Abstract
The battle over the meaning of meaning within the theory of evolutionary systems seems to cover, among others, the struggles about mind-matter problems, about the res cogitans and res extensa distinction, about constructivistic versus naturalistic views, holistic versus reductionistic models. Beyond these controversies it is agreed that we can observe meaningful “sentences” having effects in the real world. The term “sentences” has to be interpreted very generally, referring to strings in DNA as well as statements in communication processes, actions of system surfaces as well as distinguished behavior within a certain context. In this context we describe the emergence of new properties as meaningful, particularly for evolutionary systems, if we are able to connect these properties with actual given “sentences”. The reason for doing so lies in the fact that we interpret “becoming” as more meaningful than “being”. In order to explain the experience, or even to figure out preconditions for the possibility of such experience, of meaningful events or properties it would be necessary to answer the following questions: (1) By what means can one state that a given sentence (or event) in a given context is meaningful?; (2) By what means can one observe effects in the real world?; (3) By what means can one state relations between the meaningfulness of sentences and real effects in the real world?
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Kornwachs, K. (1998). Pragmatic Information and the Emergence of Meaning. In: van de Vijver, G., Salthe, S.N., Delpos, M. (eds) Evolutionary Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1510-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1510-2_14
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