The
Problems of Mind and Consciousness [catalog]…
and related writing
ANIL MITRA PHD, DATE: NONE
Document status: May 31, 2003
Outdated; maintained out of
interest
Essential content absorbed to
and no further action needed for Journey in Being
Possibilities: after phases
2, 3, 4, and then later after “after”
Combine the essence of the
discussion of meaning with that of Problems
in Consciousness and incorporate in Journey
in Being
Reorganize Problems
in Consciousness according to the possible reorganization below
Content:
ID needs including AI, Cognitive Science, Psychiatry... intentionality,
language
The
Logic
Shorten
Reviews
of McGinn, Dretske, Flanagan, Nagel’s books, Kim; systematically,
comprehensively and minimally review the literature
Eliminate
or change comments re “this site” since the nature of the site has changed
since first planned
“What’s
the Catalog About” page; popular appeal
Cognitive
Science and AI: be systematic and minimal; add critical and creative
material; collect, review and summarize sources that define the field the main
problems and issues and their status; review the Companions series e.g.,
Companion the Philosophy of Mind articles on Artificial Intelligence and
Connectionism; review Chomsky, Fodor…
Circles:
add objectives and results of each circle; the relation and sequence of the
circles i.e., the detour through and meaning of idealism
The
reorganization would be determined and modeled by the structure of the Journey
in Being
i.
Generally, clarification of meaning is an
ongoing process; and interacts with diffusion of meaning
ii. Analysis
of meaning… by itself does not all constitute the endeavor of discovery and
elucidation within or without philosophy; clarification of meaning… is
nonetheless important to avoid confusion and inconsistency… and in terms of
clarification of concepts
iii. The
meaning of “meaning” is doubly recursive in that the process of meaning applies
also to “meaning”
iv. Meaning
and knowing; modes of knowing and meaning… elaborate: symbol, language… various
sources
v. Sense,
reference and family resemblance
Sense/connotation… reference/denotation
Intension/extension
vi. Senses
of meaning
Sense
and reference is central here
Sentence
vs. speaker meaning
Significance, essence and other
meanings of “meaning” are not in issue; these meanings may be metaphorical
vii. Theory
or theories of meaning
The meaning of “meaning” is the sense,
reference… of the word “meaning”… a theory
of meaning as used here is an explanation or mechanism about how meaning is
determined and clarified. Thus, in The Problems of Mind and Consciousness,
I considered different levels and senses of “meaning”. These different senses
of “meaning” had rough correspondence to the historical determinants and the
ways of clarification of meaning. Thus the meaning of “meaning”, and a theory
of “meaning”, though apparently distinct, are related and co-determinate, and
on some senses of “meaning”, are not distinct. What is true of “meaning” is
also true of other words/Words. But, the determination of the meaning of
“meaning” is doubly indeterminate as the concept figures in the reference and
referent. In general, this points to the idea of no final anchor
viii. On
family resemblance
Degrees of resemblance
Modes of resemblance: similarity of
kind, of sound, of accident; metaphorical resemblance
…therefore, frequently what are two senses
referred to by one sound are in essence two separate Words [that sound the
same] or two separate concepts. Separate words should be used for words;
except, however, that logic cannot always rule over history and the same word
for different Words is a source of productive suggestion, analogy and metaphor
even if it is also a source of confusion
Frequently, much is made of one word in
its separate senses:
Temperature, heat
Momentum, energy… this is of
historical interest
Phenomenality, awakeness and content
or access [consciousness]
Some times the resemblance may be so
minimal or merely by word association [accident, coinage, historical
divergence/convergence…] that we consider together, often with heated but
fruitless and pointless debate, meanings that should semantically be almost,
even completely, separate
There may be distinct words with less
variance in meaning than among the different senses or reference of the same
word. A given word may have more than one meaning - this is obvious; each of
these meanings may designate a family system of resemblance; the relations
among the families may be tight, loose, or non-existent
A phase of discovery and creation must
be the clarification and specification of meaning… but this is, in a sense,
supportive - remember, however, that meaning and theory are not finally and
absolutely distinct
ix. References:
Ogden and Richards
Runes
My writing
Companion series: Mind, Metaphysics, and Epistemology…