On an Instance of Animal Semiosis
This purpose of this reflexive paper is to discuss the implications of an instance of semiosis in the animal world, in this instance, occurring with an animal, the dog, which has, it can be argued, throughout history reaped almost unique benefits (perhaps second only to the cat) by the virtue of its semiotic abilities and how they have allowed the animal to interact successfully with humans.
Semiotics works in the animal world in a similar fashion as in the human: "In animals (...), semiosis creates structures of experience which organize the environment and determine what is and what is not functional for that animal" (Cunningham and Shank, p.3). The Umwelt has been suggested as a term for the 'significant world' of an animal, which includes both aspects which are governed by the condition of being that particular species of animal, and aspects which are related to the life the individual animal has led in the environment. Some examples of the signs that would characterize the Umwelt for a cat might include the smell of tuna fish, the sound of a cat opening, the small movements of a hand tapping a knee, the sensation of fingers patting its fur. All of these sensory stimuli function as signs for the cat.
Before leaving the feline world for the canine, let's take a brief look at the semiotic operation as defined by Charles S. Peirce.
(Cunningham, p. 6).
Everyone who has owned a cat knows that the rasp of a can opener can call a seemingly dozing feline from several blocks away. By using Peirce's definition of the sign process, the sound of the can opener functions as the kind of a sign called an index, because there is a causal link between the sound and the fact that cat food is ...
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...to: the fact that she had not included human verbal systems as important structures of her experience of her Umwelt; the fact that I had not had much interaction with the dog previous to this (she had not had many opportunities for semiosis related to my appearance); and the fact that, as her owner and primary caregiver had changed shifts, I was the one suddenly who was feeding her at night and was thus a much more important aspect to her Umwelt.
I had puzzled over Kelly's 'misunderstanding' of my command for quite awhile after this, and Peirce's sign process helps in my understanding of this instance of canine semiosis. Kelly's knowledge, her structure of signs, caused her to attend to me in what I thought was a classical operant-conditioning manner, but that way of thinking didn't fully explain the surprising results of my experience with the pit bull/labrador.
Animalism bases its conclusion on personal identity that the bodies must have the same material body. It fails to address the mind of the bodies at both time t and t*. Also, though the body stays qualitatively identical (same properties); it’s not numerical identical (same substance). Nevertheless, psychological continuity focuses on the mind of the person but not its body. It suggest that
With television and computer so common in today’s society, more and more people spend much time at home watching sport shows. Young children grow up with their heroes being famous athletes they see on TV everyday. These young children grow up wanting to be just like the people they have watched for years on television. Becoming a great athlete is a dream of many young people and also their parents. Because steroids have seemed to make it a lot easier for people to attain the goals they have set out to accomplish, many people have turned to the drugs to gain that goal. Without thinking about the physical side effects or the mental side effects that steroids can have on them, they are willing to risk all that to become bigger, stronger, or faster just to succeed in sports whether it be in junior high, high school, college or at the professional level.
Every year high school, college, and professional athletes try to get just ?a little bigger,??a little stronger,? and to increase the amount of weights they lift by, ?just a few pounds.? To achieve these goals athletes often turn to anabolic steroids to aid them in achieving their goals. Anabolic steroids are a quick, but dangerous way to increase muscle mass, and they can carry many risks including some life threatening side affects. Years after taking steroids athletes can live to have serious heart problems, sterility, or possibly not even live, all because of foolish decisions they made in the past. These potentially fatal drugs are not widely known by young athletes at all, because they don?t know about the risks that can go along with them. In school, every student is taught about marijuana, cocaine,heroin, sex, liquor, and all those other health risks, but they?re never taught about ?roids? or ?juice.? (slang words for steroids) That should be changed, because it is known that student athletes often use steroids, not knowing the risks. Many times they take the risk because they hear about professional athletes taking steroids. But, despite their widespread use in sports, steroids can have more negative than positive effects on athletes of all types. Steroids are chemical substances that can be made naturally by the body or produced synthetically. There are many different types of steroids that are used for different things other than just athletes enhancing muscles. For example, there are types of steroids that can be used by women as birth control pills, and other types that are used for menopause treatment. The abuse of steroids is almost always found to be in the case of athletes, and that is the focus of this paper. ?All anabolic steroids are synthetic compounds whose molecular structure is similar to that of the natural male sex hormone testosterone. Testosterone affects development of the male body in two important ways: it has an anabolic effect - increases growth, especially of muscular and skeletal tissue - And an androgenic effect - increased development of male sexual characteristics. Anabolic steroids are constructed stythetically in such a way that they maximize the anabolic effect of testosterone while minimizing the androgenic effect.? The way that steroids work can easily be interpreted by a foo...
The writer does an excellent job driving home the key elements surrounding the returning King. We clearly understand that no man knows when Jesus will return, but we can identify the closing of the season. The faithful are to be on watch while tending to the kingdom. The false servants will run about life as if they have more time. The returning King will give an account of the true and false servants. There will be a reward for the faithful and punishment for the unfaithful.
