In the present book, the starting line is defined by a morphogenetic perspective on human communication and culture. The focus is on visual communication, music, religion (myth), and language, i.e., on the “symbolic forms” at the heart of human cultures (Ernst Cassirer). The term “morphogenesis” has more precisely the meaning given by René Thom (1923-2002) in his book “Morphogenesis and Structural Stability” (1972) and the notions of “self-organization” and cooperation of subsystems in the “Synergetics” of Hermann Haken (1927- ). The naturalization of communication and cultural phenomena is the favored strategy, but the major results of the involved disciplines (art history, music theory, religious science, and linguistics) are respected.
Visual art from the Paleolithic to modernity stands for visual communication. The present book focuses on studies of classical painting and sculpture (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci, William Turner, and Henry Moore) and modern art (e.g., Jackson Pollock and Joseph Beuys). Musical morphogenesis embraces classical music (from J. S. Bach to Arnold Schönberg) and political songwriting (Bob Dylan, Leonhard Cohen). The myths of pre-literary societies show the effects of self-organization in the re-assembly (bricolage) of traditions. Classical polytheistic and monotheistic religions demonstrate the unfolding of basic germs (religious attractors) and their reduction in periods of crisis, the self-organization of complex religious networks, and rationalized macro-structures (in theologies). Significant tendencies are analyzed in the case of Buddhism and Christianism. Eventually, a holistic view of symbolic communication and human culture emerges based on state-of-the-art in evolutionary biology, cognitive science, linguistics, and semiotics (philosophy of symbolic forms).
Author(s): Wolfgang Wildgen
Series: Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 218
City: London
Preface
References
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Morphogenesis and the Science of Life
1.1.1 The Rise of Theoretical Biology and the Role of Morphogenesis
1.1.2 Darwin Revisited
1.1.3 From Biological Morphogenesis to Semiogenesis
1.2 The Impact of Individuation
1.3 Tradigenetic and Ratiogenetic Processes
1.4 Morphogenesis and Mathematics for the Human Sciences
References
2 From Sensorial Capacities to Symbolic Forms (With Particular Reference to Odor and Color)
2.1 Introduction: Sensation/Perception Versus Communication
2.2 The Perception and Communication of Odors
2.3 The Perception and Communication of Colors
2.4 What Are Symbolic Forms?
References
3 The Morphogenesis of Symbolic Forms in Music
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Evolutionary Morphogenesis of Musical Forms
3.3 The Embodiment of Music and Ecological Semantics
3.3.1 The Perceptual Sources of Symbolic Forms in Music
3.3.2 Basic Emotions and Paths in an Emotional Space as a Potential for Musical Meaning
3.3.3 The Meaning of Complex Musical Creations in European Music
3.4 Motion and Forces as a Potential for Musical Semiogenesis
3.4.1 Bodily Motion (Kinematics) as a Source/Origin of Musical Semiogenesis
3.4.2 Bodily Forces (Dynamics) Motivating Musical Semiogenesis
3.4.3 The Morphogenesis of Melodies
3.5 Some Examples of a Morphogenetic Analysis of Music
3.5.1 Gestures in Bob Dylan’s Song: Tambourine Man (1964) and Musical Forces in the Song “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen (1984)
3.5.2 The String Quartet as a Musical Conversation
3.5.3 Pursuit and Escape in the Dynamics of the Fugue
3.5.4 Quasi-narrative Structures in Music and Their Dynamic Equivalents
3.5.5 Muso-mathematics and Computerized Music
3.6 Similarities and Differences in the Morphogenesis of Music and Language
3.6.1 The Co-evolution of Language and Music as a Source of Common Features
3.6.2 Semantic Constructions in Language and Music (Valences and Narrative Patterns)
3.7 Musical Meaning and Context
References
4 The Morphogenesis of Visual Symbolic Forms (Art, Architecture, and Urban Structures)
4.1 The Methods and Principles of a Morphogenetic Analysis of Visual Forms
4.1.1 Gestalt Principles of Visual Art After Arnheim
4.1.2 Visual Art as Symbolic Form; The Impact of Iconography and Iconology
4.1.3 Further Methods of Visual Analysis in a Morphogenetic Perspective
4.2 The Origins of Visual Artifacts and Art
4.3 Morphogenesis and Visual Art: From Leonardo da Vinci to William J. M. Turner and Henry Moore
4.3.1 Morphogenetic Structures in the Art of Leonardo da Vinci
4.3.2 The Morphogenesis of Abstract Painting in William J. M. Turner
4.3.3 Abstractive Reduction of Human Body Postures in Henry Moore’s Sculptures
4.3.4 Conclusion
4.4 Secondary Morphogenesis or “Meta-representation” in Art
