Jordan Zlatev

Chulalongkorn University, Lund University

Papers

Total Citations

138

H-Index

About

Jordan Zlatev is a leading figure in cognitive semiotics, whose work bridges linguistics, developmental psychology, and artificial intelligence. His research focuses on the origins of meaning, consciousness, and communication, exploring how these emerge through embodied, mimetic, and epigenetic processes. Zlatev’s most influential contribution is the "epigenetic" approach to meaning-making, arguing that human-like social intelligence requires both naturalistic embodiment and socio-cultural situatedness—a framework he applies to both biological and artificial systems. His seminal paper, "The Epigenesis of Meaning in Human Beings, and Possibly in Robots" (2001), with 96 citations, lays the groundwork for this view. In related work (2002), he proposes a developmental model for human-robot communication, emphasizing that true social interaction demands a body similar to others and immersion in a shared cultural world. Zlatev is also known for the "mimetic hypothesis," which traces the origins of self-consciousness across hominid evolution, child development, and robotogenesis. By integrating insights from phenomenology, semiotics, and robotics, Zlatev has shaped interdisciplinary debates on the nature of consciousness and the potential for artificial social agents. His work remains essential reading for researchers in cognitive science, developmental robotics, and the philosophy of mind.