Chatbots For Social Change/Theory of Conversation/Theorizing Conversation

I'll keep an older draft, just in case.

What do we mean by "meaning"? The subject of this chapter, it's the sort of self-referential question which one may think at first glance to be fundamentally unanswerable. But this apparent circularity has not stopped philosophers and scientists from working through the answer, or stopped humans globally from saying things, and really "meaning" them. Questions of the meaning of "understanding," "explanation," "belief," and "reasoning" have a similar circularity, and answers bearing on one of these concepts help to answer what the others mean. In this chapter we conduct a broad survey of answers to these questions through history, in the hope of assembling a robust answer to this question. Or at least one which will help us understand how to design a system which can understand "for all practical purposes." Without further ado, let's start at the beginning.

Overview of the Fields

Not everything relevant will be treated in this chapter, so we'll begin by giving an alphabetical index of fields possibly relevant to the study of meaning, of the structure of language, meaning, and conversation.

Philosophy of Meaning

• Cognitive Linguistics: This area looks at how language and thought interact. It examines how linguistic structures reflect the ways people categorize, conceptualize, and understand the world around them.
• Existentialism: Existentialist philosophers like Sartre and Heidegger delve into how meaning is not inherent in the world but is something that individuals must create for themselves, often in the face of an absurd or fundamentally meaningless universe. The tradition of existentialism leads naturally to studies of common understanding, in the taken-for-granted worlds discussed in phenomenology (Heidegger), especially by Schutz.
• Hermeneutics: Originally a method of interpreting religious texts, hermeneutics has expanded as a broader methodology for interpreting texts and symbols in general. It's about understanding the meaning behind written and spoken language, often in a historical or cultural context.
• Philosophy of Language: This branch of philosophy deals extensively with how language and its structure contribute to meaning. It covers topics from the meaning of words and sentences to the nature of communication and understanding.
• Pragmatics: As a part of linguistics and semiotics, pragmatics studies how context influences the interpretation of meaning, considering factors like speaker intent, cultural norms, and situational context.
• Philosophy of Mind: This branch explores the nature of mental states, consciousness, and how these relate to issues of meaning and understanding. It questions how mental representations carry meaning and how this is communicated.
• Pragmatism: Pragmatism, a school of thought in American philosophy, focuses on the practical implications of ideas and beliefs, which is key in understanding how meaning is construed and applied in real-world scenarios.

Sociology of Meaning

• Critical Theory: Philosophers like Adorno, Horkheimer, and Habermas in the Frankfurt School have explored how societal structures, power dynamics, and ideologies shape the construction and interpretation of meaning. We will here also include Feminist Sociology in this category, as it makes similar claims that meaning and knowledge are impinged by social structure.
• Ethnomethodology: A sociological perspective that examines how people produce and understand social order in everyday life. It's particularly interested in how people make sense of and find meaning in their social world. Has roots in phenomenology, especially Schutz.
• Interaction Ritual Theory: Goffman's work focuses on the significance of social interactions and the performative aspects of social life, exploring how meaning and identity are constructed and expressed in everyday rituals and practices.
• Phenomenology: Phenomenology, especially as developed by Husserl, focuses on the structures of experience and consciousness. Schutz extended this to the social realm, exploring how individuals understand and ascribe meaning to their experiences and to each other in everyday life.
• Post-Structuralism: This movement, with thinkers like Derrida and Foucault, challenges the stability and universality of meaning, suggesting it is fluid, context-dependent, and a product of discourses of power.
• Semiotics: This is perhaps the closest field to what you're describing. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. It's a field that intersects with linguistics, philosophy, and anthropology, focusing on how meaning is created and understood.
• Social Constructionism: This perspective, associated with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, argues that many of the most familiar aspects of our social world and our understanding of it are not natural, but rather constructed through ongoing social processes.
• Sociolinguistics: This interdisciplinary field examines how language use and social factors are interrelated. It looks at how different social contexts and groups shape language, communication styles, and the meanings conveyed through language.
• Speech Act Theory: This theory explores how language is used not just for conveying information but for performing actions. Searle, in particular, contributed to the development of social ontology, examining how shared understandings and intentions create a framework for meaningful communication and social reality.
• Symbolic Interactionism: Mead's theory emphasizes the role of social interaction in the development of the mind and the self. Meaning, in this view, arises from the process of interaction and communication between individuals.