The role of biosemiosis and semiotic scaffolding in the processes of developing intelligent behaviour

Abstract

Biosemiotics deals with the processes of signs in all dimensions of nature. Semiosis is the primary form of intelligence. Intelligent behaviour becomes immediately understandable in this approach because semiosis combines causality with the triadic structure of the semiotic sign. Intelligence is a process created in a given context. In the course of evolution organisms have learned to create increasingly sophisticated internal representations of external state. Semiosis is the precursor of the emergence of a feature we consider intelligence. Biosemiotics also draws attention to the distributed intelligence, which relies on external semiotic scaffoldings as much as on the subject’s abilities and knowledge.

Keywords

• biosemiotics
• semiosis
• biosemiosis
• semiotic scaffolding
• intelligence
• cognitive activity
• functional circles
• jakob von uexküll