The Umwelt: A Personalized Bubble of Reality

Hi All,

Net Tuesday, Libby is providing the topic on The Umwelt. Here's Libby's write-up:

While a person, dog, and bat may share the same back yard, the way their senses let them perceive the space means these animals are all living in completely different worlds. Worlds that are totally inaccessible for the others. This concept is called The Umwelt.

Coined by a biologist Jakob von Uexkull to describe how all animals, humans included, have a subjective reality based on their sensations of the world and how the individual interprets the signs their senses let them perceive.

Uexkull viewed his theory of the Umwelt as a continuation of Kant’s philosophy of the mind, and it would go on to help create the field of biosemiotics. Where the mind is more than just a machine taking in the input of the world around them and outputting behavior, but actively trying to interpret the signs around them.

Humans have been able to game the limits of what we are able to perceive, but we are still confined to the reality our senses let us experience.