioeconomics: the hidden megascience -- Biopoetics: desiring to be -- Natural anticapitalism -- Commons: inviting the other -- Poetic objectivity -- Culture: imagining the other.
-
9Kapitel 6 – SchöpfenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 99-114. 2017.
-
8Vorwort – VerbindenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 9-14. 2017.
-
8Kapitel 1 – TeilenIn Sein Und Teilen: Eine Praxis Schöpferischer Existenz, Transcript Verlag. pp. 15-24. 2017.
-
8Naturalizing Teleology: Towards a Theory of Biological SubjectsIn Luca Illetterati (ed.), Purposiveness: Teleology Between Nature and Mind, Ontos Verlag. pp. 201-220. 2008.
-
University TübingenUndergraduate
Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany