| Summary: | At the beginning of the 20th century, German biologist Jakob von Uexk<U+00fc>ll created the concept of "Umwelt" to denote the environment as experienced by a subject. This concept of environment differs from the idea of passive surroundings and is defined not just by physical surroundings, but is rather a "subjective universe", a space weighted with meaning. Based on this perspective, a living organism, no matter how basic (such as the tick studied by von Uexk<U+00fc>ll), created its own universe when it interacts with the world and as this same time the organism reshapes it. Today, neuroscience provides a new way to look at the brain<U+0019>s capability to create a representation of the world. At the same time behavioural specialists are demonstrating that animals have a richer mental universe than previously known. Philosophical reflection thus finds itself with more experimental and objective data as well. Nearly a century after the publication of von Uexk<U+00fc>ll<U+0019>s founding work ( "Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere" was published in 1909), neurobiologists, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, ethologists, and philosophers revisit his mail concept at the light of modern science
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