Umwelt is the idea that we blindly accept the reality of the world around us. - http://amiquote.tumblr.com/post...
Jul 19, 2012
from
Victor Ganata,
Ken Morley,
Maitani,
Eivind,
Sepi ⌘ سپی,
Todd Hoff,
Adriano,
and
clara glass
liked this
“It would be useful if the concept of the umwelt were embedded in the public lexicon. It neatly captures that idea of limited knowledge, of unobtainable information, of unimagined possibilities.”
— David Eagleman // Illustration: “Early Scheme for a circular Feedback Circle” from Theoretische Biologie 1920. An organism creates and reshapes its own Umwelt when it interacts with the world. This is termed a ‘functional circle’.
- Amira
I didn't know that the word umwelt is used for that special scientific concept in English. Its original meaning is much more general than that (though you can perceive how that usage is based on the original meaning of the word's components); in the last 30 years or so, it has also been assigned the meaning "environment" in an ecological context. Interesting! And that BI article is fascinating. :-)
- Maitani
umwelted := to be blind-sided by the unknownable and/or our cognitive bias :-) more details http://goo.gl/89SCq in the context of Jakob von Uexküll. Originally the term meant an impermeable shell that surrounds an animal (but actively modified) -- then Heidigger adapted the term, and it also got Nazi overtones. As Maitani mentions, the semantics of term has shifted to mean "natural environment" recently -- from "self-centered world."
- Adriano
Adriano, does umwelt also have that specialized meaning "natural environment" in English? I am only aware of that in the German language. Thanks for the hints and the link. :-)
- Maitani
Maitani, umwelt is rarely heard when the conversation is in English. It does appear sometimes in philosophy papers written in English, where the author is quoting an original text in German -- but hardly in-itself, even as a specialized term in italics :-) As for usage in biology and the sciences, in the last ten years, that term is extremely rare. Visualized http://goo.gl/0l5Zn -- note that adding "environment" would dwarf the terms of interest.
- Adriano