On the Evolution of Truth

Erkenntnis 81 (6):1323-1332 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper is concerned with how a simple metalanguage might coevolve with a simple descriptive base language in the context of interacting Skyrms–Lewis signaling games Lewis. We will first consider a metagame that evolves to track the successful and unsuccessful use of a coevolving base language, then we will consider a metagame that evolves a truth predicate for expressions in a coevolving base language. We will see how a metagame that tracks truth provides an endogenous way to break the symmetry between indicative and imperative interpretations of the base language. Finally, we will consider how composite signaling games provide a way to characterize alternative pragmatic notions of truth.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Evolution of Coding in Signaling Games.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2009 - Theory and Decision 67 (2):223-237.
Determining truth conditions in signaling games.William F. Harms - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 147 (1):23 - 35.
The Value of Truth.Dimitar G. Ivanov - 2012 - Romanian Journal of Analyitic Philosophy (1):37-54.
Language as a "mirror of nature".Jaakko Hintikka - 2000 - Sign Systems Studies 28:62-71.
Games for truth.P. D. Welch - 2009 - Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 15 (4):410-427.
A metalogical theory of natural language semantics.Michael Mccord & Arendse Bernth - 2004 - Linguistics and Philosophy 28 (1):73 - 116.
Description and the Problem of Priors.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2014 - Erkenntnis 79 (6):1343-1353.
The concept of truth in a finite universe.Panu Raatikainen - 2000 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 29 (6):617-633.
Deception and the Evolution of Plasticity.Rory Smead - 2014 - Philosophy of Science 81 (5):852-865.
What is Quine's view of truth?Donald Davidson - 1994 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 37 (4):437 – 440.
The Games of Logic and the Games of Inquiry.Jaakko Hintikka - 1995 - Dialectica 49 (2‐4):229-250.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-09-07

Downloads
94 (#167,308)

6 months
6 (#201,673)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jeffrey Barrett
University of California, Irvine

Citations of this work

Using Logic to Evolve More Logic: Composing Logical Operators via Self-Assembly.Travis LaCroix - 2022 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 73 (2):407-437.
Evolutionary Explanations of Simple Communication: Signalling Games and Their Models.Travis LaCroix - 2020 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 51 (1):19-43.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Convention: A Philosophical Study.David Kellogg Lewis - 1969 - Cambridge, MA, USA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Signals: Evolution, Learning, and Information.Brian Skyrms - 2010 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Convention: A Philosophical Study.David Lewis - 1969 - Synthese 26 (1):153-157.
Language: A Biological Model.Ruth Garrett Millikan - 2005 - Oxford, GB: Oxford: Clarendon Press.

View all 16 references / Add more references