Open AccessSemiosphere and a dual ecology: Paradoxes of communication
Author(s) -
Kalevi Kull
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
sign systems studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.17
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1736-7409
pISSN - 1406-4243
DOI - 10.12697/sss.2005.33.1.07
Subject(s) - semiotics , epistemology , diversity (politics) , principal (computer security) , sociology , dual (grammatical number) , semiotics of culture , space (punctuation) , ecology , philosophy , communication , linguistics , computer science , anthropology , biology , operating system
This article compares the methodologies of two types of sciences (according to J. Locke) — semiotics, and physics — and attempts thereby to characterise the semiotic and non-semiotic approaches to the description of ecosystems. The principal difference between the physical and semiotic sciences is that there exists just a single physical reality that is studied by physics via repetitiveness, whereas there are many semiotic realities that are studied as unique individuals. Seventeen complementary definitions of the semiosphere are listed, among them, semiosphere defined as the space of qualitative (incommensurable) diversity. It is stated that, paradoxically, diversity, being a creation of communication, can also be destroyed due to excessive communication.