Ecosemiotics between matter and life: starting from John Deely’s interpretation of semiotic scaffolding

[Slides from the presentation]

The presentation is an extension of the arguments proposed by John Deely in his article “Building a Scaffold: Semiosis in Nature and Culture”, published in 2015 in the journal Biosemiotics. In particular, the idea that physical scaffolding prepares the plans for the advent of organic life will be extended. In this sense, Deely suggests that there is a semio-material support that serves as a condition and direction for the «erection of a scaffolding moving the lifeless universe in the direction of being able to support life» (349). His theoretical hypothesis seeks to show how semiosis could extend beyond life, onto a physical universe that determines the conditions of possibility for the emergence of organisms. Thus, semiogenesis, if it is possible to speak of genesis, could be sought in its material dimensions. This somehow seems to propose a counter-proposal regarding the premises of biosemiotics, that life and semiosis are co-extensive.

The argumentation will consist of three parts: firstly, Deely’s arguments proposed in the article will be briefly summarised, emphasizing the thesis that semiosis extends beyond life; secondly, a dialogue between biosemiotics and physiosemiotics will be proposed through an ecosemiotic reinterpretation that integrates the material plane into the semiosis of nature; finally, thanks to the notion of semiotic scaffolding, a resemantization of physiosemiotics will be presented, embedding it in the study of ecosystemic semiotics.

The aim of the talk is to link Deely’s argument, which is posited from a physiosemiotic point of view, with contemporary advances in biosemiotics. From this perspective, we can read Deely’s proposal in syntony with biosemiotics, using ecosemiotics as a tool to harmoniously integrate the two discourses. In fact, if we think of ecosemiotics through a holistic perspective, we can combine the biotic and the abiotic, the organic and the inorganic, nature and culture, life and non-life through a continuity that stands on the semiotic scaffolding. Taking Deely’s proposal about the materiality of the scaffolding preparing life seriously, it could be understood as the material structure that brings forth the process that directs the signifying relations between life and matter. In Deely’s reinterpretation, semiotic scaffolding can be understood as a structure that offers evolutionary directions to organisms and the relationships between them from an ecosystemic and material point of view. The scaffolding in an ecosystem can be interpreted as the planes in which organic and inorganic life meet and condition each other.

Finally, a reinterpretation of physiosemiosis from ecosemiotics will be proposed, resemantising the notion of “Physis”, in the Greek sense of the term, i.e. nature in its whole. The semiotic scaffold can be a useful framework for making life and non-life dialogue through complicity and continuity, showing the intricate semiotic network and its processes, in a first and fundamental reality. Physiosemiotics, from an ecosemiotic perspective, can be seen as the structure of the semiotic scaffolding that makes ecosystemic organizations emerge.