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<body><div>Dear Soren, </div><div><br /></div><div>I agree with Stan's wording, but your wording is ambiguous. The meaning is not biologically given, but constructed in a discourse among biologists. The discourse can also be theological and then one obtains "theological" meaning.</div><div><br /></div><div>Best,</div><div>Loet</div><div> </div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">Loet
Leydesdorff <o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">Professor emeritus,
University of Amsterdam<br />
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)<o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net" title="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">loet@leydesdorff.net </span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">; </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.leydesdorff.net/" title="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">http://www.leydesdorff.net/</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D"> <br />
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Associate Faculty, </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">SPRU, </span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">University of Sussex; <o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Guest Professor </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.zju.edu.cn/english/"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">Zhejiang Univ.</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">, Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html"><span style="font-size:9.0pt">ISTIC, </span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Beijing;<o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Visiting Fellow, </span><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/"><span style="font-size:
9.0pt">Birkbeck</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">,
University of London; <o:p xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"></o:p></span></p>
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EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en">http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en</a></span></span></div><div id="x337b22579712426abf55c20f258d0a74"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
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<div>------ Original Message ------</div>
<div>From: "Søren Brier" <<a href="mailto:sbr.msc@cbs.dk">sbr.msc@cbs.dk</a>></div>
<div>To: "Stanley N Salthe" <<a href="mailto:ssalthe@binghamton.edu">ssalthe@binghamton.edu</a>>; "fis" <<a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>></div>
<div>Sent: 2/26/2018 6:41:25 PM</div>
<div>Subject: Re: [Fis] A Paradox</div><div><br /></div>
<div id="xc414ca4d79804c8"><blockquote cite="HE1PR02MB1209E42DBC1330677904896899C10@he1pr02mb1209.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com" type="cite" class="cite2">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Thanks Stan. I agree: Behind production and interpretation of all quantitative data, there is either an biological or
an existential or a religious or a philosophical framework of meaning.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">
<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> Best<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> Søren<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Stanley N Salthe [mailto:<a href="mailto:ssalthe@binghamton.edu">ssalthe@binghamton.edu</a>]
<br />
<b>Sent:</b> 26. februar 2018 16:19<br />
<b>To:</b> Søren Brier <<a href="mailto:sbr.msc@cbs.dk">sbr.msc@cbs.dk</a>>; fis <<a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>><br />
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Fis] A Paradox<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Following upon Søren: Meaning is derived for a system by way of Interpretation. The transmitted information has no meaning without interpretation.<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">STAN<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 6:26 AM, Søren Brier <<a href="mailto:sbr.msc@cbs.dk">sbr.msc@cbs.dk</a>> wrote:<o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Dear Xueshan</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">The solution to the paradox is to go to a metaparadigm that can encompass information science
as well as linguistics. C.S. Peirce’s semiotics is such a paradigm especially if you can integrate cybernetics and systems theory with it. There is a summary of the framework of Cybersemiotics here:</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a5e7/cf50ffc5edbc110ccd08279d6d8b513bfbe2.pdf">https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a5e7/cf50ffc5edbc110ccd08279d6d8b513bfbe2.pdf</a>
</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Cordially yours</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> Søren Brier</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Depart. of Management, Society and Comunication, CBS, Dalgas Have 15 (2VO25), 2000 Frederiksberg</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Mobil 28494162
</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666;background:#F7F7F3"><a href="http://www.cbs.dk/en/staff/sbrmsc"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#0563C1">www.cbs.dk/en/staff/sbrmsc</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666;background:#F7F7F3">
, <a href="http://cybersemiotics.com">cybersemiotics.com</a>.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Fra:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Fis [mailto:<a href="mailto:fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es">fis-bounces@listas.unizar.es</a>]
<b>På vegne af </b>Xueshan Yan<br />
<b>Sendt:</b> 26. februar 2018 10:47<br />
<b>Til:</b> FIS Group <<a href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es">fis@listas.unizar.es</a>><br />
<b>Emne:</b> [Fis] A Paradox</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Dear colleagues,</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">In my teaching career of Information Science, I was often puzzled by the following inference, I call it
<b>Paradox of Meaning and Information</b> or <b>Armenia Paradox</b>. In order not to produce unnecessary ambiguity, I state it below and strictly limit our discussion within the human context.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Suppose an earthquake occurred in Armenia last night and all of the main media of the world have given the report about it. On the second day, two students A and B are putting forward a
dialogue facing the newspaper headline “<b>Earthquake Occurred in Armenia Last Night</b>”:</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Q: What is the
<b>MEANING</b> contained in this sentence?</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">A: An earthquake occurred in Armenia last night.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Q: What is the
<b>INFORMATION</b> contained in this sentence?</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">A: An earthquake occurred in Armenia last night.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Thus we come to the conclusion that
<b>MEANING is equal to INFORMATION</b>, or strictly speaking, human meaning is equal to human information. In Linguistics, the study of human meaning is called Human Semantics; In Information Science, the study of human information is called Human Informatics.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Historically, Human Linguistics has two definitions: 1, It is the study of human language; 2, It, also called Anthropological Linguistics or Linguistic Anthropology, is the historical and
cultural study of a human language. Without loss of generality, we only adopt the first definitions here, so we regard Human Linguistics and Linguistics as the same.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Due to Human Semantics is one of the disciplines of Linguistics and its main task is to deal with the human meaning, and Human Informatics is one of the disciplines of Information Science
and its main task is to deal with the human information; Due to human meaning is equal to human information, thus we have the following corollary:</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">A: <b>Human Informatics is a subfield of Human Linguistics</b>.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">According to the definition of general linguists, language is a vehicle for transmitting information, therefore, Linguistics is a branch of Human Informatics, so we have another corollary:</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">B: <b>Human Linguistics is a subfield of Human Informatics</b>.</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-indent:22.0pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Apparently, A and B are contradictory or logically unacceptable. It is a paradox in Information Science and Linguistics. In most cases, a settlement about the related paradox could lead
to some important discoveries in a subject, but how should we understand this paradox?</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"> </span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Best wishes,</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Xueshan</span><o:p xmlns:o="#unknown"></o:p></p>
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_______________________________________________<br />
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