The real problem is the total lack of communication. Like primitives who believe rocks have spirits, most people believe words have meanings. The problem is that the meaning they have in their head does not agree with the meaning that others are going by. We learn to speak by listening to others - thus we guess the meanings of words. Those guesses are often not quite what our elders meant - thus it is that "the language lives".

If you want to know what is going on, you have to be very careful. The absolute first step is to define "truth": i.e., come up with a rational procedure for the other person to determine exactly what you mean when you use the term. If we get that streight, then we may have the beginning of communication.

• Re: The real problem! - skintless - January 27, 2001 - 03:30 UTC
  • Re: Re: The real problem! - yanniru - January 27, 2001 - 18:38 UTC