Meaning Systems Science: The Structural Logic of Meaning in Human Systems

Authors: Jordan Vallejo and the Transformation Management Institute™ Research Group

Status: Foundational Statement No. 00 | November 2025

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Abstract

Meaning System Science is the discipline that studies how meaning forms, flows, stabilizes, degrades, and is restored across human systems. It integrates five historically independent scientific domains—semantics, semeiology, systems theory, thermodynamics, and affective science—into a unified framework capable of explaining why coherence holds or breaks under pressure.

Within this discipline, Transformation Science functions as the general integrative theory, articulating how truth, signals, structure, drift, and affect interact to produce coherent or distorted meaning. Moral Physics provides the physics branch of the field, describing the proportional, lawlike behavior of meaning through the First Law of Moral Proportion. Proportionism offers the epistemic stance required to interpret these sciences together.

This Foundational Statement defines the scope, structure, and intellectual lineage of Meaning System Science and establishes its necessity in a century where acceleration, saturation, and fragmentation routinely exceed interpretive capacity. It is the scientific entry point into the canon of the Transformation Management Institute™.

1. Introduction: Why a Science of Meaning Is Necessary

Modern systems face a problem no previous era confronted at scale: meaning is losing stability faster than humans can reconstruct it.

Acceleration amplifies signals. Digital architectures flatten context. Institutions communicate at tempos their structures cannot sustain. Individuals are asked to interpret more information than their cognitive bandwidth can carry.

Traditional disciplines studied fragments of this problem:

• linguistics studied reference

• sociology studied norms

• psychology studied interpretation

• systems theory studied flow

• thermodynamics studied entropy

• organizational science studied performance

But none could explain the total behavior of meaning.

Meaning is not an isolated phenomenon, it is a system, a structured interaction among forces that hold reality together long enough for groups to act with coherence. When those forces drift out of proportion, communication destabilizes, coordination fails, and systems strain under their own contradictions.

Meaning System Science emerges to meet this necessity. It provides the architecture required to understand meaning as an integrated, multi-variable system.

2. Definition of Meaning System Science

Meaning System Science is the scientific study of how meaning forms, stabilizes, degrades, and is restored across human systems.

It analyzes meaning as a structured, proportional, and thermodynamic system governed by interdependent variables.

Its core commitments include:

• meaning is structural, not subjective

• meaning is multi-scalar (individual → organizational → civilizational)

• meaning behaviors obey identifiable patterns

• coherence and drift are measurable

• stability depends on proportion among key variables

The unit of analysis is the meaning-system: the network of truths, signals, structures, thermodynamic pressures, and affective forces that shape shared understanding.

Meaning System Science demarcates itself clearly:

• It is not a moral philosophy.

• It is not a psychological theory of personal meaning.

• It is not an organizational model or leadership framework.

It is a scientific discipline grounded in five foundational sciences: semantics, semeiology, systems theory, thermodynamics, and affective science.

3. The Five Sciences of Meaning

Meaning System Science integrates five foundational sciences, each of which evolved independently and explains an essential dimension of meaning’s behavior.

3.1 Semantics (T): The Architecture of Truth

Semantics studies how language refers to reality with fidelity.
It provides:

• accuracy

• reference

• verification

• conceptual clarity

Without semantic integrity, nothing in a system can remain coherent.

3.2 Semeiology (P): The Architecture of Signals

Semeiology examines how meaning becomes action through signals: verbal, relational, symbolic, and behavioral.

It explains:

• how signals convey power

• how norms shape interpretation

• how roles convey meaning

• how systems mislead through signal distortion

This is where signal alignment or misalignment is established.

3.3 Systems Theory (C): The Architecture of Coherence

Meaning moves through structure.

Systems Theory clarifies how:

• pathways determine clarity

• topology determines coherence

• processes shape interpretation

• organizational architecture shapes meaning flow

It explains why systems become coherent to the degree their structure allows.

3.4 Thermodynamics of Meaning (D): The Architecture of Drift

All meaning-systems face pressure:

• contradiction

• overload

• entropy

• noise

• time

Thermodynamics explains how drift accumulates, why meaning dissipates under pressure, and why entropy is universal.

It is the science of meaning’s degradation and constraints.

3.5 Affective Science (A): The Architecture of Human Regulation

Meaning is embodied.

Affective science studies how emotional and regulatory forces determine:

• which truths are spoken

• which signals are suppressed

• how quickly drift accelerates

• how groups respond to ambiguity or contradiction

It is the human regulatory system acting across T, P, C, and D.

