The Relationship between Symbolic Reasoning, Causality and Systems

Some time ago, I published a paper proposing that the universal disciplines of natural language, mathematics, logic, causality, and systems theory might be unified within a single formal language.

Prior to that work, I had developed an enhanced form of set theory, Symbolic Reasoning, which successfully unified natural language, logic, and mathematics. While this framework was able to account for causality and information, it did so in a way that was both complex and, to my mind, unsatisfactory. It also did not yet extend to systems theory.

More recently, over the Christmas period, I arrived at the key insight needed to incorporate systems theory into the framework. In doing so, I was also able to greatly simplify how Symbolic Reasoning represents causality, capability, and information. What had previously required elaborate constructions could now be expressed directly and transparently in systems terms.

These extensions to Symbolic Reasoning are described in a PDF available for download here:

https://rational-understanding.com/my-books#srandsystems

To fully understand the framework, readers will also need a copy of The Mathematics of Language and Thought, both volumes of which are available for download in PDF format on the same page, immediately below.

Why this matters

Much of modern thought is fragmented across disciplines that use different languages to describe the same underlying phenomena. Causality, systems, information, meaning, and mathematics are often treated as separate domains, even though they repeatedly intersect in science, engineering, and everyday reasoning. The framework presented here matters because it offers a single, coherent formal language in which these domains can be expressed together, without metaphor or hand-waving. By grounding meaning, causality, and systems in shared symbolic structures, it becomes possible to reason more clearly about complex systems (natural, social, and artificial) and to see connections that are otherwise obscured by disciplinary boundaries.