My Meaning and the Parrot's
Image: Quotes A while back I read an article titled ' My words have meaning, your parrot’s do not. Wittgenstein explains ' and commented : For me the key message of Wittgenstein's slogan 'meaning is use' is that the meaning of a word or sentence is not inherent in the word or sentence, but rather depends entirely on how the reader or listener regards, interprets or recognizes that word or phrase. We might say, defining this externally, that meaning is determined by context or community agreement. This is the approach taken in this article. And there's an element of truth to that. But there is also an element of infinite regress; at some point we have to ask what a word means for me and at that point the externally defined criteria must give way to a story about experience and recognition. Anand responded with an email and a question: When you speak of the element of infinite regress, there's an underlying assumption that words by themselves have mean
