|
|
|
|
|
by panic
4203 days ago
|
|
over-analysis of language is needed when language becomes arbitrary I'm not sure I understand why over-analysis is needed. The "cloud" concept isn't entirely arbitrary. Most clouds (unless they're in a photograph or painting or being described abstractly using language) arise from the same physical processes and behave similarly (raining, darkening the sky and so on). This is how "cloud" gets its meaning in everyday language: there really is a shared phenomenon there. The error happens when we try to understand the individual physical processes underlying a particular phenomenon as part of a single object. Even though the concept of separate objects is useful in everyday life, it no longer has meaning when you start trying to decide which cloud a given raindrop belongs to. Why not just abandon the now-useless concept of cloud and start talking about the raindrops as individual entities with their own behavior? Of course, we could look closely at the raindrops and see they are made of molecules: really the concept of "raindrop" is just another useful but ultimately imprecise bit of language. And so on... |
|