Semiosphere

About: Semiosphere is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 219 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2698 citations.

Epistemologia semiótica e a questão do observador em Peirce e Lotman

Abstract: This article discusses how the gnosiological subject of knowledge, or the observer, can be understood through two different semiotic perspectives: the one by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and the other by the semiotician of the School of Tartu-Moscow Yuri Lotman, as well as the correlation and the tension between both approaches. Both theorists share the rupture with the Cartesian conception about the dualistic relationship between the subject and the object of knowledge by situating the mediation-exerted action in the process of knowledge construction. Peirce does not favor the observer’s figure in his work; however, according to our reading, an eminently logical understanding of the observer’s idea can be pointed through the relationship among sign, object and interpretant. On the other hand, Lotman makes a set of allusions to the observer’s figure throughout his writings, whose understanding is directly related to the epistemological perspective of studying culture linked to the semiosphere. Through the dialogue between the authors, or yet, through the epistemological complementarity between their ideas, considering the approximations and distances between them, we delimited the following contact points: the sign mediation present in the process of knowledge construction; the constitution of the observer in the midst of semiosis; the validation of knowledge and, finally, the objectivity.

Praxis, symbol and language: Developmental, ecological and linguistic issues

Abstract: This article focuses on the interweaving of constructive praxis with communication in ontogenesis, in phylogenesis and in biocultural niche evolution (ecogenesis), within an EvoDevoSocio framework. I begin by discussing the nature of symbolization, its evolution from communicative signaling and its elaboration into semantic systems. I distinguish between the symbol-ready and the language-ready brain, leading to a discussion of linguistic conceptualization and its dual grounding in organism and language system. There follows an outline account of the interpenetration in the human biocultural niche-complex of semiosphere and technosphere, mediated by the evolution of the niche of infancy. Symbolization (the foundation of the semiosphere) is by definition normative; the normative character of the technosphere is demonstrated by the interrelations in human development between affordance, action schema and canonical functional object schema. A model of the neuro-computational implementation of dual grounding is proposed.

[Introduction] On the Corposphere : Towards a Cartography of the Body

Abstract: This paper focuses its attention on dealing with a cartography of the body as one of the most important areas in semiotic research. This limited and partial cartography is meant to propose what we call Corposphere as one of the frontiers within the Lotman’s Semiosphere. The article starts from previous research (Finol & Finol, 2008), where some approaches based on Morris’s three-dimensional semiotics are analyzed, and continue by proposing a list of sub areas where semiotics, anthropology, sociology and philosophy share a common heuristic interest.

A comunicação científica em saúde: uma abordagem semiótica

Abstract: Within the scenario of the academic and scientific culture undergoing transformation, libraries question researchers in HIV / AIDS as to the difficulty and ease of the search for information. In its articulation of the disciplines information science, public health and semiotic of culture, this study analyzes the understanding of the researchers regarding the search strategies of technical and scientific information in bibliographic systems. It identifies the central sign systems in the semiosphere of culture and describes the interactions between researchers and information and library systems, reflecting on communication and its present-day challenges. Based on the structural semiotic method of the Tartu-Moscow School and the work of its greatest exponent Yuri Lotman, we undertook 25 interviews with two HIV/AIDS research groups in Brazil. The diversity of the researchers’ views as to the action involved in seeking scientific information nowadays confirms the dynamics and complexity of the systems of signs. The differences and similarities, as reflected in narratives, explain the different languages present in the semiosphere. These languages undergo continual transformation modeling themselves in accordance with the variety of academic training, professional activity and experience of the researcher, thus revealing the cultural complexity involved. On the plane of the semiosphere, some sign systems are seen as central to the culture of the researchers, especially Google and PubMed / MEDLINE. Google gains in significance as it offers a simple and practical system which avoids waste of time. However, one here perceives a system controlled by algorithms which tends to the impoverishment of results and to commercial domination. The presence of PubMed / MEDLINE is evident in the culture codes, although it is sharing space with the prevailing Google. A key sign system for libraries though little known to researchers is the MeSH thesaurus, a tool that works unperceived due to the complexity of its use. New technologies help, but should not be overvalued. Time management and the selection of the information relevant to the research context place information systems and libraries in the position of important mediators of communication or translators of language. However, their roles are still not clear to the researcher. The irregularity in the semiosphere is reflected in the movements of the center and periphery and the asymmetries observed. The unpredictability promotes transformation and is part of the consciousness of the researcher who seeks to generate new information. The library is a system present in the search for information, but loses its centrality when projected into the future. Understanding the asymmetry and the semiotic heterogeneity involved in academic culture is a way to ensure the survival of libraries. The struggle for the survival of professional groups is evident in their efforts to maintain records and norms of cultural identity at the heart of the semiosphere. However, survival is not ensured simply by this closing in on oneself, but it is rather by dialogue with the opposite that creativity is promoted. The areas of Health and Information Science are interwoven with their languages and modeling while at the same time they subdivide into other modelings such as the field of the delivery service to the population and the academic area. Communication and semiotics help decipher this rich diversity.