[MD] Mystics and Brains

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Craig]
Why not say: It is a shared understanding in a given pragmatic context that
makes a word "MEANINGFUL"?

[Arlo]
Because pragmatic resolution is not the only thing that bestows meaning. Take
your favorite painting. Can you reduce it to something "literal", and would it
still have the same "meaning"? Oh sure, this reduction may serve an immediate
end (for example to categorize artists), but there is more to the painting than
this.

[Craig]
Then, words are used literally when they're used with their usual meaning and
used metaphorically only if they're used with other than their usual meaning.

[Arlo]
All words begin as metaphors, some function to point better, and "usual meaning"
is simply a metaphor that has become frozen.