[MD] Marsha's Relativism

[Matt Kundert]

John said:
Words mean what they mean by reason of a negotiation 
between two or more. Words  mean just what the worder 
intends when the worder is talking to himself.

Matt:
I think you're right (and the best philosophies of language 
are working out the systematic consequences of this, like 
Robert Brandom), but think of this distinct possibility--what 
if the worder herself isn't sure what she intends?  Some 
people might think that's just plain incoherence, babble or 
something, but I don't think so--I think many of the greatest 
lines we repeat to ourselves, the genius behind them wasn't 
totally sure what she meant.

John said:
Philosophy uses words which get their meaning  from 
dictionaries which get their definitions from common usage in 
works of literature which come from an author's head.

Matt:
That's funny, and I take your point, but I think the great 
philosophers were as creative and poetic as the great writers 
one finds in Literature Departments, as opposed to Philosophy 
Departments.

For instance, drawing together the last two things, when Kant 
introduced "Vorstellung" in the Critique of Pure Reason, which 
we translate as "representation," I don't think even he knew 
quite what he exactly meant, and it was absolutely a term of 
art (even if German itself is richer for words English renders as 
"representation," meaning he already was working with a more 
refined pallet in that particular case).  If Kant had lived to read 
P.F. Strawson, I think he would have learned a lot about what 
he had meant.

Matt

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