Thure von Uexküll: between biology, medicine, and semiotics
Tiivel, T.1 and Kull, K.2
1Tallinn Pedagogical University, Narva Rd. 25, EE-0100 Tallinn, Estonia
2Institute of Zoology and Botany, Riia St. 181, EE2400 Tartu, Estonia
In 1947, Thure von Uexküll (born 1908) published a chapter "Von dem Bedürfnis der Physiologie nach einer philosophischen Naturbetrachtung", in a book which included the other half written by his father, Jakob von Uexküll. Specializing in medicine, and developing his father's paths of thinking (who is today considered as the founder of biosemiotics and one of the founders of theoretical biology), he gave a theoretical basis to psychosomatic medicine. "Lehrbuch der psychosomatischen Medizin", the largest volume in its field, edited by him, has been published in 5 editions, and has recently appeared in English translation. He has published a compendium of his father's works (1980) and wrote extensive comments to them. In T. v. Uexküll pioneering work on endosemiosis (1993, together with W. Geigges and J.M. Herrmann), the knowledge on sign transmission inside the organism was systematised, and microsemioses as the sign processes occurring within the cell, between its organelles, were defined. Owing to people like him, it has become possible to carry the holistic understanding of organism (the view almost forgotten for many decades) from one end of the century to the other.
| LOCATION |
DATE |
TIME |
| Lecture Hall II |
Monday, April 6 |
08:40 am |