Nosology and Semiotics

Abstract

Semiotic concepts such as ‘sign’ and ‘symptom’ have been applied in medicine since ancient Greece. Against this background, a semiotic perspective on nosology may be relevant and informative, particularly regarding the recognition of diseases. This chapter provides an overview of key works in semiotics on the study of medicine in general and nosology in particular. It presents a biosemiotic perspective on human health, starting with the ‘Umwelt,’ the organism’s subjectively experienced lifeworld, and ending with ‘endosemiosis,’ the sign processes that are internal to the body and relate to somatic phenomena. The chapter contributes to biosemiotic medicine by commenting on how such an approach can be understood as process-based medicine, the way in which it can bridge human and animal health studies, and how it can be understood as involving a conception of the human being as a system of interrelated sign systems. It concludes by discussing how organ crosstalk can be understood within a biosemiotic framework.