Meaning: What Happens When the Meaning Meets the Macadam 


The phenomenology of going somewhere or looking for something. 

We spend a lot of our time going somewhere or looking for something. I think we can gain a lot of clarity about a kind of meaning by reflecting on this process.

The meaning of which I speak may or may not be borne by verbal language. What happens when people hear or read words or sentences that they know? For one thing, the hopefully not too obvious fact that the meaning in question is called to mind. If I say 'palabra' and you don't speak Spanish, we both hear the same sound, but the meaning 'word' is called to my mind and not to yours. Point being that the phenomenon of understanding occurs in the mind, the meaning-bearing word occurs in the constructed world of perception. How do we get clear on the meaning of the word? One formal way is to offer a definition of the word, another is to give examples and counterexamples of that to which we refer. Wittgenstein did a lot of thinking about how words are used, and different senses of a word's meaning, which is still a third approach to getting clear on meaning.

Now skip over to a different meaning context: going somewhere you have been before with the intention of getting there. This is a meaningful activity that may or may not be verbal language assisted. Let's take the fact that I am sitting at my desk, but am thinking of going downstairs to the kitchen. I've done this thousands of times. The easy, but too-simple analysis of this situation is that in my mind I have a picture of what's in the kitchen, a picture of something that I am going to do down there, and a "map" (disjointed sequence of intervening images) of how to get there. And let's not overlook the range of possible actions of my limbs, tactile-kinesthetic anticipations. However, over-simplified as it may be, the fact remains that phenomenological reflection on my mental processes prior to and during going downstairs to the kitchen will reveal something like this happening. I would simply add that the "pictures of the kitchen" in my mind bear a lot more resemblance to one of David Hockney's photo-collages than they do to any rigidly three-dimensional construct.

We do have a language that we can use to communicate about going somewhere and doing something. Thus I can say to Stephen: "How about going downstairs and making some green tea for us?" He understands me, and often complies (not that I don't make tea, too). However, I think it is simply misleading to think that Stephen uses much verbal language in complying with the request. He has his own mental set of "maps," visual collages, and anticipatory movements and sensations. Or, what is even more interesting, Stephen claims to not be a particularly visual individual, and has a hard time visualizing things. So maybe all he has is a lot of tactile-kinesthetic anticipations and a few vague shape-like forms. Who knows, I could ask.

So now step into the metaphor in the title. We are driving somewhere. We want to get somewhere, and we know where we are going. The meaning is meeting the macadam. You do the work. You see signs, houses, intersections, stop for traffic lights, avoid reckless drivers, check out the scenery a bit. Sometimes you know the way so well you are on automatic pilot. Other times, you have to keep your attention on where you are, and remember where to turn, where to watch for speed traps and the like. And when you see your destination finally emerging from the distance, you're there. No one but you has your experience, though other drivers, riders and pedestrians may see you doing some things on your way there. But they don't see your experience, your maps, your flashes of anticipated sensations, in a word, your awareness, your meaning.

Your meaning isn't out there in the world for them to see. Here's how they get to it. They can use analogical inference based on their own searching and finding meaning structures. They can ask you or someone else about what you might be doing, even help you to go where you want to. In every carload of people, there are equally as many constructed worlds and constructed paths to the destination.

Now here's one point of all this possibly obvious reflection. When you are going somewhere, all you have in the present moment is your perceptual construct of where you are at that moment, and the meaning you give to it as a sign of perceptual constructs to come. It is the meaning that makes the perceptual construct something other than a word that you don't understand.

It is the meaning that makes your experience real to you, or even more accurately, the meaning is you making your experience. The meaning is in your mind. Your mind is on the world, but not in it like a rock. Where is your mind? That's a bit like asking "Where is the Universe?" No one can give a good answer to that question, but it doesn't stop us from living here. Likewise, no one can give a good answer to the question "Where is your mind?" but that doesn't stop us from using it.  

Posted: Sat - June 10, 2006 at 09:11 AM          

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