一九二○至五○年代德法的生物環境論爭

Abstract

美國符號學家西比奧克(Thomas A. Sebeok)自一九七○年代開始推廣生命符號學，以德國生物學家魏克斯庫爾(Jakob von Uexk?ll)所提出之主體世界(Umwelt)為此運動之終極指標。西比奧克於二○○一年謝世前，仍不改初衷，堅持主體世界應為生命符號學與全球符號學之最佳實體典範，並以此對抗義大利符號學家艾柯(Umberto Eco)所提出之歷史、文化語用學論調。本論文作者則採納艾柯之方法，回顧魏氏於漢堡建立「生命自我研究」學會(Institut f?r Umweltforschung)之目的與此學科於德法哲學、科學界被解(誤)讀的歷程，重建一九二○至五○年代間，這一段兩次世界大戰紛擾，加上新學科興起之年代，魏氏所倡導的生命哲學方法如何穿越語言的疆界，由德語被轉化至法語知識範疇當中。作者將強調，魏氏理論隱含的另類形而上學以及人獸分野的問題，早已於這一段容易被忽略的文本歷史當中獲至初步解答，主體世界逐漸為神經語言學家修正與肯定為人獸共享、有效的主體方法論。此外，主體世界為法語收受之歷程中，並沒有出現如西比奧克所推廣之自然實體論。

In his promotion for the international movement of biosemiotics since the 1970s, Thomas A. Sebeok has been consistent to claim Jakob von Uexk?ll's Umwelt as a piece of ultimate evidence. Nevertheless, Sebeok's attempt to subsume all the geo-, bio-, politico-, socio- and semio- phenomena by the master trope of Umwelt has clashed with Umberto Eco's closer looks into the pragmatic conditions of addressee in different cultures. In order to restore the heuristic vitality of Umwelt for a couple of emerging disciplines during the 1920s and 1950s, the author starts with the establishment of Institut f?r Umweltforschung in Hamburg. Through exposing the interpretations and appropriations of Uexk?ll's Umwelt by the philosophers and neurolinguists across the border of Germany and France, the author demonstrates Uexk?ll's Umwelt as a series of codes and signals in biological mechanism, which should be distinguished from the physical world in nature.