The last 200 years saw the erosion and dissolution of great systems that provided stable meaning: religions, the nation state, unions, extended family units, and even corporations. Existentialism as popularized in the West asks us to be personally responsible for creating our own meaning, a monumentally difficult and draining task. Our romantic partners, under their own existential pressures, are increasingly expected to provide missing meaning for us. We are desperate for meaning and turning to toxic sources like consumer goods to get it. If we can learn how meaning works and how to create it, perhaps we can design new, healthy meaning-generating systems.

Meaning systems are like “ontologies;” they define our entire worldview in that they define how we relate to the world. Religions are a familiar example of meaning systems, but are by no means the only one. Even if you are not part of a religion, you have almost certainly adopted some other meaning system. 

At the contemporary convergence of systems theory, media studies, and general ecology, the book series Meaning Systems presents inter- and transdisciplinary work connecting the humanities with the discourses of natural,

"There are two conventional definitions of the word “meaning” in English. One definition has to do with the symbolic qualities of things. It poses questions like “what does this object represent?” and “how does the meaning of certain language change in different contexts?” Fields like semantics and semiology study this aspect of meaning. The other definition has to do with the significance of things; their value, meaningful-ness, or meaningless-ness. It poses questions like “why is this symbol important to many people?” and “how do we make things meaningful for others?” Some philosophical fields, like existential and moral philosophy, are concerned with this aspect, and vocations like identity design and education are concerned with its practice."

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