Copenhagen–Tartu school explained

Copenhagen–Tartu school of biosemiotics is a loose network of scholars working within the discipline of biosemiotics at the University of Tartu and the University of Copenhagen.

History

The school has been instrumental in developing biosemiotics as a new perspective on the study of life, in the biological and environmental sciences. Notable semioticians working in the Copenhagen–Tartu school are: Kalevi Kull, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Claus Emmeche, Frederik Stjernfelt, Søren Brier, Peeter Torop, Timo Maran, Mihhail Lotman.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Occasionally also the name 'Tartu–Bloomington–Copenhagen school' has been used,^[4] as having succeeded the earlier Tartu–Moscow school.^[5]

The biosemiotic co-work between the Tartu and Copenhagen groups was established in early 1990s.^[6] In 2001, Tartu and Copenhagen scholars inaugurated the annual international conferences for biosemiotic research known as the Gatherings in Biosemiotics, later organised by the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies.^[7]

The School values the classical works of Jakob von Uexküll and Juri Lotman as well as those of Charles Sanders Peirce.

Key texts

• Emmeche, Claus; Kull, Kalevi (eds.) 2011. Towards a Semiotic Biology: Life is the Action of Signs. London: Imperial College Press.
• Hoffmeyer Jesper 2008. Biosemiotics: An Examination into the Signs of Life and the Life of Signs. Scranton, University of Scranton Press.
• Kull, Kalevi; Deacon, Terrence; Emmeche, Claus; Hoffmeyer, Jesper; Stjernfelt, Frederik 2009. Theses on biosemiotics: Prolegomena to a theoretical biology. Biological Theory: Integrating Development, Evolution, and Cognition 4(2): 167–173.
• Kull, Kalevi; Emmeche, Claus; Favareau, Donald 2008. Biosemiotic questions. Biosemiotics 1(1): 41–55.

See also

• Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School

Notes and References

1. The institution of semiotics in Estonia. 2011. Sign Systems Studies 39(2/4). Compiled by Kalevi Kull, Silvi Salupere, Peeter Torop, Mihhail Lotman http://www.ut.ee/SOSE/sss/pdf/Kull_Salupere_Torop_Lotman_392.pdf
2. Favareau, Donald (ed.) 2010. Essential Readings in Biosemiotics: Anthology and Commentary. Berlin: Springer.
3. Barbieri, Marcello (ed.) 2008. Introduction to Biosemiotics: The New Biological Synthesis. Berlin: Springer.
4. https://books.google.com/books?id=sC5ACQAAQBAJ&dq=Copenhagen-Tartu+school&pg=PA98 International Handbook of Semiotics, Springer, 2015, p. 98
5. Deely, John 2010. Semiotics Seen Synchronically: The View from 2010. New York: Legas, pp. 32, 95–97.
6. Hoffmeyer, Jesper; Kull, Kalevi 2011. Theories of signs and meaning: Views from Copenhagen and Tartu. In: Emmeche, Claus; Kull, Kalevi (eds.), Towards a Semiotic Biology: Life is the Action of Signs. London: Imperial College Press, 263–286. P. 270.
7. Rattasepp, Silver; Bennett, Tyler (eds.) 2012. Gatherings in Biosemiotics. (Tartu Semiotics Library 11.) Tartu: University of Tartu Press.