ABSTRACT
The work of Hellmuth plessner is of particular value to biosemiotics because of his background in the methodology of expression psychology and phenomenology. Man is associated with other expressions of life, but nevertheless in a different way. Only after clarification of these issues can one establish a philosophical anthropology. This kind of anthropology searches for the basic design of life or vital categories of the organism and its environment, pre-existent ideas for the organization of both. "The task of scientific philosophical biology as science of the essential laws of life is composed of a systematic foundation of such vital categories. Said Plessner, "It is not experience of the natural sciences, but knowledge of the arts and behavioral science which must build the basis of a concrete philosophy of nature." The author quoted Plessner extensively concerning his description of the double nature of inanimate things, because it has also implications for the living organisms.
