Concept and language

December 31, 2012 at 9:39 am (Uncategorized)

Considered as signified and sign, thought and language can be treated as the same thing, and it almost becomes irrelevant whether one talks about the one or the other.  There are all sorts of cautions that are put on this (maps and territory, logic and metaphysics) but here is another one: language and thought do not serve the same end. Language, since it signifies a placitu or by convention, is a public resource we use, like roads or the electric grid (and this remains true even when we use it for private ends).  The concept is the soul becoming another without doubling it (?!?), but more to the point, it is a personal act, and the action is integrally related to the dignity of the person precisely as a person or individual.

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