Zoosemiotics is the study of animal forms of knowing

Bibliographic Data

ID4857564
AuthorsKalevi Kull (University of Tartu, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume2014
Issue198
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSemiotica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/sem-2013-0101
OpenAlexW2074611085
LanguageEN
Citations received12

This article characterizes briefly the central aims of the semiotic study of animal life. Semiotic sciences in general can be defined as approaches to the study of various forms of knowing (as different from physical sciences, which study various things in the world), considering that knowing is possible only due to semiosis. The semiosphere is the sphere of knowing (knowing being always related to learning and acting). The basic types of knowing (as well as semiosis) include the vegetative, the animal, and the cultural. Zoosemiotics is focused on the animal type of knowing. Animal knowing is characterized by its use of iconic and indexical relations, whereas the extensive use of symbols is a prerequisite of specifically human (cultural, language-based) semiosis. However, the human organism also includes animal knowing as an inevitable part of its knowing. Knowledge cannot be credible if it is exclusively symbolic; it requires that iconic and indexical semiosis be involved

Biology · Biosemiotics · Cognitive science · Epistemology · Human animal · Indexicality · Linguistics · Semiosis · Semiotics · Sociology · Communication · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Ecology · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology

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