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Single Idea 21930

[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 1. Meaning ]

Full Idea

A noun [for Aristotle] is proper when it has but a single sense. Better, it is only in this case that it is properly a noun. Univocity is the essence, or better, the telos of language.

Clarification

'Univocity' is having only a single meaning

Gist of Idea

For Aristotle all proper nouns must have a single sense, which is the purpose of language

Source

Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 5

Book Ref

Glendinning,Simon: 'Derrida: a Very Short Intro' [OUP 2011], p.55

A Reaction

[no ref given] His target seem to be Aristotelian definition, and also formal logic, which usually needs unambiguous meanings. {I'm puzzled that he thinks 'telos' is simply better than 'essence', since it is quite different].

The 30 ideas with the same theme [how one thing can represent another thing]:

19087 The meaning or purport of a symbol is all the rational conduct it would lead to [Peirce]
6112 Meaning takes many different forms, depending on different logical types [Russell]
23450 Wittgenstein rejected his earlier view that the form of language is the form of the world [Wittgenstein, by Morris,M]
13978 Husserl and Meinong wanted objective Meanings and Propositions, as subject-matter for Logic [Ryle]
8898 Inculcations of meanings of words rests ultimately on sensory evidence [Quine]
1626 It is troublesome nonsense to split statements into a linguistic and a factual component [Quine]
6282 Theory of meaning presupposes theory of understanding and reference [Putnam]
2346 Meaning and translation (which are needed to define truth) both presuppose the notion of reference [Putnam]
15667 To understand a statement is to know what would make it acceptable [Habermas]
21932 'Différance' is the interwoven history of each sign [Derrida, by Glendinning]
21886 Meanings depend on differences and contrasts [Derrida]
21930 For Aristotle all proper nouns must have a single sense, which is the purpose of language [Derrida]
21884 Capacity for repetitions is the hallmark of language [Derrida]
21935 The sign is only conceivable as a movement between elusive presences [Derrida]
21933 Writing functions even if the sender or the receiver are absent [Derrida, by Glendinning]
21894 Madness and instability ('the demonic hyperbole') lurks in all language [Derrida]
2565 Nature has no preferred way of being represented [Rorty]
6387 A minimum requirement for a theory of meaning is that it include an account of truth [Davidson]
3451 Meaning is derived intentionality [Searle]
3078 Speech acts, communication, representation and truth form a single theory [Harman]
13948 For any statement, there is no one meaning which any sentence asserting it must have [Cartwright,R]
13950 People don't assert the meaning of the words they utter [Cartwright,R]
2517 Structuralists see meaning behaviouristically, and Chomsky says nothing about it [Katz]
16406 If you don't know what you say you can't mean it; what people say usually fits what they mean [Stalnaker]
2439 Semantic externalism says the concept 'elm' needs no further beliefs or inferences [Fodor]
2457 If meaning is information, that establishes the causal link between the state of the world and our beliefs [Fodor]
7324 Explain meaning by propositional attitudes, or vice versa, or together? [Miller,A]
19217 I don't accept that if a proposition is directly about an entity, it has a relation to the entity [Merricks]
21654 The "Fido"-Fido theory of meaning says every expression in a language has a referent [Hofweber]
14717 Internalist meaning is about understanding; externalist meaning is about embedding in a situation [Schroeter]