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.
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
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What is the meaning of "epistemic", "epistemological" and "ontological" in this context?
I was reading The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us by Noson S. Yanofsky and in some paragraphs of this books, The writer uses the words "epistemic",...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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Can meaning indeterminately be said to be indeterminate?
James Ross has given several reasons as to why he believes thought (and formal thought especially) is determinate. Among these, and under a formulation put forward by the contemporary philosopher ...
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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 (...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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?
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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....
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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, ...
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Meaning in use and naturalisation of intentionality
What is the relation between pragmatism and intentionality?
Two different enterprises in philosophy seem to be well established and yet contradicting:
Inferential Pragmatism: from Wittgenstein and ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Is Nietzsche saying here that agnostics admire the unintelligible?
I need help understanding the last two paragraphs of the 25th section, third essay, which is provided below from the free link: http://home.sandiego.edu/~janderso/360/genealogy3.htm
Similarly who ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Some questions on "context" in Mathematical Logic
Recently I was having a discussion with user21820 in this chatroom. There very naively (in the sense that I didn't choose carefully each word of my following statement) I expressed the opinion that,
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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"There is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking" - What does this quote mean?
I saw this quote from Nietzsche in the preface of one of Harold Bloom's Shakespearean Analysis books.
It says:
"That for which we find words is something that is already dead in our
hearts. ...
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How are you intended to interpret x.R and x.S in Davidson "Truth and Meaning"?
I'm entirely unfamiliar with the syntax and corresponding semantics Davidson uses for the four equations at the beginning of Truth and Meaning(https://www.jstor.org/stable/20114563). He states that ...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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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?
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Is there a point to arguing about the meaning of words?
Firstly, I should mention that I am not sure, whether this the right place to ask such a question, but I am trying it anyway. Furthermore, one could say I come from a mathematics background and I am ...
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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 ...
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Just what does closure mean in philosophy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_closure
What does closure mean? I am not sure what closure means when used in the context of philosophy. I keep seeing the term closure being used in philosophy, ...
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Negative meaning in Structuralism
I have a hard time understanding the concept of "negative meaning" in linguistic Structuralism (Saussure). Their proposition is that signs don't have meaning by themselfes but only within ...
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Term for skepticism about whether a concept is meaningful
What is the term for the philosophical stance that a given concept which people seem to imbue with meaning actually has no meaning, especially if this means it makes no sense to speak of believing in ...
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Is "quality of life" an in-efficacious measure for a "meaningful life"?
Definitions
Quality of life (QOL) is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from ...
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Marcus Aurelius' progression in stoic thought
In what is ascribed to be Verse 18, Book V of Marcus Aurelius' Mediations, Marcus writes:
[1] "Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear."
Alternative ...
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Why is reason negative according to Hegel?
Reason is negative and dialectical because it resolves determinations of understanding into nothing; it is positive because it generates the universal and comprehends the particular therein. Hegel, ...
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What does "logically prior" mean? [closed]
I'll bold a few examples that Google yielded.
Logical Form (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Frege's leading idea was that propositions have “function-argument” structure. Though for Frege, ...
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Are beautiful things difficult?
As you may already know, the dialogue Hippias Major ends with the following asseveration by Socrates:
So, I think, Hippias, that I have been benefited by conversation with both of you, for I think ...
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How closely is deconstruction tied to the plurality of meaning?
How closely is deconstruction tied to the plurality of meaning?
the instability and plurality of meaning
Derrida on Heidegger:
the break with the horizon of communication as the communication ...
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What does “there is something that it is like” in Thomas Nagel's “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” mean?
I was reading The enigma of human consciousness in ANNALS of the New York Academy of Sciences and this came up:
think it’s very hard to define consciousness in terms of anything more basic than ...
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Is verificationism dead?
A long time ago, I was taught that logical positivism, though very productive in explicating what it means for one science to reduce to another (e.g. chemistry to physics), died because the ...
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Can every thought in the mind called a thing
This is a metaphysical (ontology) question. I'm looking for the appropriate ontological terminology, as 'thing' seems like it is ordinary language.
I know that every entity in the physical world can ...
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If I think life has meaning, then does that mean life is not meaningless? [closed]
I see some people say that life/existence is meaningless. However, I assign existence with meaning, therefore it's NOT meaningless. Yes?
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What is the meaning of "Philistine utilitarianism"?
I was wondering what is the meaning of "Philistine utilitarianism"? I saw this in a couple of articles and I wanna know that Is it a term or Should I read it literally; that is, anti-intellectual ...
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Is this quote flawed when it comes to not understanding racism and also not admiring it? [closed]
Can anyone please help me with how to respond to someone who has told me that he doesn't understand racism and can't admire it either? Is it possible that someone doesn't get what racism is?
Here is ...
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Can purpose be attributed to events without grounding in agency
As observers we observe events around us. All events have causes, either deterministic causes or non-deterministic ones. As observers however we can additionally attribute purpose (or meaning as in ...
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Does Ricoeur Elaborate His Essay in a Book?
I'm reading "the model of the text : meaningful action considered as a text" in New Literary History by Paul Ricoeur, and I'm wondering if there Ricoeur has a more extended treatment of this elsewhere ...
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Is all language meaningful?
Wittgenstein claimed that many philosophers misuse language and write nonsense. He later claimed that a private language, one that cannot in principle be understood, is impossible. Does that suggest ...
