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Cultural Implications of Biosemiotics pp 29–44Cite as

Difference in Kind or Difference of Degree?

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Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 15))

Abstract

Possibly the most striking implication for culture arising from biosemiotics concerns the answer to the old question regarding whether humans are different in kind from non-human animals or whether the difference is a matter of degree. One imagines that the argument arose less frequently in the West before 1859 when Darwin published The Origin of Species. By 1871, Darwin had actually phrased the issue in what has become common parlance since the publication of The Descent of Man, asserting that

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Distinguished Visiting Professor, School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China

    Paul Cobley

  2. President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies; and Professor in Language and Media, School of Media and Performing Arts, Middlesex University, London, UK

    Paul Cobley

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  1. Paul Cobley
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Cobley, P. (2016). Difference in Kind or Difference of Degree?. In: Cultural Implications of Biosemiotics. Biosemiotics, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0858-4_3

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