Come again?: Philosophy Forums

Forums Links Articles Gallery Chat

Powered by WSN Forum

Members Calendar New Posts Help

Philosophy Forums » Philosophy of Language » Come again? » Come again?

Come again?
Is it possible to say what you mean?

print

Print

Page: 1 2

Come again?

essence
Aspirant

Usergroup: Members
Joined: May 07, 2008
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 28

Posted 05/12/08 - 07:52 AM:	#26
Interesting post teacheth. I like the idea of capturing the essence of the essence! I think it speaks to the limitations of words as well. There are many different senses of essence. Someone who listens to anothers theory, for example, and then says, "so what you mean is..." and basically gets its right, may receive the reply, "that captures the essence of what I'm saying." Yet, in addition to this content, there are invariably many other communications such as how the person feels about the topic, is he passionate, does she believe it, is he struggling with it, does she like the topic. With a paining, a similar thing occurs. There is the actual painting itself, the details of expression, and then there is the emotional state of the painter. Did the painter feel a sympathetic memory of bullfighting, was he attempting to let the subject speak for itself and remove his own opinions, did she remember a loved one who was interested in bullfighting when she painted it? In addition to all of this, we have the perceptions of others that could be seen as existing independent of the communicator. One person who has just seen a bullfight and was excited by the spectacle may look at a painting and have her views filtered through that excitement such that elements of the painting are highlighted that the author never intended. Loking only at ourslves and our intened meaning for a moment, we could say that there is the essence of the essence of the essence of the essence... In other words, there will be those things that are intended at the conscious level, those things that are just below consiousness (subconscious), and those things that delve deeper and deeper into what could be called the supraconsciousness. These levels of consiousness, however we choose to label them, are things that many thoughtul individuals are likely to notice. It is as if the more we look at life and ourselves, the more we see what is there. There beome greater and greater awarenesses of who we are and what life is. This perception, however, depends upon the nature of our enquiry. What I mean is that a person who has a world view that is very material and does not imagine that there is more to be seen within that which is observed outside or inside the self, can look and ponder and see only more verification of what he already imagines to be true, its all just matter and cells and neurons firing off chemical charges. People who look with the idea that there is more to see, however, will notice this progression and, in the same way as a strictly material perspective, it will be because it is what they imagine to be true. Which perspective is truly true? Perhaps they all are. Which perspective opens the doors to which experiences, however, is something that becomes clear to any who choose one. Maybe instead of asking ourselves, which perspective is true, we shold instead be asking, which experiences would I like to have, and then look for a perspective that makes that possible. But I am digressing from the topic... Edited by essence on 05/15/08 - 06:20 AM

Page: 1 2

You don't have permission to post.

Please login or register.

20 total queries
This page was created in 0.9 seconds
Memory used: 6787988 bytes
Server Status: time since last reboot is 159 days, 22:54, load average: 2.02, 1.13, 1.00