University
of Tartu, Estonia
It is a fascinating exercise to build a theory of living systems on the basis of semiotic theory (Hoffmeyer 1997; Kull 1999). Semiotics, if a life science (Danesi 1998), provides some means to develop an understanding of organism as a sign creator. Among the central notions that describe the feature of living, the concept of organic need calls attention.
Behaviour of organisms is organised on the basis of activities that are coupled to the states of the metabolic system of the body. The nature of these couplings has a character of code. The coupled activities are usually called needs (for instance, biological, or organic needs). Accordingly, the organic needs can be analysed and understood as the phenomena of codes.
References
Danesi,
Marcel 1998. The Body in the Sign: Thomas A. Sebeok and Semiotics. New
York: Legas.
Hoffmeyer,
Jesper 1997. Biosemiotics: towards a new synthesis in biology. European
Journal for Semiotic Studies 9(2), 355–376.
Kull, Kalevi 1999. Biosemiotics in the twentieth century: A
view from biology. Semiotica
127(1/4): 385–414.
— 2000. An
introduction to phytosemiotics: Semiotic botany and vegetative sign systems. Sign
Systems Studies 28: 326–350.