E-catalog        

The Emergence of Reference -- Pragmatism and the Evolution of Semantic Systems -- System Surfaces - There Is Never Just Only One Structure -- Elements of a Semantic Code -- Talking about Structures -- Toward a Theory of Information Structure -- Mechanics and Mental Change -- Semantic Technologies: A Computational Paradigm for Making Sense of Informal Meaning Structures -- What are Ontologies good for? -- Taxonomic Change as a Reflection of Progress in a Scientific Discipline -- Crystallization as a Form of Scientific Semantic Change: The Case of Thermodynamics.

Complex systems in nature and society make use of information for the development of their internal organization and the control of their functional mechanisms. Alongside technical aspects of storing, transmitting and processing information, the various semantic aspects of information, such as meaning, sense, reference and function, play a decisive part in the analysis of such systems. With the aim of fostering a better understanding of semantic systems from an evolutionary and multidisciplinary perspective, this volume collects contributions by philosophers and natural scientists, linguists, information and computer scientists. They do not follow a single research paradigm; rather they shed, in a complementary way, new light upon some of the most important aspects of the evolution of semantic systems. Evolution of Semantic Systems is intended for researchers in philosophy, computer science, and the natural sciences who work on the analysis or development of semantic systems, ontologies, or similar complex information structures. In the eleven chapters, they will find a broad discussion of topics ranging from underlying universal principles to representation and processing aspects to paradigmatic examples.