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Article 5690 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: smaill@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Alan Smaill)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Mean thoughts on what meaning means
Message-ID: <SMAILL.92May16013113@sin.aisb.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 16 May 92 00:31:13 GMT
References: <1992May13.001033.14320@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
	<1992May14.164117.25016@psych.toronto.edu>
	<1992May14.221449.3721@spss.com>
	<1992May15.152549.13330@psych.toronto.edu>
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In-Reply-To: michael@psych.toronto.edu's message of 15 May 92 15:25:49 GMT

In article <1992May15.152549.13330@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:
   I *know* that
   my symbols are not meaningless, since *I* define their meaning *for me*.
   I know that they have semantic content.  Sure, this means that they have
   meaning "within this system".  I didn't mean to imply that the symbols
   I use have some sort of inherent meaning independent of me (after all,
   symbols are arbitrary).  So far, all my point is is that I know that
   *my* symbols have meaning.


This is a contentious position (see all the literature on the "private
language argument", and Humpty Dumpty is good here as well).

The problem is what you mean by "having semantic content".
Semantics is (I presume) supposed to explain the use of language as
a medium of communication, giving a model of how meaning may be
conveyed.  But your use of "meaning" carries no commitment towards
understanding by others.

So the question is, is "meaningful for you" the same thing as
"meaningful" ?

--
Alan Smaill,                       JANET: A.Smaill@uk.ac.ed             
Department of Artificial           ARPA:  A.Smaill%uk.ac.ed@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
       Intelligence,               UUCP:  ...!uknet!ed.ac.uk!A.Smaill
Edinburgh University. 


