Awareness-Based Meaning System (ABMS): A Valuation-Driven Model of Meaning as Messaging

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Abstract

The question of how meaning arises from communication, cognition, and experience remains unresolved across philosophy and cognitive science. Existing theories variously attribute meaning to intention, linguistic structure, interpretation, or subjective valuation, yet fail to integrate these dimensions into a unified framework.The Awareness-Based Meaning System (ABMS) proposes a process-based model in which meaning is not transmitted as an intrinsic property of messages but emerges through a valuation-dependent reconstruction within awareness. In this framework, messaging originates at the source as either Appearance-Based Messaging (ABM), grounded in shared conventions, or Intention-Based Messaging (IBM), which embeds generative depth through intention. At the recipient, messaging undergoes interpretive processing (IP), producing informational intelligence, followed by valuation processing (VP), which assigns relevance and transforms information into emotionally charged intelligence. Meaning arises only when this valuation-integrated content is incorporated into awareness as Recognition-Based Meaning (RBM).ABMS introduces a critical distinction between generative depth and realized meaning, and predicts a fundamental asymmetry between intention-based messaging and experienced meaning, contrasted with relative symmetry in convention-based messaging. This framework unifies and extends existing theories by specifying how intention, interpretation, valuation, and awareness interact to produce meaningful experience.Furthermore, ABMS generates empirically testable predictions, including the necessity of valuation for meaning formation and the dissociation between interpretive depth and meaningful experience. By formalizing the transformation from messaging to meaning, ABMS provides a coherent theoretical and experimental foundation for investigating meaning as an awareness-dependent and valuation-driven process.