An ice breaker: What is “meaning” and where do you find it?
Despite our numbers, this community seems to be temporarily dwindling in its output. An ice breaker, therefore, seems to be in order.
In our last post, digitig mentioned an interest in the question “of what it actually is to assign meaning; ‘what is the meaning of “meaning”’, if you like” and exclaimed, “That seems to me to be a semiotic question!” I ( Read more... )
In our last post, digitig mentioned an interest in the question “of what it actually is to assign meaning; ‘what is the meaning of “meaning”’, if you like” and exclaimed, “That seems to me to be a semiotic question!” I ( Read more... )
However, the movie ended on the note that there is in experience both order and chaos, meaning and lack of meaning.
Meaning can be such a broad term. I know I don't entirely like when my students throw it (or derivatives of it) around in papers like magical code, almost like the word "important." Yet I think meaning is the point, well, of everything.
It seems to me that "meaning" has both absolute and relative senses. Assuming there is a God, for instance, such a Being would be meaningful in Himself. However, this meaning will not be apprehensible by creatures lacking intellect and language. Or again, certain structures of reality may have "real definitions," but an animal may care little for what a thing is in itself, in its absolute consideration, and act in accord with its momentary biological concerns.
I remember when I was a teenager I would often earnestly ask people what they thought about "the meaning of life." In college, my favorite class was "meaning of death."
Any thoughts on either of these?
I like the idea that meaning is subjective - that a work of art has constructed meaning...that the meaning is perhaps waiting for us - or perhaps created by us as we look/make.
If it's waiting, is it really simply constructed? Could there be constructions that have no basis in the art itself?
And I right now I find myself struggling with meaning a bit. I just graduated from my doctorate and got my dream job. Things that I thought would be meaningful are not as much as I hoped...
How so?
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