You fail to distinguish between subjective and objective meaning. The former - the feeling that something is meaningful, even if it actually isn't - is what you're talking about. The latter - actual, encoded meaning, an exclusive property of symbols - is what I'm talking about.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
But can't people wrongly believe that they are doing something meaningful? If so then this kind of meaning isn't just a matter of feeling.
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Replying to @SpencerJayCase
Again, you're confusing interpreted (subjective) meaning with imbued (objective) meaning.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
I am not confusing anything. If people can feel that their activities are meaningful and be wrong, then there is an objective component.
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Replying to @SpencerJayCase
Yes, there is an objective component, which is what I told you at the start. A person believing something has meaning does not give it an objective, universal, definite-article meaning, which is the kind of meaning asked in the question "what is THE meaning of life".
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
The goalpost seems to be moving. At first meanings were only properties of symbols. Then objective meaning only applied to symbols, etc.
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Replying to @SpencerJayCase
You're getting close to being blocked. Universal meaning IS an exclusive property of symbols. The objective meaning of a word is based on dictionary definitions, not on what you personally think it means.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
Last thing from me: when pple make substantial claims about the meaning of life, they intend claims that can't be settled by dictionaries.
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Replying to @SpencerJayCase
I didn't say that they did. I used dictionary definitions as an example of definite-article meaning. You claim to be a PhD student, so I would have expected you to know what a straw man argument is.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
I really mean no offense. Sometimes it's hard to grasp a subtle position on this medium.
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I understand. I could've been a bit clearer also. It's easy to get agitated at misunderstandings on Twitter, as there's a tendency to assume people are being deliberately difficult. Easy to forget that it's really Twitter that's difficult.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
If we ever get a chance to discuss this over a beer let's do and resume then.
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