Peirce's (1906) proposal that the universe as a whole even if it does not consist exclusively
of signs is yet everywhere perfused with signs is a thesis that better than any other sums up
the life and work of Thomas A. Sebeok inventor of semiotics as we know it today.Semiotics -
the doctrine of signs - has a long and intriguing history that extends back well beyond the
last century two and a half millennia to Hippocrates of Cos. It ranges through the teachings
of Augustine Scholastic philosophy the work of Peirce and Saussure. Yet a fully-fledged
doctrine of signs with many horizons for the future was the result of Sebeok's work in the
twentieth century. The massive influence of this work as well as Sebeok's convening of
semiotic projects and encouragement of a huge number of researchers globally which in turn
set in train countless research projects is difficult to document and has not been assessed
until now. This volume using the testimonies of key witnesses and participants in the semiotic
project offers a picture of how Sebeok through his development of knowledge of endosemiotics
phytosemiotics biosemiotics and sociosemiotics enabled semiotics in general to redraw the
boundaries of science and the humanities as well as nature and culture.
