Prof. Morten Tønnessen, who also recently was the opponent at Juan Medoza's PhD defense in cognitive semiotics, will give this talk on basic methodological principles of our field, and discuss the relations between cognitive semiotics and biosemiotics. All are welcome on zoom - with cameras on! - or in the room in SOL from 3pm, for catching up and self-introductions for newcomers. The talk will start at 15:15, last up to one hour, and be followed by a general discussion.

In earlier work I have argued that a genuine ´Uexküllian phenomenology´ can be derived from the Umwelt theory of Jacob von Uexküll, and that such a phenomenology is capable of accounting for the subjective experience of both human and animal subjects of the phenomenal world at large. With its foundation in contemporary biosemiotics, such a modern, empirically informed phenomenology is particularly relevant for the study of human-animal relations and interaction in societal and ecological settings.

Cognitive semiotics professor Jordan Zlatev has proposed some interesting methodological principles for the transdisciplinary science of cognitive semiotics. This includes a “conceptual-empirical loop” with a research process involving a combination of theoretical and empirical work, and “phenomenological triangulation” involving combined use of 1^st person perspective, 2^nd person perspective and 3^rd person perspective studies of one and the same topic of study. I will provide some comments and reflections on Zlatev´s methodological principles, and also discuss to what extent something similar could be applied within the context of biosemiotics, with the aim of integrating biosemiotics and phenomenology further.