A foray into the worlds of animals and humans : with A theory of meaning
"The pioneering biophilosopher Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944) embarks on a remarkable exploration of the unique social and physical environments that individual animal species, as well as individuals within species, build and inhabit. This concept of the Umwelt has become enormously important within posthumanist philosophy, influencing such figures as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze and Guattari, and, most recently, Giorgio Agamben, who has called Uexkull "a high point of modern antihumanism." A key document in the genealogy of posthumanist thought, A Foray Into the Worlds of Animals and Humans advances Uexkull's revolutionary belief that nonhuman perceptions must be accounted for in any biology worth its name. It also contains his arguments against natural selection as an adequated explanation for the present orientation of a species' morphology and behavior. A Theory of meaning extends his thinking on the Umwelt, while also identifying an overarching and perceptible unity in nature. --Book Jacket
Print Book, English, ©2010
1st University of Minnesota Press ed View all formats and editions
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, ©2010
Posthumanities, 12
272 pages, 4 pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm.
9780816658992, 9780816659005, 0816658994, 0816659001
617508613
Dorian Sagan
Foreword
Introduction
Environment Spaces
The Farthest Plane
Perception Time
Simple Environments
Form and Movement as Perception Marks
Goal and Plan
Perception Image and Effect Image
The Familiar Path
Home and Territory
The Companion
Search Image and Search Tone
Magical Environments
The Same Subject as Object in Different Environments
Conclusion
Carriers of Meaning
Environment and Dwelling-shell
Utilization of Meaning
The Interpretation of the Spider's Web
Form Development Rule and Meaning Rule
The Meaning Rule as the Bridging of Two Elementary Rules
The Composition Theory of Nature
The Sufferance of Meaning
The Technique of Nature
Counterpoint as a Motif/Motive of Form Development
Progress
Summary and Conclusion
Geoffrey Winthrop-Young
Translated from the German