Complex systems in nature and society make use of information for the development of their internal organization and the control of their functional mechanisms. Alongside technical aspects of storing, transmitting and processing information, the various semantic aspects of information, such as meaning, sense, reference and function, play a decisive part in the analysis of such systems.

With the aim of fostering a better understanding of semantic systems from an evolutionary and multidisciplinary perspective, this volume collects contributions by philosophers and natural scientists, linguists, information and computer scientists. They do not follow a single research paradigm; rather they shed, in a complementary way, new light upon some of the most important aspects of the evolution of semantic systems.

Evolution of Semantic Systems is intended for researchers in philosophy, computer science, and the natural sciences who work on the analysis or development of semantic systems, ontologies, or similar complex information structures. In the eleven chapters, they will find a broad discussion of topics ranging from underlying universal principles to representation and processing aspects to paradigmatic examples.

Bernd-Olaf Küppers is a professor emeritus of Natural Philosophy at the University of Jena. From 2008-2012 he was also the founding director of the Frege Centre for Structural Sciences at the same university. Prior to this he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (1971-1993). His scientific interests cover a wide range of problems that are centred on the fundamental question of the origin and evolution of life.

Udo Hahn is a professor of Computational Linguistics at the University of Jena and since October 2012 he is the director of the Frege Centre for Structural Sciences. His research interests include natural language processing (NLP), text analytics, information retrieval, knowledge representation, machine learning for NLP, and ontology design and engineering.

Stefan Artmann, a philosopher of science and technology, is currently working as Senior Scientific Coordinator at the Presidential Office, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He is teaching at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Jena, and is an associate member of the Frege Centre for Structural Sciences.