Biosemiotics and Evolution

Elena Pagni graduated in Philosophy (University of Pisa - Italy) with a thesis on Aristotle and his view of perception, and was awarded a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Florence. She has been member of the Research Laboratory ”Epistemologica" (University of Firenze, Italy), directed by Prof.  Roberta Lanfredini. She got a one-year post doc (Research in Paris fellowship) in philosophy of biology at the Ens of Paris (Centre Cavaillès), under the supervision of Dr. Giuseppe Longo, did a post doc scholarship at the PPG in Psychology at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (scholarship of the PNPD/Capes Program) under the direction of Prof. Richard Theisen Simanke, and a post doc at the Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Psicologia, Brazil, under the direction of Prof. Reinaldo Furlan. From 2018 to 2021 she has been a visiting professor, with exclusive dedication, at the Department of Philosophy of the Institute of Human Sciences at the Federal University of Juiz De Fora. Research fields: Ancient Philosophy, Phenomenology, Biosemiotics, evolutionary processes of biological in-formation, biological problem of individuality, problem of meaning in nature, biosemiotic paradigm in the life sciences  Richard Theisen Simanke graduated in Philosophy and Methodology of Science from the Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil) and was awarded a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of São Paulo (Brazil). He was Professor of History and Philosophy of Psychoanalysis in the Department of Philosophy and Methodology of Science at the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil until 2012 and is currently Professor of History and Philosophy of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. His fields of expertise are the history and philosophy of psychoanalysis, history and philosophy of psychology, history and philosophy of science, and science and phenomenology. His secondary research interests are philosophy of biology, history and philosophy of psychiatry and the history of sexuality.

Introduction.- Part I: Life, meaning, and information.- Exploring the philosophical background and scientific foundations of naturalist approaches to meaning and symbolism.- Life sciences and the natural history of signs: can the origin of life processes coincide with the emergence of semiosis?.- A proposal for a biosemiotic approach to digitalization: literacy as modelling competence.- Threshold, meaning and life.- How information gets its meaning.- Part II: Semiosis and evolution.- Inclusive Fitness teleology and Darwinian explanatory pluralism: a theoretical sketch and an application to current controversies.- The origins and evolution of design: a stage-based model.- Biosemiotics and applied evolutionary epistemology: a comparison.- Extended synthesis and Jablonka and Lamb's four-dimensional view of evolution.- Part III: Physics, medicine, and bioenergetics.- Physical intentionality: the phenomenological roots of biosemiotics.- Cancer and cell death: a biosemiotic perspective.- Biosemiotics and bioenergetics: two perspectives compared.