Search
Submit an article RU
Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

2024 Vol. 15 №4

Back to the list Download the article
ENG
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
RUS
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
Zolyan S.T.

Should there be biomolecular pragmatics?

DOI
10.5922/2225-5346-2024-4-3
Pages
41-54
genetic information pragmatics biosemiotics regulatory codes Charles Peirce

Abstract

This article demonstrates that the concept proposed by Alexander Spirov reflects the ongoing paradigm shift and inspires new approaches in biosemiotics and semiotic pragmatics. The shift involves a move from describing coding languages to describing languages that regulate them. This requires considering the agentivity (or quasi-subjectivity) of sign systems, which leads to a scenario where the sign system functions as both its subject and object, thus reviving Peirce's idea of the sign as a quasi-mind. An analysis of the primary regulatory mechanisms shows that regulatory codes: (a) create specific conditions for coding, (b) govern and control coding processes, and (c) consist of the same elements as coding elements, although are interpreted differently. Their interpretant is not amino acids or proteins but the processes of activation or suppression. Communication and information processes at the biomolecular level allow pragmatics to be understood as semiotic operations associated with intra-system self-regulation and the system's external interaction with its context (environment). The processes within a system, as described by Alexander Spirov, create contexts and interfaces for interaction between different systems. This implies that a system of signs can act as an agent that communicates or interprets, akin to Peirce's notion of the quasi-mind. This understanding has the potential to significantly reshape the current approaches to pragmatics and semiosis.

Reference

Barbieri, M., 2003. The Organic Codes. An Introduction to Semantic Biology. Camb­ridge.

Barbieri, M., 2015. Code Biology. A New Science of Life. Dordrecht, https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-14535-8.

Barbieri, M., 2018. What is code biology? BioSystems, 164, pp. 1—10, https://doi. org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.10.005.

Brier, S. and Joslyn, C., 2013. What does it take to produce interpretation? Infor­mational, Peircean and code-semiotic views on biosemiotics. Biosemiotics, 6 (1), pp. 143—159, https://doi. org/10.1007/s12304—012—9153—5.

Carter Jr., C. W. and Wolfenden, R., 2015. tRNA acceptor-stem and anticodon bases form independent codes related to protein folding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, pp. 7489—7494, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1507569112.

Collier, J., 2014. Signs Without Minds. In: V. Romanini and E. Fernández, eds. Peirce and Biosemiotics. Biosemiotics. Vol. 11, pp. 189—197, https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-94-007-7732-3_10.

Deacon, T. W., 2011. Incomplete nature: How mind emerged from matter. New York.

Deacon, T. W., 2021. How Molecules Became Signs. Biosemiotics, 14, pp. 537—559, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-021-09453-9.

Habermas, J., 1995. Peirce and communication. In: K. L. Ketner, ed. Peirce and con­temporary thought: Philosophical inquiries. New York, pp. 243—266.

Jacob, F., 1973. The Logic of Life: A History of Heredity. New York.

Jacob, F., 1977. The Linguistic Model in Biology. In: D. Armstrong, C. H. van Schoo­neveld, eds. Roman Jakobson. Echoes of His Scholarship. Lisse, pp. 185—192.

Jakobson, R., 1970. Linguistics. Relationship between the science of language and other sciences. In: Main trends of research in the social and human sciences. Mouton, pp. 419—453.

Kull, K., 1998. Organism as a self-reading text: anticipation and semiosis. Inter­na­tional Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems, 1, pp. 93—104.

Ovchinnikov, L. P., 1998. What and how to encode in mRNA. Sorosovskii obrazo­va­tel'nyi zhurnal. Biologiya [Soros Educational Magazine. Biology], 4, pp. 10—18 (in Russ.).

Pattee, H. H., 2005. The necessity of biosemiotics: Matter-symbol complemen­ta­rity. Journal of Biosemiotics, 1 (1), pp. 223—238.

Pattee, H. H., 2012a. How Does a Molecule Become a Message? In: Laws, Lan­guage and Life. Biosemiotics. Vol. 7, pp. 55—67, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5161-3_3.

Pattee, H. H., 2012b. Cell Psychology: An Evolutionary Approach to the Symbol-Matter Problem. In: Laws, Language and Life. Biosemiotics. Vol. 7, pp. 165—179, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5161-3_11.

Peirce, C. S. and Welby-Gregory, V. (Lady Welby), 1977. Semiotic and Significs: The Correspondence between C. S. Peirce and Victoria Lady Welby. Bloomington, 201 p.

Peirce, C. S., 1906. Prolegomena to an Apology for Pragmaticism. The Monist, 16 (4), pp. 492—546, https://doi.org/10.5840/monist190616436.

Prodi, G., 2021. The Material Bases of Meaning. Tartu, 219 p.

Ratner, V. A., 2000. Chronicle of the Great Discovery: Ideas and Faces. Priroda [The Nature], 6, pp. 22—30 (in Russ.).

Sharov, A. and Tønnessen, M., 2021. Semiotic Agency. Science beyond Mechanism. Dord­recht, 372 p.

Spirov, A. V., 2024. Languages of Deployment of Hereditary Information in Embryogenesis: Linguo-Semiotic Analogues and Analogies. Slovo. ru: Baltic accent, 15 (4), pp. 25—40, https://doi.org/10.5922/2225-5346-2024-4-2 (in Russ.).

Stepanov, Y. S., 1964. On the Prerequisites of the Linguistic Theory of Meaning. Voprosy Jazykoznanija [Topics in the study of language], 5, pp. 66—74 (in Russ.).

Weatheritt, R. J., 2013. Madan Babu M. Madan. The Hidden Codes That Shape Protein Evolution. Science, 342 (6164), pp. 1325—1326, https://doi.org/10.1126/ science.1248425.

Zolyan, S., 2021. On the context-sensitive grammar of the genetic code. Biosys­tems, 208, article 104497, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104497.

Zolyan, S., 2023a. On the minimal elements of the genetic code and their semiotic functions (degeneracy, complementarity, wobbling). Biosystems, 231, article 104962, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2023.104962.

Zolyan, S., 2023b. Semiosis and Quasi-Minds: Charles Peirce’s Unfinished Se­man­tic Theory. In: Proceedings Conference Computer Science and Information (CSIT 2023). Yerevan, pp. 69—72.

Zolyan, S. T., 2023. Pragmatics as a Self-Generation of a Subject-on-Its Own. Vop­rosy filosofii [Problems of Philosophy], 7, pp. 93—103, https://doi.org/10.21146/ 0042-8744-2023-7-93-103 (in Russ.).