Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944) started theoretical biology in the beginning of this century, and made a great impact to ethology, non-vertebrate physiology, philosophy of biology, biosemiotics. The new interest in Uexküll's works in biology is a part of a current post-Darwinian paradigm shift in theoretical biology. Rediscovery of Uexküll's works by semioticians since 1970s has played an important role in the paradigm change which has turned semiotics from a general theory of human language into an approach applicable to all living systems.

In 1993, Jakob von Uexküll Centre in Tartu was established, to carry out research and to collect materials connected to Uexküll.

The 1999 Uexküll conference — the first big meeting on Jakob von Uexküll — has been organised in two parts.

In Tartu, Estonia, the workshop Uexküll and the living environment was organised by the Department of Semiotics of the University of Tartu, together with J.v.Uexküll Centre.

In Imatra, Finland, the session Uexküll and biosemiotics was a part of the International Summer Institute of Semiotics.

The contributions to this conference will be published in a special volume about Jakob von Uexküll (ed. by K.Kull) of the international journal Semiotica, appearing in 2000.
 
 

Workshop

UEXKÜLL AND THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT

Tartu, June 7–9, 1999
 

Organisers:
Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu
Jakob von Uexküll Centre
 
 

JUNE 7, MONDAY

Pre-workshop lectures

10.15 at Semiotics Dept., Tiigi Str. 78-127

Thomas A. Sebeok - On the history of semiotics: domain versus field.

15.15 at Semiotics Dept., Tiigi Str. 78-127

Jesper Hoffmeyer - A biology of signification.

18.15 in the Estonian Naturalists’ Society Building, J.v.Uexküll Centre, Struve Str. 2

Welcome session

Toomas Tiivel (Tallinn, Estonia) - On the origin of Uexkülls

Kalevi Kull (Tartu, Estonia) - Becoming interested in Uexküll
 
 

JUNE 8, TUESDAY

Struve Str. 2, Estonian Naturalists’ Society Building
 
 

9.15 - 10.45

Peeter Torop (Tartu, Estonia) - On  Tartu semiotics

Jüri Allik (Tartu, Estonia) - Welcome address

Wolfgang Drechsler (Tartu, Estonia) - On the intellectual environment in Dorpat in Uexküll’s time

11.00

Thomas A. Sebeok (Bloomington, IN, USA) - Normal semiotics and Uexküll's paradigm shift.

12.15 - 13.45

Barend van Heusden (Gröningen, the Netherlands) - Cassirer and Uexküll.

15.30

Sabine Brauckmann (Münster, Germany) - The haptic space and our environment: Jakob von Uexküll and Richard Woltereck.

Mihhail Lotman (Tartu, Estonia) - From Umwelt to semiosphere

Sören Brier (Copenhagen, Denmark) - Uexküll's influence on Lorenz' development of the sign stimulus concept in ethology and its possible link to Freud's concept of symbols.

18.30

Round-table discussion - Minimum Umwelt

Chair: Claus Emmeche (Copenhagen, Denmark)
 
 

JUNE 9, WEDNESDAY

Struve Str. 2, Estonian Naturalists’ Society Building
 

9.30 - Tartu University Library, Struve Str. 1,

Unbemerkte Wirklichkeit - a film about J.v.Uexküll (by Maximiliane Mainka, with the author's comments)
 

11.45

Jesper Hoffmeyer (Copenhagen, Denmark) - Human Umwelt: A follow up on Thure von Uexküll's approach

Alexei Sharov (Blacksburgh, VA, USA) - Umwelt-theory and pragmatism.

Sergei Chebanov (St. Petersburg, Russia) - Umwelt as life-world of living being

Discussion about M.Mainka’s film
 

15.30

Aleksei Turovski (Tallinn, Estonia) - On the biosemiotics of the well-parasitised hydrobiontic association

Kalevi Kull (Tartu, Estonia) - On the evolutionary views of J.v.Uexküll

Myrdene Anderson (West Lafayette, IN, USA) - Living and life in wonderworld.

Frederik Stjernfelt (Copenhagen, Denmark) - A natural symphony? The actuality of Uexküll's Bedeutungslehre for our days' semiotics.

17.15

Round-table discussion - Inside and outside: the unsolved problems of biosemiotics.

Chair: Jesper Hoffmeyer (Copenhagen, Denmark), Myrdene Anderson (West Lafayette, IN, USA).

19.00

Tiigi Str. 78, 3rd floor, Dept. of Semiotics

Concluding session
 
 
 

Imatra, Finland, June 12–13

Session

UEXKÜLL AND BIOSEMIOTICS

Chair: K.Kull
 

JUNE 12, SATURDAY

09.00

Thomas Sebeok (Bloomington, USA): Normal Semiotics and the Great Paradigm Shift

10.00

Jesper Hoffmeyer (Copenhagen, Denmark): Seeing Virtuality in Nature

11.30

Andreas Roepstorff (Aarhus, Denmark): Brains in Scanners: The Umwelt of Cognitive Neurosciences

13.00

Claus Emmeche (Copenhagen, Denmark): Does a Robot Have an Umwelt? Reflections on the Qualitative Biosemiotics of Jakob von Uexküll

13.45

Timo Maran (Tartu, Estonia): On Semiotics of Biological Mimicry
 

JUNE 13, SUNDAY

09.00

Sören Brier (Aalborg, Denmark): Umwelten and Anticipation in Cognition: Umwelten/Signification Spheres, Cognitive Domains, Idealized Cognitive Models, and Language Games as Theories to Understand the Construction of Interpretants in Anticipatory Bio-semiotic Systems

10.00

Solomon Marcus (Bucharest, Romania): The Logical and Semiotic Status of "Umwelt"

11.30

Marta Rodriquez Santibanez (Santiago De Chili, Chile): Les aspects biosemiotiques dans la problematique de l'expression esthetique dans Gilles Deleuse et Andre Breton

13.15

Tuomo Jämsä (Savonlinna, Finland): Jakob von Uexküll’s "Bedeutungslehre" from a Perspective of Linguistic Semantics

14.00

Kalevi Kull (Tartu, Estonia): Bridges via Umwelten

14.45-15.15 Discussion