Thursday, August 13, 2020

Commonsensical ‘Meaning’ OR Commonsense-Meaning


What is meaning? Lets see first how meaning (of terms) manifests itself in our world. 

A ‘cupboard’ is this..

A ‘towel’ is this ….

A ‘society’ is this ….

etc. 

So there are these associations between 2 things - the Term (T) and the Meaning (M).

What if someone asks you - What is a curve (and whats straight)? There is no pure definition of a curve or straight; only properties are used as definitions. Also one is defined in terms of the other. (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/curve#).

But there is something in a curve that we know and understand which makes it a curve. Same with a straight line. That's proved by the fact that given a sample we can identify correctly whether it's the former or the latter. 

So we have consumed something in a curve FOR OURSELVES which has made us identify and understand curves. So ultimately it is about our IDEA which we have formed when someone told us that this given thing is a curve. (Also, it ultimately reducing-ly  is in terms of my sensory perceptions). And what is that IDEA? 

When my sensory perceptions are so and so and such and such, then that entity is called so and so.

That which contains so and so and such and such (which cannot be put into words for me or may be able to be put in some personal language) is so and so an entity. 

This applied to commonsense meanings - meanings of things like a chair, a handkerchief, love etc. - which were never taught to us like ‘non-inertial reference frames’ in Mechanics were taught to us. I can put into definitive describable terms what an non-inertial reference frame is - a frame which has a non-zero acceleration. Ask me to identify if a reference frame is non-inertial, and I will check/see its acceleration (if it's accelerating). 

How I identify what I identify commonsensical-ly, cannot be put into words, and that may not accurately match with any formal definition of that word (if one exists).

That's the real meaning of something for us, distinct from what is conventionally called ‘meaning’. 


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