'For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage player, or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves than they can combine existence with non-existence'.

- Benedict de Spinoza. Political Treatise. 1677.




Saturday, July 11, 2009

on certainty 61


61. …A meaning of a word is a kind of employment of it.

For it is what we learn when the world is incorporated into our language.



a meaning of a word –

is an employment of it –

a use of it

its meaning / employment –

is always open to question –

open to doubt

the world in the absence of description –

is unknown

the world described –

is the world known

any description –

is uncertain


© greg t. charlton. 2009.