Harry Hindu

I made my argument. You simply keep proving it for me. Thanks. You simply can't help yourself from using words to point to states-of-affairs. Yes, we ...

When I said that we can use words to not refer to anything, I meant like this: "shoes make donkeys beat black" Does that make any sense to you? Is tha...

Keep posting. You keep proving my point that you aren't simply using words. You continue to point to some state-of-affairs. You continue to behave in ...

Exactly. It's a behavior. Things behave in different ways make different sounds, different smells. As I said ,we simply make associations between beha...

How is that NOT referring to anything? Are you not saying that there is an actual cat ON an actual mat? Is not your visual of a cat on a mat a visual ...

I've been in discussions with you before and when a point is made that shows how wrong you are, you question the validity of the statement being made....

I have already stated that "meaning" is the causal relationship between causes and their effects. Minds, which are just sensory information processing...

Again, you refer to some state-of-affairs with your words - just like every post in this thread and every thread in this forum. The only way you can u...

of course it does. Again we are talking about getting at the ideas in the users mind, not getting at the rules. The rules are simply there in order to...

With the "Man without Words", when he finally discovered language, he wasn't surprised that there was a new game to play, or that he finally discovere...

This is a typical response from one simply wants avoid the issue. It is a simple fact that if I didnt have an inner experience of non-words nor the in...

I couldn't really care less about whether W. is a behaviorist or not. It's simply a matter of personal experience that I don't see myself as playing s...

Ridiculous. If meaning is use, then how words come to mean anything is how they are employed. People change the usage of words, therefore their meanin...

There is more to a banana that just it's color. It also has a shape that isn't the shape of a ball. It also has a particular texture. It's shape, text...

But why would I do that? My point is that words are only for communicating with others. Why would I need to communicate an idea that isn't composed of...

I would be stopping myself because when I communicate, it is my intention that others understand me. If I just used any scribble to meaning anything t...

The reason people use words is to communicate. How they use the words is what they communicate. You have an idea you want to communicate and if you do...

If the reason people use words has nothing to do with how the words come to mean, then meaning isn't use.

But that is only half the battle. What reason would you need words to mean anything? What reason would you use words at all if not to communicate thei...

But there aren't an infinite number of definitions. There are a limited amount. Again, if meaning is use, then I can use any word, or any scribble for...

Then how does one get to know and therefore use their first word if we need other words to tell us what another word means?

And if meaning were use, then why are dictionaries full of definitions rather than uses of the word? There are sentences as part of a definition, but ...

LOL. You can't have your cake and eat it too. If meaning is use, then I can use the word "meaning" in a particular way, and that is what it means. Wha...

When did W. ever address people that never learned a language? Such a case is extremely rare and strangely enough it is these extremely rare cases tha...

Exactly. That is why I mentioned that you need experience in eating yellow and black bananas.

Why stop there? Nothing would stop you from continuing on to question whether or not you even have a memory of a woman or even a memory of a word and ...

It's not necessarily a symbol. To know a banana is ripe is to see it as yellow.

As a memory - how else? Are you going to address the "Man with No Words"? He has memories to, but had no words to associate with them.

This makes no sense. The meaning of a yellow banana is that is it ripe. It's blackness means it is rotten. We don't need language to know this. We sim...

Did we cherry pick my post? I mentioned the "Man with No Words" but neither of you addressed it.

When someone uses the word "mother" when talking about their mother, how is it that your mother pops into your head in some way or another if meaning ...

What about the things we experience that aren't words? What does the yellowness of a banana mean, or it's blackness? What does a grey cloud mean? It s...

And by referring to something with your words, that is what you mean. Just pointing a finger means one thing - referring. Pointing to a chair means re...

Great. So then all animals that make sounds in social situations are also using a language. This is all well and good, but it still doesn't address th...

In other words, "hello" is just a sound we make (a social behavior) when we greet each other. We could then say that the sounds other animals make whe...

Philosophy is a science. The conclusions of one branch of the investigation of reality shouldn't contradict those of another. All knowledge must be in...

Another thing I thought about is how books are made into movies. Books are in a written language, sometimes with pictures. A movie is all moving pictu...

Yes, you can use words as a tool, but what is it that you hope to accomplish by using words as a tool? Isn't it to trigger the concepts (that aren't w...

"hello" means "I greet you". Could you use it to mean anything else? If meaning is use then we aren't referring to anything when we talk. We wouldn't ...

When translating words from another language, we aren't translating its use, we are translating its meaning, or what it is referring to.

The answer seems simple to me. If "meaning is not prior to language" is the case, then that must be the case prior to you saying it, or typing it up o...

One could point to the Big Bang as the cause of WW1 and 9/11. Everything is interconnected. The causal relationships can be complicated and extend ove...

Thinking is an action, yes, but running is a different action. So is writing, speaking, etc. - actions that require more than just your brain acting. ...

Again, thinking it isn't the same as doing it. You know you can think it, but can you do it? Imagining yourself doing something isn't the same as doin...

Exactly. Yet that is how you answered the question because you fail to admit that you don't know that you can do something until you actually do it - ...

Which is my point. You know how to think it, but how to do it requires coordination with the body.

Then that would be saying that knowing how to spell the word makes it appear on the paper, which is absurd.

I already pointed out that we can know the letters that are part of the word, and the order in which they appear, but to know how to write it, require...

Knowing how to write "cat" doesn't make the word appear on the paper. You also have to know how to move your hands and hold a pencil and then tell you...

Then you're not really getting at the meat of the OP. Do you disagree that you owe your knowing how to write, "cat" to the countless times you've done...