Dear Steven,
I would certainly not specify "meaning" as behavior, but consider it as an
operation internal to a system of reference. My research question in the
mentioned paper is how discursive knowledge can be considered as a further
codification in the communication of meaning ("a meaning that makes a
difference").
Meaning incurs on information with reference to a horizon of meanings.
Knowledge incurs on meaning as a next-order process of codification (i.e.,
selection). Discursive knowledge (different from tacit knowledge) can then
be communicated and globalized. Both the communication of meaning and
knowledge can be expected to generate redundancies: other possible meanings
or other possible states. This generates the possibility of replacement and
knowledge-based innovations.
Let me finish (this second contribution for this week) with the abstract:
Abstract
The development of discursive knowledge presumes the communication of
meaning as analytically different from the communication of information.
Knowledge can then be considered as a meaning which makes a difference.
Whereas the communication of information is studied in the information
sciences and scientometrics, the communication of meaning has been central
to Luhmanns attempts to make the theory of autopoiesis relevant for
sociology. Analytical techniques such as semantic maps and the simulation of
anticipatory systems enable us to operationalize the distinctions which
Luhmann proposed as relevant to the elaboration of Husserls horizons of
meaning in empirical research: interactions among communications, the
organization of meaning in instantiations, and the self-organization of
interhuman communication in terms of symbolically generalized media such as
truth, love, and power. Horizons of meaning, however, remain uncertain
orders of expectations, and one should caution against reification from the
meta-biological perspective of systems theory.
For those interested: the preprint is available at
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1011/1011.3244.pdf
Best wishes,
Loet
Loet Leydesdorff
Professor, University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR),
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam.
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-842239111
l...@leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/
-----Original Message-----
From: ste...@mail.ericsson-zenith.com
[mailto:ste...@mail.ericsson-zenith.com] On Behalf Of Steven Ericsson-Zenith
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:47 PM
To: Loet Leydesdorff
Cc: Foundations of Information Science Information Science
Subject: Re: [Fis] meaningful information
There is a lot of concept overloading in the community involving the term
"meaning." So it would help me if you and Antony could just give a one
sentence definition of the term. For example, for me:
meaning = the behavior that is the product of apprehending a sign.
Which is an extreme pragmatic definition in the spirit of Peirce. Note that
this definition excludes, or rather characterizes differently, descriptive
sentences of the form "The dog runs toward the house." The meaning of which
is not that the dog runs toward the house, but the behavior of the
apprehender.
With respect,
Steven
On Jul 20, 2011, at 10:41 AM, Loet Leydesdorff wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Some of you may be interested in this context in my forthcoming
> article "Meaning" as a sociological concept: A review of the modeling,
mapping, and simulation of the communication of knowledge and meaning,
Social Science Information 50(3-4) (2011) 1-23. In preprint available at
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1011/1011.3244.pdf .
>
> I argue that the dynamics of meaning are very different from those of
information.
>
> Best wishes,
> Loet
>
>
> Loet Leydesdorff
> Professor, University of Amsterdam
> Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), Kloveniersburgwal
> 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam.
> Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-842239111 l...@leydesdorff.net ;
> http://www.leydesdorff.net/
>
> From: fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es
> [mailto:fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Pedro C. Marijuan
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 1:38 PM
> To: fis@listas.unizar.es
> Subject: Re: [Fis] meaningful inforamtion
>
> Thanks, Anthony, for the info on your book. As you will see during
> future discussion sessions (currently we are in the vacation pause)
> some parties in this list maintain positions not far away from your
> own views. In our archive you can check accumulated mails about the
> matter you propose --e.g. discussions during the last spring. But I
> think you are right that the whole biological scope of information has
> been rarely discussed. best wishes ---Pedro
>
> FIS website and discussions archives: see
> http://infoscience-fis.unizar.es/
>
>
> aread...@verizon.net escribió:
> I emailed an earlier version of the following contribution to the
listserve a few days ago and am interested in finding out if it is suitable
for dissemination and, if os, when it might be included. My main interest is
in promoting discussion about the approach it takes to dealing with the
observer-dependent aspects of information.
>
> My book " Meaningful Information: The BridgeBetween Biology, Brain and
Behavior' has just been published by Springer. Itintroduces a radically new
way of thinking about information and the importantrole it plays in living
systems. Thiså opens up new avenues for exploring howcells and organisms
change and adapt, since the ability to detect and respondto meaningful
information is the key that enables them to receive their geneticheritage,
regulate their internal milieu, and respond to changes in their
environment.The types of meaningful information that different species and
different celltypes are able to detect are finely matched to the ecosystems
in which theylive, for natural selection has shaped what they need to know
to functioneffectively within them. Biological detection and response
systems range fromthe chemical configurations that govern genes and cell
life to the relativelysimple tropisms that guide single-cell organisms, the
rudimentary nervoussystems of invertebrates, and the complex neuronal
structures of mammals andprimates. The scope of meaningful information that
can be detected andresponded to reaches its peak in our own species, as
exemplified by our specialabilities in language, cognition, emotion, and
consciousness, all of which areexplored within this new framework.
>
> The book's home page can be found at:
> http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/evolutionary+%26+developmental+b
> iology/book/978-1-4614-0157-5
>
> I am eager tofind out what members think about it.
>
> Anthony Reading
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fis mailing list
> fis@listas.unizar.es
> https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
>
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------
> Pedro C. Marijuán
> Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group Instituto Aragonés de
> Ciencias de la Salud Avda. Gómez Laguna, 25, Pl. 11ª
> 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
> Telf: 34 976 71 3526 (& 6818) Fax: 34 976 71 5554
> pcmarijuan.i...@aragon.es http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/
> -------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
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