Semantic determinism and the dependability of meaning

This paper distinguishes semantic determinism—the view that meaning is fixed, pre‑given, and independent of biological or temporal conditions—from the dependability of meaning, which holds that meaning remains stable only because living systems actively preserve it across time. I argue that meaning is not an abstract or disembodied property but a biological and temporal achievement grounded in the ente, the locus where identity, memory, and symbolic stability emerge. Through an analysis of temporal inscription, irreversibility, and the biological conditions that make interpretation possible, the paper develops a metaphysical framework in which meaning is dependable not because it is predetermined, but because organisms maintain the temporal structures that sustain symbolic continuity. This account provides the conceptual foundation for symbolic communication systems that do not rely on digital protocols and clarifies why biological systems can preserve meaning even in the absence of syntactic determinism.