Thread:User talk:Armondikov/Atheist "identity"/reply (42)

What the fuck are you on about? You get that there is no one definition for any word, right Brx? That humans define what they are talking about, given context, given participants, etc. and that no one has any right to say to any other speaker "keep your hands off my words".

Here's a thought.

You think we're all speaking "English" right now? Well, you do some language-y stuff so I assume yes.

But....

You then say we all have our own definitions based on context and ideas and, even though you disagree with Yudkowsky, you know we have our own connotations brought up by words. I mean, you dismiss some of it as mental masturbation but the whole "sneaking in connotations" post is exactly what you mean by your "pyramid" example.

So, we all have our own thoughts based on what words on used. It might differ between Alice and Bob. Some of it overlaps, some of it clashes. Overlap = good, we're talking the same thing. Clash = we disagree and get confused and have our own mini-HCM inside our own head.

So... the fact we're all speaking "English" is really an illusion caused by the fact we have more overlap than not. We both speak English, even natively, but it doesn't mean that when I say "pyramid" it conjures identical images (I've already said I think of the sport from Battlestar Galactica.). But it does mean we have more overlap than clash.

Or am I still on a different page to everyone else?