Signs, dispositions, and semiotic scaffolding

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Science
• Theoretical Biology
• Biosemiotics

Background:

• Distinguishing living from non-living entities relies on abstract attributes like agency and autonomy.
• Organismal purposefulness is inferred from observed goal-oriented behavior.
• Current scientific explanations often invoke mechanistic, rather than mechanicist, accounts of biological phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate that organismal purposefulness originates from the intrinsic finality of semiotic transactions.
• To develop a dispositionalist account of organismal causation.
• To elucidate the interaction between physical and semiotic causation in generating goal-oriented behavior.

Main Methods:

• Introduction of a dispositionalist account distinguishing fixed (efficient) and traveling dispositions.
• Conceptualization of sign tokens as vehicles for traveling dispositions.
• Review of recent developments in the philosophy of science regarding causation and the 'nomological machine' model.

Main Results:

• Traveling dispositions, embodied in sign tokens, are proposed as key to understanding semiosis in life sciences.
• The interaction between physical and semiotic causation is identified as the origin of purposive behavior.
• A framework is presented for understanding how energetic causal chains and semiotic transactions orchestrate scaffolding structures and processes.

Conclusions:

• Organismal purposefulness emerges from the orchestrated cooperation of physical and semiotic causation.
• This interaction leads to the development of scaffolding structures and processes that culminate in goal-oriented behavior.
• The proposed account offers a novel perspective on causation relevant to the life sciences.