The claim that meaning is everywhere—that all structured phenomena are, in some sense, semiotic—has already been challenged across multiple domains. Music does not mean. Dance does not mean. Images do not mean independently.
But this raises a deeper question:
if meaning is not the ground, then what is?
The answer cannot be confined to the social or the semiotic. It must reach further down—to the organisation of systems themselves.
To proceed, we require a broader frame.
1. Beyond the Semiotic Horizon
Most accounts begin too late.
They take as given:
communication
representation
interpretation
and attempt to extend these across domains.
But meaning is not the starting point. It is a specialised achievement.
To understand it, we must situate it within a wider stratification of systems:
physical
biological
social
semiotic
This is not a hierarchy of importance. It is a differentiation of modes of organisation.
2. The Physical: Constraint Without Value
At the physical level:
particles interact
forces operate
structures emerge
These processes are:
lawful
regular
describable
But they do not involve value.
Nothing at this level:
matters to the system itself
is selected as preferable
is organised in terms of significance
There is:
constraint, but no value.
3. The Biological: The Emergence of Value
With biological systems, something new appears:
value enters the system.
Organisms:
differentiate their environment
respond selectively
maintain viability
This introduces:
salience
preference
selection
What matters is no longer external description, but:
what matters to the organism.
This is not meaning.
It is:
non-representational
non-symbolic
grounded in organisation and survival
Value here is:
intrinsic to the operation of the system.
4. The Social: Value in Coordination
At the social level, value does not disappear. It is transformed.
Systems now involve:
multiple organisms
coordinated behaviour
mutual constraint
Value becomes:
distributed
relational
stabilised across interaction
What matters is no longer:
- individual viability alonebut:
coordination
alignment
collective organisation
This produces:
social value.
Again, this is not meaning.
no representation is required
no symbolic system is necessary
Yet the system is:
structured
dynamic
highly organised
5. The Semiotic: The Emergence of Meaning
Only with semiotic systems does meaning arise.
Here we find:
language
symbolic representation
construal
Meaning involves:
classification
relation
interpretation
It is:
structured
systematic
capable of abstraction
But it is not universal.
It depends on:
specific systems that enable it.
6. Against Reduction
It is tempting to reduce these strata:
to treat social systems as biological
to treat meaning as extended value
to treat all organisation as semiotic
Each move collapses distinctions that must be preserved.
biological value is not social coordination
social value is not meaning
meaning is not the default condition of structure
The strata are:
distinct, though related.
7. Coupling Across Strata
If the strata are distinct, how do they relate?
Not through reduction, but through:
coupling.
biological systems couple with physical processes
social systems couple with biological systems
semiotic systems couple with social systems
Each coupling involves:
mutual constraint
selective interaction
structured relation
But the systems do not become identical.
They remain:
differently organised
differently constituted
8. The Priority of Value
Across this stratification, one pattern becomes clear:
value precedes meaning.
physical systems: no value
biological systems: value emerges
social systems: value is distributed and stabilised
semiotic systems: meaning arises
Meaning is thus:
dependent
derived
conditional
It is not the ground.
9. Reframing the Field
This reframing has consequences.
It requires us to:
stop treating meaning as ubiquitous
stop projecting semiotic models onto all systems
analyse each stratum on its own terms
And it allows us to:
locate value precisely
track its transformations
specify where and how meaning emerges
10. A First Position
The argument of this opening can be stated directly:
organised systems do not begin with meaning; they begin with constraint, and with the emergence of value, upon which meaning is later built.
This repositioning is not merely theoretical. It provides the foundation for what follows.
If value can be shown to operate:
in biological systems
in social systems
across their coupling
then meaning can be located more precisely:
not as a pervasive property
but as a specific development
The next step is to examine biological systems in detail—to specify how value operates where meaning does not yet exist.
It is there that the ground of the entire structure becomes visible.
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