Questions tagged [meaning]
The relationship among signs and the kinds of things they intend, express, or signify; a concept central to semantics which is the study of how meaning comes about.
139
questions
1
vote
2
answers
43
views
If p then it is not obligatory to know p and if not p then it is not obligatory to know not p → not obligatory to know p or not p?
Suppose that if I am happy I am not obliged to know it, and if I am not happy I am not obliged to know it, then does that mean that I am not obliged to know if I am happy or not? It seems non ...
user67675
0
votes
7
answers
335
views
Without good and evil, are we left with mediocrity only?
If there is no good or evil, then we could have done better with the climate crisis, we maybe could have stopped the world being burnt, but it doesn't matter, it's just that money was more important. ...
user67675
1
vote
2
answers
337
views
Are some narratives worse than death?
Are some narratives worse than death? I'm not talking about psychological or physical suffering, but narratives (what actually happens, as we understand that, as humans) that are worse than it just ...
user67675
1
vote
1
answer
96
views
Is philosophy the pursuit of wisdom? [closed]
What is philosophical discourse? What fundamental principles are involved?
- 1,979
-1
votes
1
answer
93
views
Does the universe have an ultimate purpose? [closed]
Objective purpose is an alternative? Universal, fundamental purpose?
- 1,979
-4
votes
2
answers
112
views
What is philosophical discourse? [closed]
Is philosophical discourse about the pursuit of wisdom? What principles are involved?
- 1,979
3
votes
2
answers
270
views
Is it possible for words to have a meaning other than how they are used?
Wittgenstein's language game concept holds that the meaning of a word can only be derived from its usage. However, some philosophers contend that some words have meanings other than that implied by ...
- 1,979
0
votes
0
answers
26
views
Is there a domain of discourse in which the trivial/nontrivial distinction breaks down?
Let us suppose that we commonly imagine that problems have sets of solutions, wherein there are empty solutions, trivial ones, and then nontrivial ones. Add further that we have a relatively stable ...
- 12.1k
6
votes
3
answers
125
views
Michael Dummett on the indeterminacy thesis
In his work "The Significance of Quine's Indeterminacy Thesis," Michael Dummett explores Quine's philosophy. In the beginning of section 3, he states: "Indeterminacy of translation ...
- 1,008
1
vote
0
answers
32
views
Can we evaluate life, existence and/or consciousness itself according to criteria that exist within it?
The idea of a criteria, of evaluation, of meaning, of assigning characteristics, of judging things as positive or negative or neutral, only exists as a subset of existence as far as I can tell. In ...
- 169
3
votes
2
answers
114
views
Implicature justification for translating "P unless Q" as (¬Q → P)
In The Laws of Truth, Smith translates utterances of the form "P unless Q" as (¬Q → P) and takes the further suggestion that (Q → ¬P) to be an implicature of the utterance. The justification ...
- 481
0
votes
3
answers
70
views
Does meaning begin with what can usefully be inferred?
There's linguistic meaning, and then there's meaning in the sense of purpose. I want to talk about a kind of non-linguistic, non-purposeful meaning. Let me give a few examples.
You see that the lower ...
- 11.1k
3
votes
3
answers
822
views
Axioms, meaning, and notation
According to at least one philosophy of mathematics, the axioms determine the meaning of the primitive symbols that are used in the axioms. The phrase "used in" is somewhat imprecise, so ...
- 281
0
votes
1
answer
36
views
What's the meaning of"reconstruction" and "elements" in the context? [closed]
An article on the topic of idealism claims that, from the idealist point of view:
The universe can be comprehended through the mind, because both mind and the universe are reconstructed of the same ...
- 103
0
votes
2
answers
85
views
Is asking to align on definition during a debate a derailling or disingenuous demand?
In a recent discussion with a group of friends, we found ourselves in a situation where we appeared to be using the same word, but it became evident that we held different meanings for it. At that ...
- 101
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
What would it mean for the herd to be victorious over the overman?
What would it mean for the herd to be victorious over the overman? What would that amount to? I assume that the herd has its perverse plans, born out of ressentiment, for the ubermensch, and they will ...
user67521
1
vote
1
answer
77
views
Is meaning on the cognitive or meta cognitive level?
So if we didn't have meta cognition we wouldn't say I have anger, rather, we would say I am anger.
