Is it only in the struggle of intelligent organisms with the surrounding environment that beliefs acquire meaning?

Attitudes make sense or acquire meaning through magic.

Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of meaningless elements.

Further, theoretical terms no longer need to acquire meaning by explicit definition from observational terms: the connection may be indirect, through a system of implicit definitions.

The deep structures acquire meanings only with respect to the system they constitute.