The Semantic Morphology of Adolf Portmann: A Starting Point for the Biosemiotics of Organic Form?
This paper develops the ideas of the Swiss zoologist Adolf Portmann or, more precisely, his concept of organic self-representation, wherein Portmann considered the outer surface of living organisms as a specific organ that serves in a self-representational role. This idea is taken as a starting point from which to elaborate Portmans ideas, so as to make them compatible with the theoretical framework of biosemiotics. Today, despite the many theories that help us understand aposematism, camouflage, deception and other phenomena related to the category of mimicry, there still is a need for a general theory of self-representation that would re-synthesize evolutionary, morphogenetic and semiotic aspects of the surface of organisms. Here, Adolf Portmanns concept of self-representation is considered as an important step towards the biosemiotics of animal form.
adolf portmann organic form self-representation mimicry semantic organs homosemiosis imitation display homology