Gary F., List,
I like this topic. Maybe "essence" is the meaning of a thing, and a thing does not have a meaning by itself ("There is no thing in itself", who said that?), but a meaning attached to a thing, such as a Saussurian word, merely exists as a structural part of a system (like a language). And the knowledge, that such a structural part, a general meaning, is not for granted and not necessarily universal, perhaps is the said "emptiness". So "meaning" originally is not two-valued, it only appears so, in the context of a system, by not regarding the system as such, but by taking it intuitively for granted. This is a downside of intuition, not seeing the system one is used to, commonly referred to as "operational blindness".
By reading "meaning" closely, that is, not taking any system for granted, "meaning" becomes three-valued: Something first means something second for someone or something third- exclusively so in the first place.
To take this starting point should not lead to nominalism though: That a meaning is not necessarily universal, does not mean, that there are no general meanings provided by the universe: Of course there are, such as natural laws. But there are also many general (or quasi-general) meanings provided by non-universal systems, such as species, cultures, languages. To call them empty, might that mean, to see, that they are not for granted, and that you cannot rely on them in a universal way? Because philosophy and religion, and something between or being both, like Buddhism, always is looking for universal matters.
Best
Helmut
15. Juni 2022 um 15:10 Uhr
g...@gnusystems.ca
wrote:
g...@gnusystems.ca
wrote:
List,
The ongoing updating of points in my online book Turning Signs has generated another mini-essay, this time connecting texts from Buddhist philosophy, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, biology and even physics with Peircean semiotic/logic and phaneroscopy. It may be difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with some of the above, but I’ve included some hyperlinks to contexts that may help to elucidate the terms and concepts involved. I hope it’s not too eclectic to be useful. Anyway it’s at Closure and Disclosure (TS ·10) .
Gary f.
Coming from the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg
} Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve. [Wheeler] {
https://gnusystems.ca/wp/ }{ Turning Signs
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