Signs, Models, and Interpretation - Modern Aspects of Semiotics in Biology

In the beginning, a short survey of general semiotics is given in modern terminology. The broad spectra of signs and of descriptive semiotics are reviewed with special emphasis on biological applications. It is shown that a tool for description and analysis in modern mathematical biology must offer a chance to handle structures and patterns in an adequate and comfortable manner; hence fundamental "pattern-related operations" are characterized. A discussion of the role of information in biology leads to the concept of pragmatic information, which is also studied in its relations with other perspective notions, like meaning, interpretation, and complexity. Finally, arguments are given for the position that biology cannot be completely grounded upon or reduced to physics; at the same time, cues for a future research are presented which may lead to a unified description of biological and other processes.