Abstract

Jakob von Uexküll is mostly known for his concept of Umwelt—the meaningful surrounding of animals. von Uexküll insisted vehemently on the fact that Umwelt vindicated Kant’s subjectivist epistemology in the biological domain. However, we argue that a crucial yet widely overlooked development in von Uexküll’s theory of meaning implies a more radical vision strikingly germane to J. J. Gibson’s own direct realist epistemology-ontology and in tension with his own subjectivist concept of Umwelt. Gibson argued that organism and environment are complementary and meaning is not constructed via a subjective act but is directly available in the world as opportunities for action, namely, affordances. We show that von Uexküll’s notion of “functional tone” is similar to Gibson’s concept of affordance in that it includes action in perception. More important, von Uexküll introduces the musical metaphor of harmony to characterize the relationship between animal and environment. Like Gibson’s reciprocity, harmony implies an unmediated isomorphism between the dispositions of the animal and those of the environment that allows for direct perceptual contact with the world and action upon it.

摘要

雅各布·冯·克斯库尔大多知道他的概念UMWELT -THE有意义的动物的周围。冯·埃克斯库尔（VonUexküll）坚决主张，乌姆韦尔特（Umwelt）在生物学领域证明了康德的主观认识论。但是，我们认为，冯·埃克斯库尔意义理论的一个关键但又被广泛忽视的发展，意味着对吉布森自己直接的现实主义认识论本体论有着更为激进的眼光，这与吉布森自己的直接现实主义本体论紧密相关，并且与他自己的主观主义概念乌姆韦尔特（Umwelt）产生张力。吉布森认为，有机体和环境是相辅相成的，意义不是通过主观的行为来构建的，而是作为行动的机会（即负担能力）在世界上直接可获得的。我们证明冯·埃克斯库尔的“功能性语调”概念与吉布森的“负担能力”概念相似，因为它包括感知行为。更为重要的是，冯·埃克斯库尔（vonUexküll）介绍了和谐的音乐隐喻，以刻画动物与环境之间的关系。像吉布森的互惠一样，和谐意味着动物的性格与环境的性格之间没有介导的同构，允许与世界直接接触并对其采取行动。