@qualia,
qualia;169865 wrote:Is it conceivable to imagine that what is being argued is perhaps the signified (meaning) of the signifier (the symbol, word, sound, image), although it may sometimes refer to referents (things), is more an abstraction (concept) in the mind. So signifieds are not things, but at best the notion of things. In this manner, one could now argue that signs per se (signifier/signified) are themselves vehicles for abstraction. So much so, that a large part of human behaviour is about the way we perform towards our abstractions (conceptions). If I say 'My beautiful rose', one does not reach out to smell it as though I had introduced it.
This is good. And I also argue that things as things are already abstractions, even while also having a sensual aspect. The sensual aspect is unified by a projected abstraction. We see reality in terms of things. But
things as things and not just sensation
are conceptual unities. We see the world in terms of universals. We project universals on sensation. That's my argument. We don't see just color. We see things. At times, we can focus on the color. Perhaps painters are especially good at dwelling on sensation, and refining their aesthetic response to pure sensation. Obviously , they are also concerned with form. But this too is an aspect of sensation.
---------- Post added 05-29-2010 at 04:57 PM ----------
kennethamy;169825 wrote:Would you please give an example (or even two!) of such assertions? I must have missed them. In any case, has anyone, to your knowledge actually asserted that words are identical with what they represent? Instance? This very much looks to me like a straw man.
The fundamental reality is matter, or energy, or mind, etc. etc. The whole concept of the "fundamental reality" is an abstraction. And somewhat absurd, even if also attractive in its way.
If we are going to play the fundamental game, I think that this game is best played by breaking reality down to
sensation, emotion, conception. But all of these are conceptions, for we on this forum are operating primarily within
that aspect of reality. "Reality" is one of the master abstractions that attempt to unify
everything. Now that's almost tautologous, because we have quite a collection of such concepts, and it's such an abstract concept that its hard to narrow down, which is the
point of it. The set of all sets. Abstractions are something like sets.
The television is a set of sensations, expectations, causal relations, associated emotions. Philosophy is another such set, and it has a different living meaning for everyone, presumably.