
Contents
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16.1 Introduction 16.1 Introduction
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16.2 Natural and non-natural meaning 16.2 Natural and non-natural meaning
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16.3 Objective teleology 16.3 Objective teleology
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16.4 Information: quantity and quality 16.4 Information: quantity and quality
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16.5 Reliable signals 16.5 Reliable signals
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16.6 Some remaining empirical and theoretical questions 16.6 Some remaining empirical and theoretical questions
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Summary Summary
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References References
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CHAPTER 16 Grades of communication
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Published:August 2008
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Abstract
Philosophers interested in meaning have tended to look at the extremes of mere causality on one side and full fledged ‘non-natural meaning’ in human language on the other. But the former (though not simple, as attested by the long and largely vain attempt of philosophers to analyze it) is too simple to count as information, while the complexity of the latter places it far beyond many other forms of genuine communication found in the living world, from bacteria to mammals. Those other forms of communication involve ‘Shannon-information’ but aren't wholly captured by that notion. This chapter looks at some of the work that biologists have done to construct a coherent concept of information able to span a wide spectrum of communication from such phenomena as ‘quorum sensing’ among bacteria to sophisticated infra-linguistic signalling in primates.
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