A conversation with Gary Tomlinson (Music, Humanities) about his 2023 book, The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning, with Pauline LeVen (Classics), Paul North (Germanic Languages and Literatures), and Joanna Radin (History of Medicine).
In recent years, philosophers and scientists have answered questions about meaning in different ways. Some see meaning as a uniquely human achievement, others extend it to trees, microbes, and even to the bonding of DNA and RNA molecules. In The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning, Gary Tomlinson defines a middle path. Combining emergent thinking about evolution, new research on animal behaviors, and theories of information and signs, he tracks meaning far out into the animal world. At the same time, he discerns limits to its scope and identifies innumerable life forms, including many animals and all other organisms, that make no meanings at all. Tomlinson offers a revaluation of both meaning and meaninglessness, uncovering a foundational difference in animal solutions to the hard problem of life.