The model of a non-trival machine or the semiotic alternative

The authors discuss the attempt by v, Uexkull and Wesiack to formulate the basics of human medicine within the framework of a sign theory. They critic ize this attempt mainly in three points: 1. Central concepts of their model - i.e. "meaning", "sign" or "signcoupling" - are only used as general conc epts and not in the differentiated manner they are conventionally used in s emiotics. 2. Human behavior is reduced to conditioned reflex systems which are merely described in a different, semiotic way. 3, Problems evolving fro m the epistemology of a radical constructivism on which their model of a "b io-psycho-social medicine" is based, remain not only unsolved but also undi scussed.