If you believe that meaning is found, rather than created, then would it also be your position that meaning would exist without mind -- if there were no mind in the universe throughout it's existence, would meaning still exist? Perhaps we're talking about different things by the word "meaning"? :)
That doesn't follow. Meaning is a concept that refers to a relationship between consciousness and particular existants. So clearly meaning doesn't exist without mind, since one of the defining participants in the relationshi0p isn't present, but jumping to "meaning is created by mind" is inserting a dichotomy where one isn't needed. Meaning is inherent in the relationship between the perceiving consciousness and the perceived existants, and that is what is discovered.
The trap here is thinking of the mind as something separate from "external" reality, instead of as a full participant in the system that it's observing.
A consciousness can claim meaning where there really isn't any, but we're not talking about pathology or postmodernism.
The Ultimate Universal LanguagefareJune 1 2005, 11:34:16 UTC
Actually, this rambling about a universal language that defines an objective representation for every meaningful concept reminds me of that project I had to extend Unicode from 32-bit to 256-bit, defining a single unicode code-point for every glyph that a man may ever desire to publish: that is, any document that a man wants to print or otherwise display will have its code point. My thesis might have code point \u18301397114989213916504138087010426783359964432322918138529714566196407282017, whereas a nude photo of Marylin Monroe would have code point \u84007590508399794104443106782133249188872853079298113432894369167235420201227. Of course, each font implementor would be free to display each glyph in any variant that he feels appropriate. Note the difference between the latter glyph in Times and in Vera Sans Mono. One advantage of this scheme is that each and every series of utterances by man can be reduced to a normal form that consists of any one single code point. This also makes Unicode 3000 the ultimate lossless data compression
( ... )
Re: The Ultimate Universal LanguagefareJune 1 2005, 12:05:30 UTC
Of course, in Unicode 3000, the code point for the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. If you just print the glyph at a high enough resolution and with the proper font, you'll be able to read it.
Comments 14
Reply
alpheccar.
Reply
The trap here is thinking of the mind as something separate from "external" reality, instead of as a full participant in the system that it's observing.
A consciousness can claim meaning where there really isn't any, but we're not talking about pathology or postmodernism.
Reply
Do you believe that mathematics is discovered or invented?
Reply
...one of my favourite essays, actually :)
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment