Jacob von Uexküll is like a ghost that runs through thought. Cursed and celebrated, he always remained unclassifiable, ubiquitous and rebellious to the usual grids of the disciplines. In all cases, he insists on his presence. Proof of this is that, beyond his inscription in biology, he knew how to transpose borders towards many fields, contemporary and even future (such as biosemiology, of which he is recognized a posteriori as a precursor). At the same time, he knew how to put himself in the mouth of all philosophy, especially the German and French of the twentieth century. But it also crossed and promises to cross other limits, spatial and temporal.
What was missing was a systematic study that, in the old and venerable tradition of "life and work," rehearsed the character's appearance. In his treatment of the Estonian-German biologist as a "conceptual character", Juan Manuel Heredia is successful in both tasks. He tells us about the varied life and presents the value of the work.
We have here a presentation of von Uexküll as the founder of "ethology", that field called to be generalized as a non-essentialist theory of the behaviors of all the beings that populate the worlds. We found the strong link between Uexküllian theories of behavior and cybernetic models that later hatched and completely modified our modes of perception, action, and significance. No less merit of this book is to have known how to "isolate", among the many philosophical readings of Uexküll, those that managed to "take over", or "the arrow thrown" and take it forward: the theory of behavior of Merleau-Ponty, the individuation in Simondon and the theory of affections and agencies of Deleuze. Finally, the place of music in Uexküll's work and above all the crucial role of "counterpoint" in the symphony of nature.