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Meaningfulness and Invariance

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Abstract

Given a qualitative scientific structure, a structure preserving mapping into a numerical, vectorial, or geometric structure is called a representation of it. Within such numerical, vectorial or geometric structures other concepts can always be defined. Some of these correspond to a qualitative property of the underlying system, and they are called ‘meaningful’ concepts. And others do not correspond to a qualitative property; and they are called ‘meaningless’. The article investigates precise meanings of ‘meaningfulness’ and ‘meaninglessness’ and their relation to several notions of invariance, some of which are widely used in science.

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Narens, L., Luce, R.D. (2018). Meaningfulness and Invariance. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_826

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