A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans: with A Theory of Meaning

Description

A key document in the genealogy of posthumanist thought, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans advances Uexkull's revolutionary belief that nonhuman perceptions must be accounted for in any biology worth its name; it also contains his arguments against natural selection as an adequate explanation for the present orientation of a species' morphology and behavior. A Theory of Meaning extends his thinking on the umwelt, while also identifying an overarching and perceptible unity in nature.

Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944) was born in Estonia and educated at the University of Heidelberg and the Zoological Center in Naples. He published widely and, in 1926, founded the Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Hamburg. Joseph D. O'Neil is assistant professor of German studies at the University of Kentucky. A writer and sleight-of-hand magician, Dorion Sagan has written extensively on evolution, cybersex, and the biology of gender. Geoffrey Winthrop Young is associate professor of Central, Eastern, and Northern European studies at the University of British Columbia.