Serial endosymbiotic theory (set): The biosemiotic update

Acta Biotheoretica 54 (2):103-117 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The Serial Endosymbiotic Theory explains the origin of nucleated eukaryotic cells by a merging of archaebacterial and eubacterial cells. The paradigmatic change is that the driving force behind evolution is not ramification but merging. Lynn Margulis describes the symbiogenetic processes in the language of mechanistic biology in such terms as “merging”, “fusion”, and “incorporation”. Biosemiotics argues that all cell-cell interactions are (rule-governed) sign-mediated interactions, i.e., communication processes. As the description of plant communication demonstrates, the biosemiotic approach is not limited to the level of molecular biology, but is also helpful in examining all sign-mediated interactions between organisms on the phenotypic level. If biosemiotics also uses the notions of “language” and “communication” to describe non-human sign-mediated interactions, then the underlying scientific justification of such usage should be critically considered. Therefore, I summarize the history of this discussion held between 1920 and 1980 and present its result, the pragmatic turn.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Biosemiótica. Un paradigma emergente en biología: (Biosemiotics. An emerging paradigm in biology).Néstor Carrillo - 1997 - Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 12 (3):551-565.
Biological Atomism and Cell Theory.Daniel J. Nicholson - 2010 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (3):202-211.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
30 (#459,346)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Communication as the Main Characteristic of Life.Guenther Witzany - 2019 - In Vera M. Kolb (ed.), Handbook of Astrobiology. Boca Raton: CrC Press. pp. 91-105.
Natural genome-editing competences of viruses.Günther Witzany - 2006 - Acta Biotheoretica 54 (4):235-253.
Artificial and Natural Genetic Information Processing.Guenther Witzany - 2017 - In Mark Burgin & Wolfgang Hofkirchner (eds.), Information Studies and the Quest for Transdisciplinarity. Singapore: World Scientific. pp. 523-547.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Philosophical Investigations.Ludwig Wittgenstein - 1953 - New York, NY, USA: Wiley-Blackwell. Edited by G. E. M. Anscombe.
How to do things with words.John Langshaw Austin - 1962 - Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon Press. Edited by Marina Sbisá & J. O. Urmson.
Speech Acts.J. Searle - 1969 - Foundations of Language 11 (3):433-446.
Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language.John Searle - 1969 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 4 (1):59-61.

View all 14 references / Add more references