{"id":8702,"date":"2025-01-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=8702"},"modified":"2024-12-14T15:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T15:58:24","slug":"is-biosemiotics-scientific-part-1-of-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=8702","title":{"rendered":"Is Biosemiotics Scientific? (Part 1 of 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>0201 The book before me is&nbsp;<em>Semiotic Agency: Science Beyond Mechanism,<\/em>&nbsp;by biosemioticians Alexei Sharov and Morten Tonnnessen.&nbsp;&nbsp;The book is published in 2021 by Springer and logs in at volume 25 of Springer&#8217;s Series in Biosemiotics.&nbsp;&nbsp;The editors of this series have Razie Mah&#8217;s permission for use of following disquisition, with attribution of said blogger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part III concerns theoretical considerations, addressing the headliner question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a list of the chapters, along with their titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide067.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide067.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8703\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide067.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide067-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Each title labels&nbsp;<em>a labor of biosemioticians<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0202 So far, from Part I, Sharov and Tonnessen propose a philosophical dyad that serves as an overlay for the noumenon of biosemiotics.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The authors&#8217; proposed noumenon<\/em>&nbsp;constitutes&nbsp;<em>what is<\/em>&nbsp;for the Positivist&#8217;s judgment and contains&nbsp;<em>what all biosemiotic phenomena have in common<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0203 The Positivist&#8217;s judgment is constructed, starting in the 1600s, by mechanical philosophers.&nbsp;&nbsp;Mechanical philosophers aim to bracket out metaphysics, in favor of models based on observations and measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what is science?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0204&nbsp;<em>Comments on Jacques Maritain&#8217;s Book (1935) &#8220;Natural Philosophy&#8221;<\/em>&nbsp;shows that the scholastic ideation of three styles of abstraction comes close to a satisfying answer.&nbsp;&nbsp;But, no one can capitalize on that answer until a hidden knot is unraveled.&nbsp;&nbsp;A knot?&nbsp;&nbsp;Two judgments are entangled.&nbsp;&nbsp;This becomes clear when the abstractions are pictured as elements of judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0205&nbsp;<em>The following diagram of the Positivist&#8217;s judgment<\/em>&nbsp;is a satisfying way to portray&nbsp;<em>what the mechanical philosophers created in the 1600s<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>what Kant corrected in the late 1700s<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide068.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide068.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8704\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide068.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Slide068-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2025,&nbsp;<em>no definition of science<\/em>&nbsp;compares to&nbsp;<em>this diagram<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0206 In the Positivist&#8217;s judgment, the positive intellect (<em>relation,<\/em>&nbsp;thirdness) brings the empirio-schematic judgment (<em>what ought to be,<\/em>&nbsp;secondness) into relation with the dyad, a noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena (<em>what is,&nbsp;<\/em>firstness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the empirio-schematic judgment, disciplinary language (<em>relation,&nbsp;<\/em>thirdness) brings mathematical and mechanical models (<em>what ought to be,<\/em>&nbsp;secondness) into relation with observations and measurements of phenomena (<em>what is,<\/em>firstness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0207 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) forces natural scientists to concede that they investigate the observable and measurable facets of&nbsp;<em>the thing itself<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Plus,&nbsp;<em>their observations and measurements<\/em>&nbsp;cannot fully objectify&nbsp;<em>the subject of inquiry<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0208 Over the next two centuries (1800s and 1900s),&nbsp;&nbsp;scientists promote their successful models, saying, &#8220;Our models are more illuminating than&nbsp;<em>the thing itself<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Indeed, our models can take the place of the noumenon.&nbsp;&nbsp;Once that happens, then our models can be objectified by their phenomena.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Observations and measurements<\/em>&nbsp;validate&nbsp;<em>the successful model<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The academic laboratory sciences are born.&nbsp;&nbsp;For example,&nbsp;<em>a chemistry laboratory and its accompanying lecture<\/em>&nbsp;belong to&nbsp;<em>the laboratory science of chemistry<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;In contrast,&nbsp;<em>the science of chemistry<\/em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<em>the study of natural processes,<\/em>&nbsp;that is,&nbsp;<em>things themselves<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The key to science<\/em>&nbsp;is to make an observation and then explain it.&nbsp;&nbsp;The model is an explanation, rather than&nbsp;<em>the thing itself<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0201 The book before me is&nbsp;Semiotic Agency: Science Beyond Mechanism,&nbsp;by biosemioticians Alexei Sharov and Morten Tonnnessen.&nbsp;&nbsp;The book is published in 2021 by Springer and logs in at volume 25 of Springer&#8217;s Series in Biosemiotics.&nbsp;&nbsp;The editors of this series have Razie Mah&#8217;s permission for use of following disquisition, with attribution of said blogger. Part III concerns [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[522,210,211,429],"tags":[524,526,125,523,39,525,42,55,527,185,184,124,44,35,176],"class_list":["post-8702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biosemiotics","category-empirio-schematics","category-phenomenology-empirio-schematics","category-positivists-judgment","tag-agency","tag-alexei-sharov","tag-biology","tag-biosemiotics","tag-category-based-nested-form","tag-charles-peirce","tag-evolution","tag-interscope","tag-noumenal-overlay","tag-noumenon","tag-phenomena","tag-philosophy","tag-science","tag-semiotics","tag-sign"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is Biosemiotics Scientific? 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