Textual Mutations: Darwin, Derrida, Eco, and the Semiotics of Evolutionary Meaning

This study introduces Evolutionary Semiosis, a novel framework that reimagines evolution not as a deterministic chain of genetic mutations, but as a semiotic journey—a living text shaped by signs, contexts, and cultural narratives. Drawing on Maran’s biosemiotics, Kakoliris’s deconstruction, and the semiotic theories of Derrida, Darwin, and Eco, it treats biological processes as sign-mediated phenomena, destabilizing the textual fixity often assumed in genetic discourse. Using qualitative thematic analysis of twenty interdisciplinary texts and supported by Orange data visualization, the study traces semantic drift and conceptual mutations across biology, philosophy, and semiotics. Findings reveal that natural selection operates as a recursive system of interpretation, where life continuously reads, rewrites, and reinterprets itself. By visualizing thematic convergence and symbolic drift, the study affirms that meaning in evolution is fluid, contextual, and perpetually renegotiated. In reframing evolution as a question of meaning, this research article offers not just another interpretation—but a framework for interpreting interpretation itself.