Kalevi Kull

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Kalevi Kull (2012) Kalevi Kull.jpg
Kalevi Kull (2012)

Kalevi Kull (born 12 August 1952, Tartu) is a biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia.

Contents

He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1975. His earlier work dealt with ethology and field ecology. He has studied the mechanisms of species coexistence in species-rich communities and developed mathematical modelling in ecophysiology. Since 1975, he has been the main organiser of annual meetings of theoretical biology in Estonia. In 1992, he became a Professor of Ecophysiology in the University of Tartu. In 1997, he joined the Department of Semiotics, and became a Professor in Biosemiotics. From 2006 to 2018, he was the Head of the Department of Semiotics in the University of Tartu, Estonia. His field of interests include biosemiotics, ecosemiotics, general semiotics, theoretical biology, theory of evolution, history and philosophy of semiotics and life science. [1]

He was the president of the Estonian Naturalists' Society in 1991–1994. He is a founder of the Jakob von Uexküll Centre. He is the president of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies since 2015.

Ecologist Olevi Kull was his younger brother. [2]

Editorship

Kull is the co-editor of the journal Sign Systems Studies and book series Semiotics, Communication and Cognition (De Gruyter), Biosemiotics (Springer), Tartu Semiotics Library, and Approaches to Culture Theory (University of Tartu Press). He is a member of editorial board of the journals Semiotica , Biosemiotics , Ecokritike, Punctum: International Journal of Semiotics, and others.

Important concepts

Selected publications

Festschrifts

Eponymous species

In 2021, a Costa Rican braconid wasp species new to science, Hymenochaonia kalevikulli Sharkey & van Achterberg, was named for Dr. Kull. [9]

Related Research Articles

Semiotics is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter.

Biosemiotics is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, production of signs and codes and communication processes in the biological realm.

Zoosemiotics is the semiotic study of the use of signs among animals, more precisely the study of semiosis among animals, i.e. the study of how something comes to function as a sign to some animal. It is the study of animal forms of knowing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jakob Johann von Uexküll</span> Baltic German biologist, zoologist, and philosopher (1864–1944)

Jakob Johann Freiherr von Uexküll was a Baltic German biologist who worked in the fields of muscular physiology and animal behaviour studies and was an influence on the cybernetics of life. However, his most notable contribution is the notion of Umwelt, used by semiotician Thomas Sebeok and philosopher Martin Heidegger. His works established biosemiotics as a field of research.

<i>Umwelt</i> Biological foundations central to the study of communication and signification

In the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas Sebeok, umwelt is the "biological foundations that lie at the very center of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal". The term is usually translated as "self-centered world". Uexküll theorised that organisms can have different umwelten, even though they share the same environment. The term umwelt, together with companion terms Umgebung and Innenwelt, have special relevance for cognitive philosophers, roboticists and cyberneticians because they offer a potential solution to the conundrum of the infinite regress of the Cartesian Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Sebeok</span> American semiotician (1920–2001)

Thomas Albert Sebeok was a Hungarian-born American polymath, semiotician, and linguist. As one of the founders of the biosemiotics field, he studied non-human and cross-species signaling and communication. He is also known for his work in the development of long-time nuclear waste warning messages, in which he worked with the Human Interference Task Force to create methods for keeping the inhabitants of Earth away from buried nuclear waste that will still be hazardous 10,000 or more years in the future.

<i>Sign Systems Studies</i> Academic journal on semiotics

Sign Systems Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal on semiotics edited at the Department of Semiotics of the University of Tartu and published by the University of Tartu Press. It is the oldest periodical in the field. It was initially published in Russian and since 1998 in English with Russian and Estonian language abstracts. The journal was established by Juri Lotman as Trudy po Znakovym Sistemam in 1964. Since 1998 it has been edited by Kalevi Kull, Mihhail Lotman, and Peeter Torop. Since 2022, Ott Puumeister leads the editorial team. The journal is available online from the Philosophy Documentation Center, indexed by WoS and Scopus, and starting 2012 also on an open access platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Deely</span> American philosopher

John Deely was an American philosopher and semiotician. He was a professor of philosophy at Saint Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Prior to this, he held the Rudman Chair of Graduate Philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies, located at the University of St. Thomas (Houston).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claus Emmeche</span>

Claus Emmeche is a Danish theoretical biologist and philosopher, one of founders of contemporary biosemiotics. He is associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, and is head of the Center for the Philosophy of Nature and Science Studies at the Faculty of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thure von Uexküll</span> German scholar of psychosomatic medicine and biosemiotics

Karl Kuno Thure Freiherr von Uexküll was a German scholar of psychosomatic medicine and biosemiotics. He developed the approach of his father, Jakob von Uexküll, in the study of living systems and applied it in medicine.

