Content in Simple Signalling Systems

Nicholas James Shea; Peter Godfrey-Smith; Rosa Cao

Content in Simple Signalling Systems

Nicholas James Shea, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Rosa Cao

Philosophy

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Abstract

Our understanding of communication and its evolution has advanced significantly through the study of simple models of interacting senders and receivers of signals. Many theorists have thought that the resources of mathematical information theory are all that is needed to capture the meaning or content that is being communicated in these systems. However, the way theorists routinely talk about the models implicitly draws on a conception of content that is richer than bare informational content, especially in contexts where false content is important. This paper shows that this concept can be made precise by defining a notion of functional content that captures the degree to which different states of the world are involved in stabilizing senders’ and receivers’ use of a signal at equilibrium. A series of case studies is used to contrast functional content with informational content, and to illustrate the explanatory role and limitations of this definition of functional content.

Original language	English
Journal	BRITISH JOURNAL FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 16 Mar 2016

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Accepted author manuscript, 312 KB

Meaning for the Brain and Meaning for the Person
Shea, N.
AHRC Arts and Humanities Research Council
1/01/2015 → 28/02/2017
Project: Research

Cite this

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AB - Our understanding of communication and its evolution has advanced significantly through the study of simple models of interacting senders and receivers of signals. Many theorists have thought that the resources of mathematical information theory are all that is needed to capture the meaning or content that is being communicated in these systems. However, the way theorists routinely talk about the models implicitly draws on a conception of content that is richer than bare informational content, especially in contexts where false content is important. This paper shows that this concept can be made precise by defining a notion of functional content that captures the degree to which different states of the world are involved in stabilizing senders’ and receivers’ use of a signal at equilibrium. A series of case studies is used to contrast functional content with informational content, and to illustrate the explanatory role and limitations of this definition of functional content.

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Content in Simple Signalling Systems

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Meaning for the Brain and Meaning for the Person

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