a new journal

Umweb is pleased to inform you that a new academic journal, If – Journal of Italo-Finnish studies, was born. It is a result of collaboration between us and the Italian Institute of Culture in Helsinki.

We think there is a lot to say about the relationship of Italy and Finland, about its past, its present and surely its future. We think this relationship is articulated in the most diverse and profound ways, and we think it makes sense to discuss it according to different points of view. This journal accepts contributions from the Italian scholars who write about Finland, the Finnish scholars who write about Italy, and scholars from anywhere who provide comparative analyses of the two socio-cultural realities.

The journal was particularly designed for readers whose personal and/or professional interests are strongly related to the Italo-Finnish cultural relationship.

Of course, you can subscribe to it. IF will be published once a year, and a one-year subscription – including mailing expenses – will cost 20 euros. If you prefer a long-term subscription, we have a special offer for you. A six-year subscription (i.e., 6 issues) of the journal will cost you 100 euros only. In addition to this discount, you will receive a free copy of one of the following Umweb publications of your choice: Finland-Italy: a few comparisons (articles in Italian, Finnish and English), or Stili, stilemi, stilismi (articles in Italian). Check our website www.umweb.org out for more details about these books.

If you are interested in our offer, please contact us by the e-mail info@umweb.org (in Finnish, Italian or English), with a simple notification. Then, it will be our care to reply in detail.

Pre-order "The logos of the bios 2" and save 8 euros!

The Logos of the Bios 2
Bio-Communication

Günther Witzany,

Helsinki. Umweb, 2007, ca 240 pp.

Content
1. Introduction
2. Plant Communication from Biosemiotic Perspective
3. Fungal Communication
4. Coral Communication
5. Communicative Competences of Bacteria
6. Natural Genome Editing Competences of Viruses
7. Serial Endosymbiotic Theory: The Biosemiotic Update
8. From Umwelt to Mitwelt: Natural Laws versus Rule-Governed Sign-Mediated Interactions

“The Logos of the Bios“ Volumes 1 and 2 both focus on the necessary and ongoing change from a pure mechanistic biology to a biology as an understanding social science.

Volume 1 established the foundations of a three-leveled biosemiotics, i.e. one in which any investigation or analyses of sign-mediated interactions must recognize the complementarity of syntactic (combinatorial), pragmatic (context-sensitive) and semantic (contentspecific) rules.
Volume 2 now delivers the practical application. The articles cover all organismic kingdoms except that of Archaea, demonstrating Bio-Communication in all domains of life.
Bio-Communication is the precondition for any coordination within and between organisms. Bio-Communication occurs on three levels (A) intraorganismic, i.e. intra- and intercellular,
(B) interorganismic, between the same or related species and (C) metaorganismic, between organisms which are not related.
The Bio-Communicative approach transforms empirical data of traditional biological research into a practical tool for a consistent categorization of all living processes.

Subscription offer until 15th of July, 2007: euros 28.- thereafter euros 36.- (+ forwarding expenses) online order: witzany@sbg.at

Günther Witzany, founded the 1st “Philosophische Praxis” (philosophical practice) in Austria in 1985. His research interests are applied philosophy, linguistic pragmatics, biosemiotics, molecular biology, genetics, epigenetics, microbiology, rule-governed signmediated interactions within and between bacteria, fungi, animals and plants.

more projects on the way

Dear UmPeople,

Just a short update on the forthcoming Umweb publications. Dr. Witzany will soon proceed to print the second volume of his acclaimed "The Logos of the Bios": we just took a look at the cover preview, and it really rocks :)

Also, the proceedings from the last Biosemiotics Gatherings are expected to appear later this year with our series, and this is going to be a major event for us, as it is the first (hopefully not last) time that we get in charge of the proceedings of an international semiotic congress.

We're growing, little by little... or slow by slow, as we were once suggested :)

Stay tuned!

added a new section on the website

We are very happy to announce that a new section has been added on umweb.org. It's called "lectures" and it includes papers from congresses, academic lectures, interviews and other stuff that might be useful for your semiotic research or interests.
They will be in either .pdf format, or - more intriguingly - in RealPlayer streaming.
We start with a bunch of papers presented in the International Semiotics Institute Congress of Imatra (Finland) in 2005.
Check it out!

ANOTHER NEW UMWEB PUBLICATION!!!

Finland-Italy: a few comparisons

ed. by Dario Martinelli and Lina Navickaite

Cultural exchange and reciprocal artistic influence have often been a leitmotif in the relation between Finland and Italy. This book focuses on five cases, chosen among the least predictable ones, with a general preference for comparative analyses. Such cases include the fields of visual arts, music, popular culture, sports, advertising and anthrozoology. The wish is to give a little more impulse to a field of inquiry that experiences the paradox of being extremely lively and rich on the one hand, and so relatively little explored on the other.

8 euros - order at infoATumweb.org (please, replace AT with @)

NEW UMWEB PUBLICATION!!!

The Logos of the Bios 1

Contributions to the Foundation of a three-leveled Biosemiotics.

Guenther Witzany, Helsinki. Umweb, 220 pp.

This book opens a new perspective on living nature through the philosophical foundation of biology as an understanding social science. The contributions integrate the pragmatic turn of the theory of science discussion, replacing the solus ipse subject of knowledge of objectivism by the intersubjective - communicative character of thought, experience and research. A three-leveled biosemiotics investigates rule-governed sign-mediated interactions within and between organisms of all organismic kingdoms. This approach underlines the complementarity of syntactic, pragmatic and semantic
rules as a precondition for adequately investigating the languagelike structure of the genetic code and the communicative organization of interacting living nature.

Contents
1. Introduction
2. From the “logic of the molecular syntax” to molecular pragmatism
3. Semiosis and evolution
4. Explaining and understanding life
5. Reduction of biological phenomena
6. The origin of novel entities in living nature
7. Metaphysics in physics and biology
8. From biosphere to semiosphere to social lifeworlds
9. Natural history of life: history of communication logics and dynamics

The Author
Günther Witzany, born 1953 in Salzburg, Austria, founded the 1st “Philosophische Praxis” (philosophical practice) in Austria in 1985. His research interests are applied philosophy, linguistic pragmatics, biosemiotics, molecular biology, genetics and epigenetics, as well as rule-governed sign-mediated interactions within and between bacteria, fungi, animals and plants.

Subscription offer:
Until 30 June 2006
€ 24.00 thereafter € 32.00

online order:
witzany@sbg.at

welcUM everybody

Hi!

This will be our place for posting news, events and thoughts...
Check out regularly!!!