Joint Agency as a Semiotic and Biosocial Phenomenon

Abstract

In the following article, we will use a biosemiotic perspective to consider the emergence of social phenomena, applied specifically to joint agency. Subjectivity and meaning-making are two central capacities of living organisms, and taking these capacities into account allows us to better understand how organisms join in seemingly-end directed, cooperative activities to reach certain goals. By framing the emergence of joint agency as a biosemiotic process, we see how sociality can be taken, in principle, as a biological phenomenon, dependent on the interpretive capabilities of organisms and their communicative properties towards their environments. The usage of signs in organisms, both in perception and production, against the backdrop of persistence of meaningful interactions within the environment and the self, informs how joint agency can be formed. The upshot is a novel proposal to treat how organisms, even simple ones, interact in their communities through semiotic processes.