3

If the structures which enable the emergence of meaning in awareness behave according to principles which do not require meaning to function, this means meaning is inextricably tied to silence or non-meaning.

if meaning is the product of processes which are silent, does this mean that this silence is more ontologically fundamental than its products (individuated identities) inside the symbolic space of meaning?

Improve this question
3
  • I'm failing to see where ontology fits into this at all; if you are dealing with meaning, isn't this really a question of epistemology? Your question presupposes a mind (i.e. "awareness"). Furthermore, is there anyone arguing that meaning does not rely on a process of differentiation (that would thus include some sort of non-meaning, or what you are calling "silence")?
    – Michael Dorfman
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 10:10
  • indeed comrade it does presuppose a mind.. the sense i use the word ontology is as question of 'what can be considered to possess being?'. i don't know what you mean by 'differentiation', but the constellations of action potentials is what i refer to, mostly in in Broca's and Wernickes to be precise.. I have no interest in people who may oppose that idea, the question is about these processes and their production of meaning, and the investigation of the nature of this relation.
    – Dr Sister
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 11:46
  • 1
    Ontology (possessing being) usually does not presuppose mind; it deals with entities, not meaning. And epistemology doesn't usually refer to brain areas. Is your question physiological? I'm still trying to understand what you are asking here.
    – Michael Dorfman
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 13:46

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

I think the question is a bit sparse on detail and having thought about it it seems to boil down to 'the hard problem of consciousness. i don't think substituting neural activity for the notion of silence is useful for looking at the relationship between the rules governing neural states and the emergence of meaning in awareness, nor whether or not one is 'more real' than the other. not sure what i was thinking.

Nothing ventured nothing gained..

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .