Did Semantics Cause Your Conflict?
- The Meaning of a Word is more than a dictionary definition
- Our life experience shapes the meaning of words
- Some words or phrases are ambiguous
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| Ludwig Wittgentstein |
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the 20th century philosopher, famously said, “ If a lion could speak, we would not understand what he said... I can't understand a lion's language because I don't know what his world is like.” (It is dramatized in a 4 minute video here.)
The world Wittgenstein meant is the world of experience. Our experiences form our worldview, our reality.
He didn't mean that a lion would speak in some foreign tongue, but that whatever words or phrases the lion used, he could not convey the idea or experience he was trying to describe.
The way a lion runs, hunts, catches prey, eats and mates are beyond our experience. If a lion talked about any of these activities, how could we understand him? We would have no shared context, no frame of reference.
Consider the lion running. We don’t have 4 legs. Any terms relating to the interaction between the front and rear legs would be meaningless. We can give any word a literal definition, a denotation, but that does not mean that we truly understand the meaning of that word.
Most of us can’t know the world that people experience that may have certain disabilities. How could we explain phonics to a deaf person? Colors to a blind person?
We may not understand the world of another person that grew up in poverty, in wealth, in an alcoholic household or in another foreign culture and/or environment. Consequently, we might not understand the intended meanings of particular words or phrases from that person.
Consider the following examples:
Alcoholism is a Disease
Two people may agree on the series of events that led their friend, Jerry, to become an alcoholic. They can agree that Jerry was irresponsible and indulged in excess drinking due to a lack of self control, which eventually led him to become an alcoholic . But when Gail states Jerry has the disease of alcoholism, Tom bristles and wants no more of the conversation.
When Tom was a young boy, his mother contracted cancer, and died about a year later. The loss of Tom’s mother was traumatic. It was explained to him that his mother died of a deadly disease. She didn’t do anything wrong. She was a victim of the hand of fate.
To Tom, equating a condition brought on by lifestyle to the fatal disease that killed his mother is an abomination. The idea that a “disease” as an unfair condition that affects an innocent victim has been imprinted into Tom’s psyche. The dictionary definition of “disease” doesn’t fit into Tom’s worldview.
Sometimes, It is Just the Definition
Your friend enthusiastically tells you that according to Integrated Information Theory, a thermostat may have consciousness. You think the idea is preposterous and dismiss it, which immediately deflates your friend's enthusiasm and ends the conversation.
But do you really disagree with what was just said? The whole issue could be about how you define 'consciousness'.
There are Three Basic Meanings of Consciousness as stated in the article of the same name by Gregg Henriques Ph.D. Those meanings are:
1) functional awareness of the external environment
2) subjective experience
3) explicit self-consciousness awareness
By definition #1, of course a thermostat exhibits consciousness. It has to have a functional awareness of temperature, or it can't do it's job.
By definition #3, the idea is absurd.
The ambiguity of the word 'consciousness' was recognized by Gregg Henriques, which is why he the wrote the article.
Other Quick Examples
Unlike 'consciousness', a recognized ambiguous word, other common words or terms can also be misinterpreted and cause disagreements. When that happens, semantics has caused the disagreement, not the idea or concept. Following are some examples of misunderstood common words:
Mediocre literally means average, but most people interpret it as below average.
Ego often refers to a level of self esteem and confidence. To psychologists, it can refer to the entirety of one’s adaptive self, including being shy or fearful.
To a person from a small town or rural area, a highway might mean a 2-lane country road. To somebody from Los Angeles, it can mean the freeway.
Psychosomatic refers to physical condition caused or aggravated by a mental condition, such as stress causing high blood pressure. People tend to associate anything psychosomatic with a person being a hypochondriac.
Conclusion
An awareness of semantics can prevent unnecessary misunderstandings, which can lead to conflicts in your personal, emotional and professional life.
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