ZYGO Zygon® 0591-2385 1467-9744 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2010.01089.x DISCUSSION OF THE CONCEPTUAL BASIS OF BIOSEMIOTICS Robinson Andrew Southgate Christopher Deacon Terrence 02 06 2010 45 2 10.1111/zygo.2010.45.issue-2 409 418 © 2010 by the Joint Publication Board of Zygon

Kalevi Kull and colleagues recently proposed eight theses as a conceptual basis for the field of biosemiotics. We use these theses as a framework for discussing important current areas of debate in biosemiotics with particular reference to the articles collected in this issue of Zygon.

 biosemiotics emergence function life origin of life Saka theses semiotics teleology Deacon, Terrence W.2003. “The Hierarchic Logic of Emergence: Untangling the Interdependence of Evolution and Self‐Organization.”  In Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered, ed. B. H.Weber and D. J.Depew, 273–308. Cambridge : MIT Press. Deacon, Terrence W.2006a. “Emergence: The Hole at the Wheel's Hub.”  In The Re‐Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion, ed. P.Clayton and P.Davies, 111–50. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Deacon, Terrence W.2006b. “Reciprocal Linkage between Self‐organizing Processes Is Sufficient for Self‐reproduction and Evolvability.”Biological Theory  1 (2): 1–14. Deacon, Terrence W. In press. Mind from Matter: The Emergent Dynamics of Life. New York : W. W. Norton. Hoffmeyer, Jesper. 2010. “A Biosemiotic Approach to the Question of Meaning.”Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  45:367–90. Kull, Kalevi, TerrenceDeacon, ClausEmmeche, JesperHoffmeyer, and FrederikStjernfeldt2009. “Theses on Biosemiotics: The Saka Convention.”Biological Theory  4 (2): 1–7. Pattee, Howard H.1995. “Evolving self‐reference: Matter, symbols, and semantic closure.”Communication and Cognition—Artificial Intelligence  12:9–27. Robinson, Andrew, and ChristopherSouthgate2010. “A General Definition of Interpretation and Its Application to Origin of Life Research.”Biology and Philosophy  25:163–82. Short, T. L.2007. Peirce's Theory of Signs. Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press. Southgate, Christopher, and AndrewRobinson2010. “Interpretation and the Origin of Life.”Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  45:345–60. Ulanowicz, Robert E.2010. “Process Ecology: Stepping Stones to Biosemiosis.”Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  45:391–408. Weber, Bruce H.2010. “Selection, Interpretation, and the Emergence of Living Systems.”Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science  45:361–66.