The MEANING of Meaning (if not Life)
A difference that Makes a
DIFFERENCE is the stripped down
linguistic definition of
MEANING, at least if you are in the field
of Phonology and trying to record the minimal pairs & sound
distinctions that carry significance in any language: like
the
difference between “bitter” & “better” say: the difference between
location at the front of
the mouth: the vowel formally known as
/i/ a bit higher than almost the same sound as /e/ but carrying
a distinction that lets us
differentiate between the meaning of
“bit” and a “bet” as well
as the “bitter” and the “better.”.
But what I wanted to say
is this: it’s the same minimal pairing
and
reduced
distinction-drawing that allows us to say the
difference
between right and wrong,
correct and error. MEANING in fact is a
ratio—yes? The play of
error and correctitude, right & wrong getting
it on is what gives us our
meaning of meanings: random and order
rolling in the hey! ouch!
somabitch! & where they crash, collide,
collapse, and confuse:
right there is our field of meaning-making, true?
Help me out: how do you
guys define MEANING in your discipline
if not in terms of some
PLAY of accurate & opps right-on and damnit!
and the idea at least
taxonomically is to Get IT down to the merest
difference that makes a
difference, the R.C.H. tolerance, say, by which
the most subtle of
discerners can SEE what distinguishes THIS from
almost-the-same-but-not-the-same
THAT and is able —when, with
a mess of folks dismayed and wondering “Well, how do we Draw the
Line for heaven’s sake,” like you hear
so often: “Where do we
draw the line and who’s to say?”— one like you—versed in
the liberal
art of distinction drawing,
polarizing, arguing-out, characterizing and
then relating—to raise your hand, both hands, and declare: ME!
I’m to say. I’ll draw the line for you if you like on the one hand or on
the other hand help you out of your confusion. I went to Liberal ART
school. So I know how.”
Like O'Connor, no one is safe with you. :)
ReplyDeleteShe's a hero. my error--she and Gregory Bateson--6th generation atheist--biologist, anthropologist, systems and information theorist, worked with dolphins, addicts, schizophrenics. Last book: "Fools Rush In:Toward an Epistemology of the Sacred.
DeleteDon't know how "my error:" slipped in there. I read all she wrote, taught classes on her--and even tried to imitate her wise-guy irreverent conversational style
Delete.