On 23 Jun 2009, at 23:46, Ed Barkmeyer wrote:
Mathematics and semantics are primarily formal philosophical
disciplines. They are of themselves entirely about organizing
abstractions.
That hint of a desire to retreat into the world of abstractions - an easy way out.
The key problem is to bridge the gulf between that neat world and the world of
messy human and social problems where IT earns it wages.
"Meaning" has many meanings. On the syntactic level of semiotics, meaning
is usually taken to be the relationship between one formal structure and another
that, in some strict sense, "means" the same thing.
In the semiotic framwork I mentioned in my message of 20 June,
the semantic level, treats a "meaning" as the stands for relationship
between a sign and something else. That's what I have always been
concerned with when working on semantic structures and their underlying
ontology (metaphysical sense): the connection between the signs we
manipulate with our computers and the "real" world where those
practical applications are made.
Ronald Stamper