Now, in the same way is finding meaning a cognitive or meta cognitive function?
Naively, I would ...
- 1,920
1
vote
0
answers
42
views
A position that claims meanings can't be abstract (but abstract objects still might exist)?
Is my titular question trivial, vacuous, encompasses every philosopher ever, none ever, or only encompasses a non-empty subset? I think there are different positions on it.
If meanings aren't abstract,...
- 2,385
1
vote
4
answers
130
views
If it doesn't matter to you whether something is AI, then do you matter?
If it doesn't matter to you whether something is AI, then do you matter? I won't bother clarifying every inference (there's a few) that is being made there, if only because the conclusion is very ...
user67155
2
votes
1
answer
96
views
If a statement and its negation are in-principle-indistinguishable empirically, can it mean anything at all?
There exists a category of syntactically valid declarative statements which appear intuitively like they are descriptions of reality - but which no possible measurement could distinguish from their ...
- 3,535
0
votes
2
answers
84
views
What is the idea is that "if a sentence is meaningless, then its negation is also meaningless"?
I remember hearing somewhere that this notion was a positivist or Wittgensteinian idea (?) but I cannot find info on it via Google search or Chat-GPT.
I am curious whether this criterion is true, ...
- 103
6
votes
5
answers
527
views
How does the Buddhist pursue meaning?
So I don't think positions like existentialism exist in Buddhist philosophy. I say this because the whole framing of causality is fundamentally different in Nagarjuna's treatise of dependent ...
- 1,920
2
votes
1
answer
51
views
What does J.S. Mill mean by "if they can once get their creed taught from authority"?
What does J.S. Mill mean by "if they can once get their creed taught from authority"?
Does it mean that they receive the authority's creed and consider it their own creed, or that they ...
- 21
0
votes
2
answers
58
views
How does culture add meaning to acts?
Suppose we take Thanksgiving in America, then on the day of it, eating a turkey is expected and seen as a highly meaningful activity. However, eating it the day after, or a week after or a month after,...
- 2,128
1
vote
7
answers
245
views
Is the pleasure of drugs better than long term achievements? [closed]
If there are currently drugs which release more dopamine and other chemicals in the brain on a level which cannot be replicated naturally, why aren't more people taking them, considering you cannot ...
- 19
2
votes
3
answers
100
views
Where is the line between semantics and ontology?
To be more specific, for a long time, it's seemed to me that a lot of open questions in philosophy, such as "What is consciousness?" or "What is truth?" come down, in large part, ...
2
votes
0
answers
64
views
A refutation of Kripke's Feynman-Gellman case?
McGinn explains Kripke's Feynman-Gellman problem as follows (Philosophy of Language: The Classics Explained)
Most people are not experts in physics and will not be able to tell you what Feynman's ...
- 363
1
vote
1
answer
47
views
How does one discover their personal meaning?
The question stems from this question. I attempted an answer, but the question I mentioned here was the obstruction from finishing.
In the conventional sense, as also put by the question, meaning is, ...
- 2,128
1
vote
1
answer
70
views
Where does this concept of existence fall?
In exploring the questions of existence, I came to this concept. I am curious if anyone has any feedback or can point me to any other materials or ideas that relate to this? I am sure I am not the ...
0
votes
0
answers
38
views
For what theories of meaning are ambiguous referents problematic?
Suppose I am talking to an English friend of mine and I say, "Boston is in Massachusetts." Since I am referring to the American city, I consider this sentence to be true. My friend evaluates ...
0
votes
0
answers
30
views
Does Kant's scheme for the analytic/synthetic distinction have room for a (degenerate?) further distinction, for "hyperanalytical" knowledge?
Kant can be easily misread (or: I myself easily misread him, for a long time) as claiming that no "existence claims" are analytically knowable. Technically, though, his system has it that (...
- 12.1k
0
votes
1
answer
83
views
Reversed Twin Earth: example from history of science
I'm looking for a real example from history of science, in which one thing is discovered to actually be two different things.
This is a kind of a reversed Twin Earth experiment:
Oscar's community is ...
- 1,008
2
votes
1
answer
55
views
What decides when a conceptual analysis is 'complete'?
When an analysis of a concept is given like
"A bachelor is an unmarried male." How is it decided if the analysis is correct and complete? Is there any way we can 'check' an analysis?
