12 Apr '07 01:41>
Originally posted by vistesdI'm having some trouble with the interchangeability of 'understanding' and 'meaning'. I undertand your view of meaning as an interpretive process of weaving particulars into a larger integrated context, and that seems largely fair enough -- and that also seems consistent with understanding. But some hold that meaning is an intrinsically normative notion in that statements of meaning imply normative statements related to conditions of "correct" application (how things may/may not or ought/ought not be applied). If that's true, then I think we can draw some important distinctions between 'meaning' and 'understanding'. At least, at any rate, I think meaning in this context will have to be largely normative and based on what one values. I'm not really sure how to formulate 'meaning'; I have been looking at some ways others have tried to do it, but I haven't found any that really grabbed me.
Thanks for your response and helpful questions.
Yes, self-evident is too strong a term. (This was also before I read Scrib’s essay on the nature of axioms.) For the moment I’ll drop back top something like “intuitively clear to me.” If one wants to take them as simply premises, that’s fine.
[b]Re meaning:
I tend to ask people what they mean b ...[text shortened]... ld not argue a moral theory strictly from the, possibly pathological, tails of the distribution.[/b]
Consider P.W. Zapffe, as one example: "That an action or some other fragment of life has meaning means that it gives us a quite specific feeling that is not easy to translate into thought. It would have to be something like the action having good enough intention, so that when the intention is fulfilled, the action is 'justified', settled, confirmed -- and the subject calms down."
I have seen other formulations that involve the idea of self-realization; others that involve the idea of life's having discernable content.
All of these seem normative to me and grounded on one's values since they inform our intentions; our ideas of what sort of self is to be realized; our evaluations of the content of our existence; etc.