In APS, meaning is not abstract symbol manipulation detached from life.
Meaning emerges when differences in the world acquire evaluative significance for a viability-oriented system.
Environmental conditions, signals and internal states matter biologically because they influence persistence, regulation and action. A sign becomes meaningful when it guides activity relative to viability.
Meaning is therefore operational and organisational.
It is generated through semiosis, evaluation and regulatory interaction within living systems rather than imposed externally or reduced to formal representation alone.
APS thus interprets meaning as stabilised evaluative significance within organised persistence.