Formalizing epistemological constituents of emergence

Abstract

Social action depends on the knowledge about all levels of emergent structure and this knowledge is not limited to but produced by the local binary interactions thus requiring reflexivity and intentionality. This knowledge resides in the impersonal area of symbol systems and is produced by a metalanguage which carries the knowledge of emergent structure beyond local networks to the topological knowledge of the macro phenomena. Individual agents use symbol systems as tool-kits to encode their intents and use their world-views to ground the symbols and ethos to challenge meaning-symbol correspondences through their everyday practices. Symbolic interaction is not only the symbolic affirmation of shared social classifications and normative protocols that regulate interactions but is also making sense of expressive symbolic behaviour and decoding the intent of the counterparts from these symbols. Meta-language is the key concept to understand how this knowledge is generated through semiotic relations. This paper develops the formal infrastructure of such a model and elaborates various mechanisms that can be implemented within a social simulation model. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.