Larry David angrepet av flått (i tidsskriftartikkel)

Følgende utdrag er fra min nettopp publiserte tidsskriftartikkel "Semiotics of being and Uexküllian phenomenology" (s. 327-340 i Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (red.) 2011: Phenomenology/Ontopoiesis Retrieving Geo-cosmic Horizons of Antiquity (= Analecta Husserliana 110):

The example of the tick is classical in Uexküll studies (cf. von Uexküll 1957 [1934]: 7). In a few words, the tick is interesting because it is capable only of recognizing a few elements – such as the butyric acid, hair, and heat. All mammals have butyric acid, so in consequence the tick is able to recognize any mammal – though not to distinguish between them. For the tick, there are no “wolves” and no “sheep”, but only “mammals”. Uexküll’s illustrative point was that the tick is equipped so as to perform exactly the actions it needs to perform in order to get by.

Let us now consider a tick attack on a mammal – say, Larry David. First, receptors of the tick recognize the butyric acid evaporating from Larry David. That is semiosis. At some point – when passing a certain threshold – this semiosis gives rise to a phenomenal experience: The tick senses a (olfactory) sign of a mammal. It responds – acts – accordingly, by letting go of its twig, and fall. After landing somewhere on the surface of Larry David – an event which is reflected in semiosis triggered in tissue surrounding the spot of impact – receptors of the tick may (if the tick is lucky) recognize some hairs (semiosis, converted to a phenomenon). The tick then crawls deeper, until it recognizes the heat radiating from Larry David’s skin. That is semiosis – which again gives rise to a phenomenon, as the tick senses yet another sign of the mammal, and responds by penetrating Larry David’s skin. Soon thereafter, the tick sucks his blood. At this point Larry David may or may not have become aware of the presence of the tick, or of the pain caused by it. If he has, he has phenomenal experiences (with or without the tick figuring as an Umwelt object). If he has not become aware of the tick or its doings, only the affected tissue is in a state of knowing: That is semiosis.