Life, The Multiverse And Everything: An Introduction To The Ideas Of Humberto Maturana Interpreting Maturana / quote 27 of 50
Consensual behaviour (linguistic behaviour) has not semantics
An observer could describe these interactions in semantic terms, i.e. one could ascribe meanings to the elements in the coordination of behaviour e.g. "the cat is telling his owner that he wants to go out". However Maturana is keen to point out that there is no intrinsic meaning in the linguistic behaviour. What is happening is that the two systems (person + cat) trigger various structural changes in one another.