Umwelt

The notion of Umwelt, developed by the biologist and philosopher Jakob von Uexküll, is essential to understanding our approach to mosses. Umwelt, a German term that can be translated as “own world” or “perceptual environment”, refers to the specific set of meaningful relationships between an organism and its environment, as perceived and experienced by that organism.

According to Uexküll, each species lives in its own Umwelt, which is a co-constitution between a particular physiological constitution and a number of determined stimuli. This relationship is defined by the organism’s sensory and motor capacities, which determine which aspects of the environment are perceived and how they are interpreted. Thus, the Umwelt of a tick will be radically different from that of a human being, not only because of physiological differences, but also because of differences in their ecological and behavioral interactions.

Uexküll’s approach differs from the more mechanistic or reductionist theories of the time, which viewed the environment as a set of objective elements that passively affect the organism. On the contrary, Uexküll introduces a more relational and dynamic dimension: the Umwelt is not simply what physically surrounds the organism, but what it can perceive and react to, and which, because of this dynamic, constitutes the organism. External stimuli exist for the organism only insofar as they have meaning for it, i.e. they become “signs” in the context of its vital activities.