CONTRADICTION IN LANGUAGE IS ONLY IMPORTANT WHEN NON CORRESPONDENT WITH REALITY

CONTRADICTION IN LANGUAGE IS ONLY IMPORTANT WHEN NON CORRESPONDENT WITH REALITY OR MORALITY

I love how people who play at philosophy seek a contradiction in language before they seek correspondence in reality.

Find correspondence in reality, then reframe the statement, but do not try to make reality conform to a statement.

We don’t speak in operational terms (true names), we speak in analogies to experience (meaning). It’s just too costly to do otherwise.

So seek correspondence, then test the language for precision in describing what exists. If instead you try to construct what exists from mere meaning you will convince yourself that you’re cunning while demonstrating just the opposite.

And, as a defense against your own use of imprecise and meaningful terms, make sure you can describe any concept you refer to on a spectrum from the least of it to the most of it. English is rich with precision. use it. Most often you are using an ideal type rather than a point on a spectrum. It’s this imprecision that is often the cause of conflation and consequent confusion.

sigh…