Umwelt theory: key topics

Animal cases:

The stick for a dog

Human cases:

The chair

Search images and tones

These constructions

are intentions

(Feeding Tone,

Sitting Tone etc.)

Simple and complex Umwelten

First principle of Umwelt theory

Simple Umwelten = "single functional circle" - the same receptor cue is always beaten by the same effector cue

Form and motion = Complex Umwelten

Phenomena of deformation of objective world.

• Tones are how the objective world appears
• Images are the mental construction of this appearance.

Factors that influence the formation of meaning

Plan in the living world

Meaning = central

Every behaviour: OBJECT > perceptual cue ... effector cue > OBJECT functional circle connects the meaning-carrier with the subject

Our Objectives

Uexkull's terminology

Animals with eyes have access to the Plans.

Physical objects do not suffer perspective deformations.

Visual capabilities determine what is inside or outside the animal’s plan, in Umwelt.

When a dog runs, the animal moves its legs; when a sea urchin runs, the legs move the animal

Effector cue/meaning extinguishes receptor cue/meaning

"reflex" animal

"reflex" person

"reflex" republic

Neutral object becomes meaning-carrier as it enters relation with subject

Action = perception >>> operation

Subject imprints meaning on object

Object = subject-related meaning-carrier

Receptor image fused with the effector image / functional tone / meaning

Meaning tied changing organs to a changing medium

Impulse (meaning or information) + meaning-carrier

= sign

= command for receiver

NOT causality but PLAN

Farthest Plane

• define simple and complex Umwelten
• explain the Uexküll's idea of plan in the living world
• give the meaning of search images and tones
• outline factors that influence the formation of meaning
• identify the same object in the Umwelten of different organisms

Differently from tactile experience,

visual experience allows the existence

of the farthest plane.

Perceiving the objects at distance.

Having two eyes to cross information of distance

Human Eyes can

perceive a candle

48km away

Most distant object is Andromeda galaxy 2.6 million light years away – The dependency of Time on sight

Animals as closed within soap bubbles of visual perception

The same object in the Umwelten of different organisms

Further discussion

soap bubble

Umwelt theory: key topics

Subject's perceptual images of the object correspond to their different functional tones

Each Umwelt utilises part of the object that has suitable bearers for receptor and effector cues required for individual functional cycles

From one Umwelt to another, each object changes its meaning-quality as well as the structure of all its material and formal properties

1.What differentiates simple Umwelten from complex Umwelten?

2. What role does space and time play in this differentiation?

3. Why does Uexküll prefer the idea of a 'plan' to a 'goal'?

4. What kinds of plans does he introduce and what does he mean with each one?

5. What's the difference between a search image and a search tone?

6. How does the search image come about/develop?

7. Describe the process of the formation of meaning and

the factors that influence it using your own example.

(Can you plot this on the functional cycle?)

8. Illustrate, with your own example, how the perceptual images of a

particular object are shaped differently for different organisms.

9. What kind of possible practical usage/implementation of the Umwelt

theory can be found in different scientific fields?

"... the garden has been depicted as it presents itself to the human eye, resulting in the neglect of the picture it presents to the house's occupant."