This book presents the relationship between human and animal behaviors and the behavior that is now created by our modern day society. The mind has two main parts. There is the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the better half, yet it is potentially threatening; therefore, the conscious mind is aware at all times. The unconscious mind influences your behavior in many ways. Pi experiences both of these minds. Pi is consciously planning his survival and how he was going to spend his food, so he didn’t run out. His conscious mind contributed to Pi surviving at sea. Consequently, when Pi`s father fed a goat to a tiger to prove a point, he was unaware that this event changed his personality brutally. He became more
Is language anything but one of the best carriers of our thoughts? This is the main idea that Saussure tries to deliver it in the general courses on linguistics. Our thoughts are shapeless entities and quite limited to our very own cognition. In order to have a good communication we need to share our thoughts, but prior to contribute them in a happy interactive communication, our thoughts need to transform into something more tangible, something that we can see them, use them, manipulate them and feel them intellectually. Here, Saussure believes that this is the language which helps us to shape our thoughts in a form of words, sentences and other linguistic patterns that we use in our everyday conversation. Victor’s problem was the lack of understanding the relationship between things and their attributed names. Therefore he needs to get through the complicated world of signs. According to Saussure, sign is consisted of two important parts: the metal image (the concept) and the sound pattern. With the help of this combination, we can reach a cognitive certitude that allows us to share social and conventional entities with others. Therefore, we can communicate by implying the same order and the same rules that we share together. In other words the inherited rules of language make it possible for us to take the language which we speak as granted. It becomes our second
Charles Peirce believed “only through the way of linguistic, logical and pragmatic signs considered as tools and objects can humans know about the natural world.” (Kremer...
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”, that the Lord will come again. This is known as “The Second Coming” and this passage shows that the Lord will be back for His second reign over all of the
“the second appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ which God will bring about in his own time" (vv. 14-15).
In the article “No, animals don’t have rights” (2014), the author argues that the movement for animals rights is reducing humans to animals, or upgrading animals to humans. However, this is not entirely true, humans are also animals, but with a higher degree of intelligence. In the article “Yes, animals have feelings” (2014), has shown that most scientists agree that vertebrates animals are, to different degrees, sentient. Humans can’t understand what they feel exactly, but we can notice their change in behavior and emotion. Animals are responsive and expressive, they have their intentions and preferences. Opponents believe that animals don 't have rights or that even if they do, those rights should count for less than human desires; others believe giving animals rights would demean humanity and animal rights must be rejected; also, that human welfare is more important than animal welfare, interests of animals should be overruled when necessary. A research by the Clever Dog Lab at the University of Vienna, shows that dogs, just like humans, glance at the left side of the human face first, this is where the bilateral brains exhibit more emotion. Therefore, dogs rapidly read mood and intentions. A research led by Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trento, found that dogs were relaxed when they watched videos of dogs wagging their tails mainly to the
Conscious thinking may well be a core function of central nervous systems. For conscious animals enjoy the advantage of being able to think about alternative actions and select behavior they believe will get them what they want or help them avoid what they dislike or fear. Of course human consciousness is astronomically more complex and versatile than any conceivable animal thinking, but the basic question addressed…is whether the difference is qualitative and absolute, or whether animals are conscious even though the content of their consciousness is undoubtedly limited and very likely quite different of ours. (3)
There is a growing need for professionals in the healthcare field of anesthesiology due to the influx of patients requiring medical intervention and surgical services. One field in particular, nurse anesthetists is a rapidly growing field with the need for 100,000 or more practitioners each year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurse anesthetists work under anesthesiologists and provide care before, during, and after a surgical procedure. They are also known as CRNA’s or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. In order to become a nurse anesthetist, you must first obtain a bachelor’s degree of science in nursing (BSN). After you complete that challenge, you are required to work in a critical care unit for two years prior to going
The “Umwelt” of a particular organism can be interpreted as the semiotic world of that organism, and “Umwelt is not simply the environment in general, but the environment which holds significance for any particular species” (Wheeler, 101). The semiotic world of a female human and the semiotic world of dog are distinctive in their biological differences and how they can perceive a particular scenario. One scenario is a “perceived threat” where a human female is walking her dog and a threat is viewed through both the Umwelt of the human and of the dog. Their semiotic responses differ, and this essay will examine how emotional response affects their perception, how biological differences alter or enhance their perception, and how the semiotics
Not too long ago, Ms. Morris’s beloved dog, Hattie, had 5 puppies. Everyone in town thought the puppies were boring and ugly. Their eyes were closed, made a little movement, and didn’t make any noise. Nobody thought the dogs were cute, and nobody wanted them.
Have you ever heard of Botswana? Well, it is a country in Africa. Most people have never heard of Botswana, just like most people do not know that Egypt is in Africa. Pretty interesting? I, myself, had never heard of Botswana until I was selected to spend six weeks on a missionary internship there. I also did not know that Egypt was in Africa until recently. I would not give up my experience in Botswana away for the world. That is not what I am here to tell you about, though. I would love to tell you all about the mission trip and my plans for going back for a two year stay; however, I would like to inform you about the country of Botswana. I would like to begin by telling you where Botswana is. We will then look at this country under South African rule, compared to the independent government of Botswana that now exists. I would also like to have you look at the people and their culture to sho3w you what kind of people they are, and how simply they live and still get along quite well. I hope you enjoy this informational page of a country that many people have never heard about, and maybe it will inspire you to at least make a visit to see if I am telling the truth.