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Full Idea
The only sort of sameness of meaning we know is similarity in meaning, not exact sameness of meaning.
Gist of Idea
There is only similarity in meaning, never sameness in meaning
Source
Gilbert Harman (Thought [1973], 6.8)
Book Ref
Harman,Gilbert: 'Thought' [Princeton 1977], p.109
A Reaction
The Eiffel Tower and le tour Eiffel? If you want to be difficult, you can doubt whether the word 'fast' ever has exactly the same meaning in two separate usages of the word.
| 9009 | Single words are strongly synonymous if their interchange preserves truth [Quine] |
| 7317 | 'Renate' and 'cordate' have identical extensions, but are not synonymous [Quine, by Miller,A] |
| 7319 | If we give up synonymy, we have to give up significance, meaning and sense [Grice/Strawson] |
| 3090 | There is only similarity in meaning, never sameness in meaning [Harman] |
| 11967 | Sentences might have the same sense when logically equivalent - or never have the same sense [Kaplan] |
| 2996 | Mental states may have the same content but different extensions [Fodor] |
| 20300 | Externalist synonymy is there being a correct link to the same external phenomena [Rey] |
| 9372 | Could expressions have meaning, without two expressions possibly meaning the same? [Boghossian] |