- 826
3
votes
2
answers
187
views
Do we have to know certain things in order to die authentically happily?
Do we have to know certain things in order to die authentically happily? I am especially interested in things we don't need to know know in order to live happily, but nevertheless we do to die happily....
user61995
3
votes
5
answers
117
views
Devising mathematical or quantitative theories of meaning
Around 1948, the mathematician and electrical engineer Claude E. Shannon presented work that would eventually lead to information theory. A mathematical theory based on uncertainty and probability, ...
- 641
2
votes
2
answers
259
views
What is the meaning of "natural"?
It's a term we all know, like "time". We all know what it means but when trying to explain it the difficulties start. For example, in trying to explain time circularity enters the ...
0
votes
2
answers
215
views
What is the word for a thing with meaning?
Assumptions:
Let X be one of a fact, a set of facts, event, place, idea, statement, etc. with meaning. X may mean something different or nothing at all to a given person. The meaning of X is the set ...
- 39
1
vote
2
answers
188
views
Are there contemporary analytic defenders of the view that pattern/meaning is metaphysically fundamental and directly knowable?
Background: Much of philosophy since Kant has taken for granted that our basic experience of reality is structured by our cognitive apparatus, including notably our background conceptual frameworks. ...
- 986
0
votes
4
answers
156
views
Can you think of the bible as organising logos?
Can you think of the bible as organising logos?
I know there are different readings of the bible, as myth, as parable, as event, etc.. What sort of reading is that claim, that the Christian bible ...
user56770
1
vote
1
answer
56
views
In the context above, does "the suffering" refer to "animal suffering"?
However, as Bentham realized, most human beings are capable of
different sorts of pleasure and pain from other animals. If we focus on
the experience of pain, through language we are able to ...
- 131
8
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Comedy we play everyday and pretend everything is fine?
I am sure it has a name or is covered by a movement, and I am sure that many philosophers have already talked about this, but I have this on my mind more and more everyday.
It is obvious, but how can ...
- 205
2
votes
3
answers
324
views
Name for a form of naturalism that allows for abstract objects
Some of the more pressing arguments against materialism involve their inability to account for abstract objects such as meaning or reference. A few definitions before I continue:
Abstract object: an ...
- 7,600
0
votes
2
answers
117
views
What determines boundaries? [closed]
There are a lot of boundaries in the world. There are boundaries between the countries on a map of the world, there are cultural boundaries, there is a boundary between people (or not), aspace may ...
-1
votes
1
answer
51
views
What does a 'reading' mean?
Many guides and secondary text are called 'readings' e.g. Oxford Readings in Philosophy. What does it mean? Does this 'reading' specifically refer to a particular interpretations of the original texts ...
- 143
2
votes
4
answers
190
views
How is Authenticity affected by external influences?
Originally I had titled this as concerning "being yourself" but it appears this concept is already defined in Philosophy as "Authenticity".
A few specifics to clarify on ...
- 139
3
votes
2
answers
222
views
What word do we use when we can't find an adequate one to convey what we mean?
Our unconscious minds do not process words, which are far too cumbersome and limited. They process meaning, which originates with stimulation and then moves from Recognition to Evaluation, Reaction ...
- 123
0
votes
0
answers
115
views
Can a carrier of contradicting thoughts be called hypocrite?
Can a carrier of contradicting thoughts be called hypocrite?
We know when people do/pretend something which he does not believe/poses, we call them hypocrite. Now what will happen if someone does not ...
1
vote
0
answers
147
views
What is meaning if it is not context?
It is often said that "meaning is context".
This is a hollow definition because the context has its own meaning, which is its wider context, and so on until all contexts have been exhausted. ...
- 2,522
0
votes
1
answer
153
views
What is the meaning of this aphorism by Merleau-Ponty
What is the meaning of this aphorism by Merleau-Ponty
We are condemned to meaning, and we cannot do or say anything without
its acquiring a name in history
and is it true?
user47711
1
vote
0
answers
57
views
Are there any fancy terms for the "supposed meaning" of the text and the "actual meaning" of the text?
I am currently writing a software requirements document. It is supposed to be modified and updated by the software developers. I would like to categorize the possible changes. To do this, I introduce ...
- 119