Harry Hindu

Asking you to rephrase the question is "talking past each other"? Go figure. Maybe it's because you don't know how to rephrase a question if meaning i...

If any of this were true, then we'd have to revamp our ethics and convict our parents, not the others who actually cause us suffering, for our sufferi...

What about all the lives that aren't born? What about all the potential lives floating around within our groins that may provide consent to be born bu...

Have another look at my posts and you will notice several unanswered questions. Looking at your post again won't help. Why don't you try rephrasing yo...

I don't understand your point. As a matter of fact, both yours and unelightened's posts have become meaningless as you no longer seem to have the hear...

I thought I did, which is why I made the point that different strings of words can mean the same thing (refer to the same state-of-affairs), which is ...

Many people on this forum quote long-dead philosophers as if they were prophets - as if what these long-dead philosophers wrote or said is above criti...

How do we know that there was no "time" before the Big Bang? Modern scientists are talking about what happened before the Big Bang, and how the Big Ba...

It's really simply, unenlightened. If meaning is use, then telling me why you made and submitted that post (your intent) won't tell me the meaning of ...

Then how is that I can use that same string of words to confuse others?

Sure, but then how is that two different strings of words mean the same thing if meaning is use and how is it that the same string of words can mean d...

But you did confuse someone - me. If you didn't intend to confuse, then you didn't use the correct words to accomplish your goal. If your goal was to ...

I don't think there is a bottom limit. That's a question YOU need to answer, not me, as you are the one proposing that to use words as opposed to misu...

What about an "inside" joke? Isn't a joke only an "inside" joke if a certain number of people understand it's meaning? So, there are obviously instanc...

Now that two people are using those words to cause confusion, can it now be said that to use those words is to cause confusion? What is the bottom lim...

I'd use them to cause confusion. As a matter of fact, I copied the text so that I can use it to confuse someone. Now that two people are using those w...

"and" refers to the addition of other things.

Then you did use words to mean something?

Wrong. The meaning of a word is what it refers to in the world. This doesn't take into account that we can make up new meanings for words. This is wha...

Then W. is wrong. I'm not conflating, "meaning". If correct word-use is simply a consensus of word-use, then "meaning" is frequently used to refer to ...

Then how is it that I was able to understand what he means (his intent)? We can misuse words on purpose, but then are we really misusing them if we ac...

Then a "transgender" is misusing words when a male calls themselves a "female"? Well, you did use those words for a reason - no? If not, then why did ...

When a man says "I'm a woman.", are they misusing words?

This seems like an impossible situation. How would a species even survive to make it to be an all male or all female species? There are species that a...

Correcting someone is teaching them. It doesn't matter whether you, I, or God utters the sounds, "2 is a prime number.", we would all have the intenti...

I still don't see a distinction. We are still using words to refer to things. Words are things that can be talked about just as your ideas, your trip ...

I said, ancient man. None of what you said takes away from my point. Notice you couldn't say the same thing in regards to "space shuttle".

sure you can, but then you'd just be repeating sounds you've heard which people on the side of meaning-is-use say that isnt what they mean by "use".

You need to use the dictionary to look up the word, "mention". It means to refer to something. By using words, you are mentioning something. To mean w...

Read what he wrote again: Most people are already full time workers in that sense and still have time to have sex and raise a family, so no, that isn'...

I only need the terms "thought/belief" to convey to others that I have a thought/belief. I don't need the words to think about thinking, only to conve...

Sensory data is the sounds, colors, shapes, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations that appear in the mind. If we didn't equate the data as being abou...

I'm not trying to distort anything. It is you that isn't taking everything I have said into account. I can use a chair as a step-stool, which has noth...

Yeah, so far so good. Sure, if what you mean by "use" is to refer to a particular idea or thing or state-of-affairs that you intend to convey. Sure, i...

Why don't you read your own words. You even make the same distinction yourself. You can use something uselessly or in a way that is useful. Something ...

No, entities have intentions and they use words to express their intentions. No intention prior, means no use of words at all, or at least no useful, ...

Yes, thoughts are things too, which is why we can turn our thoughts on themselves - of thinking about thinking. I don't understand the last part. Why ...

This wasn't a reply to me, but I don't see a distinction between thinking and thinking about something. When thinking, it is always about stuff. If th...

We are on the same (web) page, just look at the screen! Just look at your metaphor and because your phrase could be taken to mean something else, as I...

What I said is that you can use words, but if they don't refer to anything, then they are useless and meaningless. Yes, you can use a hammer in a way ...

That's what YOU said - that you can only know something by experience - which I thought you meant by directly experiencing something as opposed to rea...

Well, yeah, it is the intent, or the goal-in-mind, that is the cause of the words being used. I don't get it. One thing is for sure is that when I dec...

How have you experienced every person on the world has a unique DNA fingerprint other than reading that to be the case by in a science journal or some...

Wrong. The goal is always in mind while using the tool. It is what keeps you using the tool, at least until the goal was accomplished. This is why we ...

It's not the same scenario as the kid because this person on the phone knows their colors and the words associated with them. This is why they picture...

Yeah, like using a tool. You use a tool to accomplish a goal, which requires intent. Again, the tool is only part of the process so it would be wrong ...

Wrong. We establish causal relations all the time that we never experience, and we make good predictions from this knowledge often. What does a crime ...

What if I have the intention to mislead? I could tell someone on the phone that these bananas here are blue. They would then picture blue bananas in t...

If W. wasn't saying that then he must be implying that there is more to meaning than simply use. So maybe we shouldn't be calling it a "meaning is use...

And I keep pointing out that if meaning were use then we could never say what we don't mean. We could never lie. But everyone on your side seems to ig...