Evolutionary game-theoretic semantics and its foundational status

Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Most of the current theories on language evolution on the market are structural and functional rather than strategic in nature, and are built upon the presupposition that it is possible to model our innate linguistic endowment and then correlate these models with some neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. I argue that, alternatively, complex meaning relations between assertions and the world emerge from evolutionary semantic games played by the Population of Utterers and the Population of Interpreters sampled from a diamorphic population of agents. These games provide a realistic application of game-theoretic semantics (GTS) to evolutionary situations (EGTS). I will discuss the foundational status of EGTS, relating it to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s language games and Charles S. Peirce’s pragmatist philosophy, thus providing an alternative to adaptation in evolutionary epistemology.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEvolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture
Subtitle of host publicationA Non-Adaptationist, Systems Theoretical Approach
EditorsNathalie Gontier, Jean Paul Bendegem, Diederik Aerts
PublisherSpringer, Dordrecht
Pages429–452
Number of pages24
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781402033957
ISBN (Print)9781402033940, 9789048168521
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Apr 2006

Publication series

NameTheory and Decision Library A: Rational Choice in Practical Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
PublisherSpringer Dordrecht
Volume39
ISSN (Print)0921-3384
ISSN (Electronic)2352-2119

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