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Single Idea 8202

[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 10. Denial of Meanings ]

Full Idea

Meaning is essence divorced from the thing and wedded to the word.

Gist of Idea

Meaning is essence divorced from things and wedded to words

Source

Willard Quine (Vagaries of Definition [1972], p.51)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.51

A Reaction

Quine's strategy is that a demolition of essences will be a definition of meaning. Personally I would like to defend essences, though I admit to finding meaning tricky. That is because essences are external, but meanings are in minds.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [doubts about the whole idea of meaning]:

7279 If words can't be defined, they may just be the chirruping of chicks [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
4721 If you are not certain of any fact, you cannot be certain of the meaning of your words either [Wittgenstein]
4149 We don't have 'meanings' in our minds in addition to verbal expressions [Wittgenstein]
4156 Make the following experiment: say "It's cold here" and mean "It's warm here" [Wittgenstein]
1609 I do not believe there is some abstract entity called a 'meaning' which we can 'have' [Quine]
1617 The word 'meaning' is only useful when talking about significance or about synonymy [Quine]
9471 Intensions are creatures of darkness which should be exorcised [Quine]
1621 Once meaning and reference are separated, meaning ceases to seem important [Quine]
8202 Meaning is essence divorced from things and wedded to words [Quine]
19064 Holism is not a theory of meaning; it is the denial that a theory of meaning is possible [Dummett]
21885 Words exist in 'spacing', so meanings are never synchronic except in writing [Derrida]
7305 Kripke's Wittgenstein says meaning 'vanishes into thin air' [Kripke, by Miller,A]
19270 If you ask what is in your mind for following the addition rule, meaning just seems to vanish [Kripke]
8477 People presume meanings exist because they confuse meaning and reference [Orenstein]