The Ecology of Meaning Triad: Science, Philosophy, Mythology — and the Role of Nonsense

Over the course of several series, we have explored three axes of meaning-making, each contrasted with nonsense as a relational, ecological technology of interpretation:

1. Science vs. Nonsense — Nonsense exposes the illusion that meaning requires reference. Science narrows potential; nonsense preserves inexhaustibility within patterned constraint.

2. Philosophy vs. Nonsense — Nonsense achieves precision without closure, preserving openness that philosophy often suppresses while still maintaining structured activation.

3. Mythology vs. Nonsense — Nonsense preserves local surplus and relational thresholds, while mythology stabilises meaning across collective, transgenerational fields.

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1. A Triadic Ecology

Viewed together, these contrasts reveal a triadic ecology of meaning:

• Science disciplines and contracts: it channels interpretation toward operational clarity and predictive power.

• Philosophy disciplines and questions: it seeks closure through conceptual precision, but often at the cost of generative multiplicity.

• Mythology disciplines and endures: it stabilises meaning across time, embedding norms, archetypes, and thresholds.

• Nonsense, in dialogue with all three, preserves potential, rehearses activation, and maintains surplus.

Nonsense is the relational connective tissue: it keeps the field alive, flexible, and generative, while the others provide stability, coherence, and continuity.

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2. Activation Precedes Capture

Across all three domains, a central insight emerges: activation precedes capture.

• Meaning arises first relationally — in the encounter, the rehearsal, the threshold.

• Codification, coherence, and sedimentation follow — in theory, practice, or narrative.

• Nonsense foregrounds this principle, reminding us that possibility is the primary currency of meaning, regardless of domain.

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3. Surplus, Resonance, and Thresholds

• Science: surplus is constrained by operational necessity; resonance is functional within predictive frameworks.

• Philosophy: surplus is conceptually disciplined; resonance emerges from argument and logic.

• Mythology: surplus is channelled; resonance is cultural and transgenerational.

• Nonsense: surplus is preserved; resonance is relational and immediate; thresholds are rehearsed dynamically.

The ecology is balanced when each technology contributes its strengths without suppressing others.

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4. The Larger Lesson

Taken together, these series reveal:

1. Meaning is relational, ecological, and multi-scalar.

2. Activation without capture is indispensable for generativity.

3. Codification, sedimentation, and resonance are equally indispensable for coherence.

4. Nonsense is the technology that preserves relational potential, connecting the local, the conceptual, and the collective.

In other words: the field of meaning thrives when activation, closure, and continuity coexist, each calibrated by the others.

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5. Closing Thought

Our triadic exploration — science, philosophy, mythology — shows that nonsense is not the opposite of meaning. It is the most honest expression of how meaning functions relationally: dynamic, ecological, and inexhaustible.

In the dance of activation and capture, threshold and resonance, nonsense is the pulse that keeps the semiotic ecosystem alive.