"In his work, Witzany takes on the difficult task of developing a new perspective, a new paradigm of living nature. This is a courageous undertaking. It involves nothing less than documenting that nature as a whole is 'linguistically structured and communicatively organized".
Thure von Uexküll, Freiburg i.Br.G.
"The philosopher Guenther Witzany has developed the fascinating theory of the main princi-ple of life phenomena: he shows us three kinds of communication, those within organisms, those within species and those between species. Revealing nature as a universal language community for the first time is a revolutionary aspect on life and on ourselves.”
Herbert Girardet, Director of Research of the World Future Council, London
"In difference to usual syntactic/semantic interpretations of observations about sign-mediated interactions of living beings (organisms), Witzany introduces consequently the pragmatic point of view in analyzing such processes. This innovative approach of the theory of communicative nature he applies on all known organismic kingdoms. Even for evolution theory new perspectives arise through Witzanys work, because the author argues sign-mediated interaction (communication) as precondition for the possibility of evolutionary processes."
Rupert Riedl, Konrad Lorenz Institute
"The selected approach is original. The character of the inquiry raised is interdisciplinary. The presentation of the scientific and especially of the biological facts is faultless. The solutions offered ultimately lead the halting discussion between biology, philosophy and theology to a new level.“
Günter Altner, University of Koblenz
"The old metaphor of the book of nature acquires an unexpected, new interpretation through Witzany's investigation in that he deciphers the text of that book as an expression of the differing forms of communication that we - as a human language community - are only capable of understanding because all living things have a common language root."
Annemarie Pieper, University of Basel
"It is not by chance that Mr. Witzany's work has received attention and positive resonance particularly among semiotics experts and proponents of psychosomatic medicine. The work does not get mired down in theoretical aspects. The 'philosophy of biology in the light of pragmatics of language' that is pursued here could have far-reaching consequences."
Franz M. Wuketits, University of Vienna
"Witzany has successfully developed a molecular biological biosemiotics based on communication theory and the philosophy of language, without having to rely on the term "semiotics."
Handbuch der Semiotik
"We can only express the hope that the author will receive the opportunity to realize his inno-vative, imaginative and self-contained framework in a contemporary philosophy of biology."
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Berlin
„Identification of communication at all levels of biological complexity - from viruses, via bacteria, fungi, plants, corals, and insects, up to humans is convincing. Intriguingly, the communicative nature of all organisms includes also context-dependent interpretations of signs, feature associated only with humans until now. Guenther Witzany reveals that the communicative competence of all organisms is the most inherent feature of the Living Nature, distinguishing it clearly from the Non-Living Nature.“
Frantisek Baluska, University of Bonn, Germany
„Günther Witzany, an expert in biocommunication, uses linguistics and communication science to provide a novel framework for the discussion of naturally occurring genome editing and for the interactions of selfish genes and molecular parasites with each other and with the host organism. Many interesting questions, for example the interactions between multiple levels of selection, are illuminated through reformulating the problem as a communication process.“
Peter Gogarten, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
„At last a systematic and updated account of the living in terms of communicative processes! Of course there is no life without communication, and of course, as Watzlawick already pointed out, it is not possible not to communicate. But someone like Guenther Witzany had to come along to collect, interpret and systematize the relevant data. Not as a distant spectator, however, but as a participant and engaged thinker very well aware of the philosophical and metaphysical changes that are required to adequately conceive of the living as an essentially communicative process.“
Gertrudis Van de Vijver, University of Ghent,
„The concept of a code has long been central to biology, especially molecular biology. An entire generation of scientist have been raised to think in terms of a common genetic code. Yet, curiously, the concepts from biocommunication including those of pragmatics and linguistics have seldom impacted code-thinking in the biological sciences.“
Luis P. Villarreal, University of California, Irvine, USA
Thure von Uexküll, Freiburg i.Br.G.
"The philosopher Guenther Witzany has developed the fascinating theory of the main princi-ple of life phenomena: he shows us three kinds of communication, those within organisms, those within species and those between species. Revealing nature as a universal language community for the first time is a revolutionary aspect on life and on ourselves.”
Herbert Girardet, Director of Research of the World Future Council, London
"In difference to usual syntactic/semantic interpretations of observations about sign-mediated interactions of living beings (organisms), Witzany introduces consequently the pragmatic point of view in analyzing such processes. This innovative approach of the theory of communicative nature he applies on all known organismic kingdoms. Even for evolution theory new perspectives arise through Witzanys work, because the author argues sign-mediated interaction (communication) as precondition for the possibility of evolutionary processes."
Rupert Riedl, Konrad Lorenz Institute
"The selected approach is original. The character of the inquiry raised is interdisciplinary. The presentation of the scientific and especially of the biological facts is faultless. The solutions offered ultimately lead the halting discussion between biology, philosophy and theology to a new level.“
Günter Altner, University of Koblenz
"The old metaphor of the book of nature acquires an unexpected, new interpretation through Witzany's investigation in that he deciphers the text of that book as an expression of the differing forms of communication that we - as a human language community - are only capable of understanding because all living things have a common language root."
Annemarie Pieper, University of Basel
"It is not by chance that Mr. Witzany's work has received attention and positive resonance particularly among semiotics experts and proponents of psychosomatic medicine. The work does not get mired down in theoretical aspects. The 'philosophy of biology in the light of pragmatics of language' that is pursued here could have far-reaching consequences."
Franz M. Wuketits, University of Vienna
"Witzany has successfully developed a molecular biological biosemiotics based on communication theory and the philosophy of language, without having to rely on the term "semiotics."
Handbuch der Semiotik
"We can only express the hope that the author will receive the opportunity to realize his inno-vative, imaginative and self-contained framework in a contemporary philosophy of biology."
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Berlin
„Identification of communication at all levels of biological complexity - from viruses, via bacteria, fungi, plants, corals, and insects, up to humans is convincing. Intriguingly, the communicative nature of all organisms includes also context-dependent interpretations of signs, feature associated only with humans until now. Guenther Witzany reveals that the communicative competence of all organisms is the most inherent feature of the Living Nature, distinguishing it clearly from the Non-Living Nature.“
Frantisek Baluska, University of Bonn, Germany
„Günther Witzany, an expert in biocommunication, uses linguistics and communication science to provide a novel framework for the discussion of naturally occurring genome editing and for the interactions of selfish genes and molecular parasites with each other and with the host organism. Many interesting questions, for example the interactions between multiple levels of selection, are illuminated through reformulating the problem as a communication process.“
Peter Gogarten, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
„At last a systematic and updated account of the living in terms of communicative processes! Of course there is no life without communication, and of course, as Watzlawick already pointed out, it is not possible not to communicate. But someone like Guenther Witzany had to come along to collect, interpret and systematize the relevant data. Not as a distant spectator, however, but as a participant and engaged thinker very well aware of the philosophical and metaphysical changes that are required to adequately conceive of the living as an essentially communicative process.“
Gertrudis Van de Vijver, University of Ghent,
„The concept of a code has long been central to biology, especially molecular biology. An entire generation of scientist have been raised to think in terms of a common genetic code. Yet, curiously, the concepts from biocommunication including those of pragmatics and linguistics have seldom impacted code-thinking in the biological sciences.“
Luis P. Villarreal, University of California, Irvine, USA