Martin Krampen was a leading German semiotician, semiotics Professor in Göttingen.

Phytosemiotics is a branch of biosemiotics that studies the sign processes in plants, or more broadly, the vegetative semiosis. Vegetative semiosis is a type of sign processes that occurs at cellular and tissue level, including cellular recognition, plant perception, plant signal transduction, intercellular communication, immunological processes, etc.

Giorgio Prodi was an Italian medical scientist, oncologist and semiotician.

The International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) is an academic society for the researchers in semiotic biology. The Society was established in 2005. Its official journal is Biosemiotics, published by Springer and launched in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesper Hoffmeyer</span> Danish biologist

Jesper Hoffmeyer was a professor at the University of Copenhagen Institute of Biology, and a leading figure in the emerging field of biosemiotics. He was the president of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) from 2005 to 2015, co-editor of the journal Biosemiotics and the Springer Book series in Biosemiotics. He authored the books Biosemiotics: An Examination into the Signs of Life and the Life of Signs and Signs of Meaning in the Universe and edited A Legacy for Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as Precursor to Biosemiotics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jakob von Uexküll Centre</span> Scientific organization in Estonia

Jakob von Uexküll Centre is an Estonia-based organisation for the work with the legacy of biologist, philosopher and semiotician Jakob von Uexküll. The Centre owns the major archive of his works in the world.

Ecosemiotics is a branch of semiotics in its intersection with human ecology, ecological anthropology and ecocriticism. It studies sign processes in culture, which relate to other living beings, communities, and landscapes. Ecosemiotics also deals with sign-mediated aspects of ecosystems.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to semiotics:

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.

Polar semiotics is a concept in the field of semiotics, which is the science of signs.

References

  1. Favareau, Donald (2010). "Chapter 13: Theoretical Biology on Its Way to Biosemiotics". Essential Readings in Biosemiotics: Anthology and Commentary. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 417–444. ISBN   9781402096501.
  2. Oren, Ram; Kull, Kalevi; Noormets, Asko (April 2008). "Olevi Kull's lifetime contribution to ecology". Tree Physiology. 28 (4): 483–490. doi: 10.1093/treephys/28.4.483 . PMID   18244935.
  3. Kull, Kalevi 1993. Recognition concept of species and a mechanism of speciation. Folia Baeriana 6. Tartu, 133–140.
  4. Kull, Kalevi 2016. The biosemiotic concept of the species. Biosemiotics 9(1): 61–71.
  5. Kull, Kalevi 2018. On the logic of animal umwelten: The animal subjective present and zoosemiotics of choice and learning. In: Marrone, Gianfranco; Mangano, Dario (eds.), Semiotics of Animals in Culture: Zoosemiotics 2.0. (Biosemiotics 17.) Cham: Springer, 135–148.
  6. Kull, Kalevi 2020. Semiotic fitting and the nativeness of community. Biosemiotics 13(1): 9–19.
  7. Kull, Kalevi 2019. Steps towards the natural meronomy and taxonomy of semiosis: Emon between index and symbol? Sign Systems Studies 47(1/2): 88–104.
  8. Kull, Kalevi 2023. Further considerations on semiosis in evolution: Arbitrarity plus semiotic fitting, and/or mutability plus natural selection. Sign Systems Studies 51(1): 171–194.
  9. Sharkey, Michael J.; Janzen, Daniel H., Hallwachs, Winnie, et al. 2021. Minimalist revision and description of 403 new species in 11 subfamilies of Costa Rican braconid parasitoid wasps, including host records for 219 species. ZooKeys 1013: 1–665 (p. 394–396).