4. Why Integration Was Necessary: The Structural Logic of Meaning

Each science explains part of meaning’s behavior, but none can explain it alone.

Meaning behaves as a proportional system, where stability depends on the relationships among:

• T: truth fidelity (semantics)

• P: signal alignment (semeiology)

• C: structural coherence (systems theory)

• D: thermodynamic drift (thermodynamics)

• A: affective regulation (affective science)

Meaning stabilizes when these variables align proportionally. It drifts when they do not.

This proportional architecture is the foundation of Transformation Science.

5. Transformation Science: The Integrative General Theory

Transformation Science unifies the five foundational sciences into a coherent scientific architecture.

It explains:

• how meaning forms

• how systems establish coherence

• how drift accumulates

• how alignment is restored

• why legitimacy rises or collapses

Transformation Science is the general theory of meaning behavior.

Its core insights:

• coherence is structural

• drift is thermodynamic

• alignment is proportional

• meaning stability depends on the interdependence of T, P, C, D, and A

Within this theoretical framework, Moral Physics emerges as the physics branch.

6. Moral Physics: The Lawlike Dynamics of Meaning Under Pressure

Moral Physics studies the predictable, proportional behavior of meaning under pressure.
Its central law is the First Law of Moral Proportion:

L = (T × P × C) ÷ D

Where:

• L = legitimacy

• T = truth alignment

• P = signal/power alignment

• C = structural coherence

• D = drift/entropy

Moral Physics explains:

• why coherence compounds when signals align

• why drift accelerates under contradiction load

• why systems deteriorate under thermodynamic pressure

• why legitimacy behaves like a stability function

It is the physics of meaning.

7. Proportionism: The Epistemic Stance of Meaning System Science

Proportionism is the interpretive stance required to study multi-variable meaning behavior.

Where structuralism analyzed signs, proportionism analyzes proportion.

It interprets:

• the relationships among T, P, C, D, and A

• the ratios that determine stability

• the structural logic underlying meaning behavior

Proportionism makes Meaning System Science intelligible as a unified discipline.

8. Methods and Measurement

Meaning System Science employs measurable, structural techniques:

• proportional analysis

• drift diagnostics

• topological mapping

• signal-architecture assessment

• system sampling

• alignment pattern detection

Tools such as LDP-1.0 operationalize these methods without reducing the science to technique.

9. Applied Branch: Transformation Management

Transformation Management is the applied counterpart of the discipline.

It translates the science into:

• organizational practice

• coherence restoration

• alignment methodologies

• interventions and redesign

The 3E Standard™ operationalizes the applied branch.
Transformation Management is to Meaning System Science what engineering is to physics.

10. Intellectual Lineage

Meaning System Science stands within an intellectual lineage shaped by:

• Saussure— structural linguistics

• Shannon— information & entropy

• Bateson— systems & ecology of mind

• Kant— proportion & rational structure

• Kegan— developmental coherence

• Drucker— organizational responsibility

• Prigogine— dissipative systems

• Foucault— power & signals

• Luhmann— social systems

• Barrett— affective construction

These fields supplied precursors; none unified them into a single science of meaning.

Meaning System Science completes that unification.

11. Why This Discipline Had to Emerge Now

The 21st century faces unprecedented interpretive pressure:

• acceleration outpacing comprehension

• semantic instability

• organizational drift

• cultural fragmentation

• AI amplifying signal volume without strengthening coherence

Meaning System Science is the scientific response to these conditions.
It explains:

• why systems lose meaning

• how coherence decays

• how drift spreads

• how alignment is restored

• how stability can be measured

It is a discipline built for the tempo of this century.

12. Conclusion

Meaning System Science defines a new scientific field: one capable of explaining the structural logic of meaning in human systems.

It unifies semantics, semeiology, systems theory, thermodynamics, and affective science; establishes the general theory of Transformation Science; formalizes the physics of meaning; and provides the epistemic stance required to interpret them.

This discipline marks the beginning of an enduring field, one that will evolve through the work of proportionists, scientists, practitioners, and institutions who extend its boundaries.

The Transformation Management Institute™ serves as the steward of this science, not its owner. The discipline belongs to those who study meaning with precision, responsibility, and proportion.

Citation

Vallejo, J. (2025). Meaning Systems Science: The Structural Logic of Meaning in Human Systems. Transformation Management Institute™ Research Library, Foundational Statement 0.