Symbol grounding problem

The symbol grounding problem is the problem of how "...symbol meaning..." is "...to be grounded in something other than just more meaningless symbols" [Harnad, S. (1990)]. This problem is of significant importance in the realms of philosophy, cognition, and language. In cognitive science and semantics, the symbol grounding problem is concerned with how it is that words (symbols in general) get their meanings, and hence is closely related to the problem of what meaning itself really is. The problem of meaning is in turn related to the problem of how it is that mental states are meaningful, hence to the problem of consciousness: what is the connection between certain physical systems and the contents of subjective experiences. According to his 1990 paper, Harnad implicitly expresses a few other definitions of the symbol grounding problem: The symbol grounding problem is the problem of how to make the "...semantic interpretation of a formal symbol system..." "... intrinsic to the system, rather than just parasitic on the meanings in our heads..." "...in anything but other meaningless symbols..." [Harnad, S. (1990)]. The symbol grounding problem is the problem of how "...the meanings of the meaningless symbol tokens, manipulated solely on the basis of their (arbitrary) shapes..." can be grounded "...in anything but other meaningless symbols." "...the symbol grounding problem is referred to as the problem of intrinsic meaning (or 'intentionality') in Searle's (1980) celebrated 'Chinese Room Argument' [Harnad, S. (1990)]." The symbol grounding problem is the problem of how you can "...ever get off the symbol/symbol merry-go-round..." According to his 1990 paper, Harnad lays out the definition of a "symbol system" relative to his defined symbol grounding problem. As defined by Harnad, a "symbol system" is "...a set of arbitrary 'physical tokens' scratches on paper, holes on a tape, events in a digital computer, etc. that are ... manipulated on the basis of 'explicit rules' that are ... likewise physical tokens and strings of tokens.