Essay 2 - The Disambiguation of Meaning

I apologize for using such a big word, so early in these essays. But the word meaning is ambiguous. So, we must disambiguate it (or make it so that it is not ambiguous). If you look it up in the dictionary or Google it, you will find that meaning has several meanings. Which meaning of meaning are we talking about? Do you see why this gets confusing? Hang on, we will clear it all up. I should also mention that this essay is the most difficult, so I will be as clear as I can. Still, you may have to review it again if the concepts are not clear.

We will focus on three meanings of meaning which are the most common and which are most germane to advancing our understanding. Those three meanings are: 1) meaning as content; 2) meaning as inference; and 3) meaning as an emotion. With three meanings, we might ask “which one are we talking about when we ask about the meaning of life?” Or “when we talk about the meaning of life, are we talking about one, two or all three of these?” That is why the meaning of life is so hard to figure out and it bears mentioning that most of the things that seem to be hard to understand are hard to understand for the same reason (they need to be disambiguated).

Meaning as content occurs when an unambiguous message is being conveyed. For example, if you are driving by a school where children are crossing the road and the crossing guard holds up a sign that says “Stop”, you know what it means. It is unambiguous. It is not open to interpretation. However, very few messages that we receive are as unambiguous as a crossing guard holding up a stop sign.

When the content of a message is ambiguous, we need a point of reference to interpret the meaning of the message and that point of reference must be external to the message. For example, if the person holding up the stop sign was dressed in a clown costume rather than in a crossing guard uniform, you might interpret it differently. In this case, the point of reference would be the uniform or costume.

Meaning as inference occurs when we attempt to understand the meaning of something by referring to something external to it. In simple terms, the external reference point is the lens through which you interpret the content. For example, if somebody says to me, “I like your tie,” but says it in a sarcastic tone of voice, the sarcastic tone of voice is the lens through which you interpret the content. That is, they don’t really like my tie. In fact, they probably think it is hideous. Reference points can range from tone of voice or facial expression to something as complex as a worldview or ideology.

This becomes clearer with more complex messages. For example, if you read a book and ask, “what does it mean?” You are asking for an interpretation according to some external structure such as from a literary, Marxist, feminist, or humanist perspective.

Finally, meaning can be a feeling or an emotion such as “that was a meaningful experience” or “that movie was very meaningful to me”.

In the next three essays we will explain these meanings and how they are related to each other and to life before bringing it all back together again to explain the meaning of life. 

This essay is just short of 600 words and the audio is just short of 5 minutes.