4.5 Fractal Art in Pollock and Art as Social Sculpture and Diagram in Beuys
4.5.1 Chaotic Semiogenesis in the Art of Jackson Pollock
4.5.2 Social Plastic, Diagrams, and Morphogenetic Fields in Beuys’ Artwork
4.6 Morphogenesis in Human Settlement and Architecture
4.6.1 Morphogenesis of Urban Structures
4.6.2 Self-Organization of Urban Structures Versus Ratiogenetic Planning and Imitation
4.6.3 Political Ethics and the Architecture of the Town Hall in the Late Renaissance
4.6.4 Biomorphic Principles in the Architecture of Antoni Gaudi
4.6.5 The Morphogenesis of Typical Harbor Towns
4.7 Final Remarks: Visual Morphogenesis, Its Central Principles, and the Proper Concept of Space
References
5 The Morphogenesis and Self-Organization of Myth and Religion
5.1 Introductory Remarks on Myth, Religion, and Quasi-religious Phenomena
5.2 The Morphogenetic Approach in Religious Studies
5.3 The Emergence of Religion
5.4 The Morphogenesis of Religious Forms
5.4.1 The Origin of Religious Time and the Role of Memory in Religion
5.4.2 The Past Dimension of Religious Signs
5.4.3 The Future Dimension of Religion
5.4.4 The Dynamics of the End Times (Apocalypse) and Religious Anamnesis
5.5 Religious Morphogenesis Described with the Techniques of Catastrophe Theory
5.5.1 The Birth of a Religious Attractor (Hidden Force or God)
5.5.2 The Implosion of a Polytheistic Religious Universe
5.6 The Self-Organization of a Complex Religious System. The Case of Christianism
5.6.1 The First Attractor: Jesus Christ
5.6.2 The Second or Additional Attractor: The Cult of Mary
5.7 Religious Topographies. The Bororo Village and Routes of Pilgrimage
5.8 The Instability and Degradation of Symbolic Forms in Myth and Religion
5.8.1 Processes of Degradation in the Semiotic Triad: Sign Object–Sign Form–Interpretant
5.8.2 Attributes of God/Gods and the Instability of Constructs with Abstract Attributes and Universal Quantifiers
5.8.3 Ritual Texts. The Meaning of Hymns or Psalms
5.8.4 Personification and Allegory as an Antidote to Semantic Instability in Religious Systems
5.8.5 Truth in Religion, Religious Pluralism, and Historical Change
5.8.6 Mythical “Bricolage” and Ratiogenetic Construction of Religious Systems
5.9 Post-Religious Ethics and Political Myth
5.9.1 Protagoras Ethics and the Semiogenesis of Xenophobia
5.9.2 The Political Myth as a Fraudulent Construction: Rosenberg's “Mythus”
5.10 Summary and Conclusion
References
6 The Morphogenesis of Language and Morphodynamic Grammar
6.1 Biological Predispositions for the Morphogenesis of Human Language
6.1.1 Motor Programs as Predispositions for the Morphogenesis of Language at an Early Stage
6.1.2 Bifurcation Scenarios in the Morphogenesis of Language Capacity
6.1.3 Autocatalytic Dynamics and the Evolutionary Hypercycle
6.2 The Semantics of Space and Time in a Protolanguage
6.3 The Morphogenetic Transition Between a Protolanguage and Full-Fletched (Modern) Languages
6.3.1 The Self-Organization of a Grammatical System
6.3.2 Further Steps of Complexification in Language
6.3.3 Summary of the Evolutionary Morphogenesis of Human Languages
6.4 Morphogenetic Schematization in the Lexicon of Natural Languages
6.4.1 Morphogenetic Principles Versus Universal Grammar
6.4.2 Morphogenetic Structures in the Lexicon of Verbs
6.4.3 Morphogenesis and Attractor Dynamics in the Lexicon of Nouns, Adjectives, and Other Nominal Attributes
6.5 Morphogenesis and Grammaticalization (Applied to Case Marking)
6.6 Morphogenetic Structures in the Syntax of Verbal Phrases and Sentences
6.6.1 The Morphogenetic Foundation of “Deep” Structures
6.6.2 Semantic Roles and the Dynamics of Sentential Frames
6.7 Morphogenetic Patterns in the Syntax of Nouns and Adjectives
6.7.1 The Positional Hierarchies of the Adjective and Its Semantic Values
6.7.2 Sketch of the Morphogenetic Structure of Noun Phrases
6.8 Morphogenesis on Different Scales and the Stability of Language (and Other Symbolic Forms)
References
7 Peirce’s Semiotics, Cassirer’s Philosophy of Culture, and the Epistemology of Semiotics
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Science in the Spirit of Kepler and Peirce and Semiotics
7.3 The Threefold Ontology of the World (W), the Individual Mind (I), and the Community of Humans (C)
7.4 Cycles and Hypercycles in Semiogenesis
7.5 The Dynamics of Information in the Threefold Ontology: World—Individual—Community
7.6 The Information Flow Between the Forces: World, Individual, and Community
7.7 Cassirer’s “Philosophy of Symbolic Forms” in Its Historical Context
7.8 Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (Cassirer) or Generalized Logics of Signs (Peirce): A Confrontation
7.9 A Catastrophe Theoretical Model of the Interpretant (Peirce) that Integrates Cassirer’s Analysis
7.10 Conclusions
References
8 Final Reflections
References
