>[!abstract] >_Umwelt_, a concept from biologist Jakob von Uexküll, refers to the subjective perceptual world of an organism—the unique way it experiences and interprets its environment based on its sensory and cognitive capacities. Each species inhabits its own _Umwelt_, structured by what it can perceive and act upon: a tick, for example, perceives only heat, odor, and touch relevant to finding a host. The concept highlights that reality is not a single, objective world experienced equally by all beings, but a plurality of overlapping experiential worlds. It has influenced fields from biosemiotics and cognitive science to philosophy and media theory, emphasizing perception as relational and meaning-dependent. >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): [[Biosemiotics]] >- **West** (similar): [[Lebenswelt]] >- **East** (different): [[Objective realism]] >- **South** (downstream): [[Sensory worlds]]