Having established meaning as construal and recognised misalignment as structural, we now turn to its evolutionary dimension:
Meaning does not merely mirror thought; it reshapes what can be thought.
Expanding the space of possibility
Each act of construal selectively stabilises distinctions and highlights certain patterns while downplaying others.
Over time, these relational activities accumulate.
They subtly expand or contract the field of what is thinkable.
Meaning is, in this sense, productive: it structures the horizon of cognition and imagination.
Shaping categories and distinctions
The categories we inhabit, the distinctions we notice, and the questions we consider salient are all outcomes of meaning-in-relation.
What can be articulated, discussed, or reasoned about is contingent upon the constellations of construal already stabilised.
Novel thought emerges from recombining these structures, not from applying some external measure of correctness.
Practices of evolution
Meaning evolves through repeated activity, interaction, and negotiation.
Conventions, norms, and symbolic systems do not store meaning, but they scaffold repeated construals.
Through these practices, what can be thought and how it can be thought slowly changes.
Limits and horizons
Expansion of thinkable space is never total.
Some phenomena remain unnoticeable.
Some distinctions are unavailable.
Some possibilities are suppressed or invisible until relational shifts occur.
The horizon of thought is always contingent and partial.
The generative role of misalignment
As shown in the previous post, misalignment is not a problem; it is a source of change.
Disagreement, ambiguity, and negotiation generate opportunities for new distinctions.
Through this process, meaning systematically shapes what can emerge in thought.
Looking ahead
With the evolutionary dimension of meaning made visible, the series can now close by showing what kind of practice meaning is.
Post 8: What Kind of Practice Meaning Is will gather the arc, framing meaning as ongoing, situated, and irreducible — a relational work that persists once representation no longer does the work we once asked of it.
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