The conceptualization of sign processes in all their variations as a unitary phenomenon connecting living nature with human culture and distinguishing them both from inanimate nature may serve as a key to providing the human, social, engineering, and natural sciences with a common theoretical basis for a well-defined division of labor and cooperation. It is feasible to regard human behavior in all cultures as sign production and reception. Following this approach, life in family and profession, commerce and administration, art and religion can be understood in a unified way and studied in all its transdisciplinary aspects. Semiotics has made this its task. In the handbook Semiotics, consisting of 4 volumes containing 178 articles written by 175 authors from 25 countries, the current state of research in general, descriptive, and applied semiotics is presented. It introduces the reader to systematics and subject matter and gives a comprehensive overview of the historical development of sign conceptions in philosophy, aesthetics, logic, mathematics, grammar, stylistics, poetry, music, architecture, the fine arts, medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, economics, religion, and everyday life. Furthermore, the handbook compares semiotics to other interdisciplinary approaches, and demonstrates its applicability to the analysis of urgent problems of industrial and postindustrial societies. The accessibility of the handbook Semiotics is enhanced by a comprehensive index of persons and subjects which also serves as a two-way bilingual glossary (German-English and English-German) of semiotics terminology.