Scientific Realism Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 230):

Objectivism goes beyond the hypothesis of scientific realism, which itself assumes:

(1) a real world (including humans but not depending on them);
(2) a linkage between concepts and that world; and
(3) a stable knowledge that is gained through that link.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, 'the real world including humans' is the semiotic domain (meaning) construed of experience of the non-semiotic domain.  This semiotic domain depends on humans in the sense that it is construed by processes of the mental and verbal domain of meaning (human consciousness).

By the same token, 'concepts' and 'knowledge' are meaning (the semiotic domain) construed of experience of the non-semiotic domain.

The 'stability' of knowledge is the present state of meaning in its evolution as a complex adaptive system.