Re: Different words for the same thing?

From: William Benzon (bbenzon@mindspring.com)
Date: Thu 20 Mar 2003 - 16:19:41 GMT

  • Next message: Gudmundur Ingi Markusson: "Re: Different words for the same thing?"

    on 3/20/03 10:02 AM, Grant Callaghan at grantc4@hotmail.com wrote:

    > I don't know what "meaning" means to you, much less what you think it means
    > to Freeman. I know you haven't used the computer virus analogy, but it has
    > been used in these discussions and it is a moderately specific notion. I
    > used it to indicate that THAT is NOT what Freeman means. As for what
    > Freeman does mean by "meaning," that is not explained easily.
    >
    > You really need to read his technical work to get a handle on that. His
    > abstracts do not adequately convey what he means.
    >
    > BB
    >
    > If you know more about what he means by what he says, perhaps you could
    > enlighten us by stating the meaning of meaning (as Freeman means the word)
    > more clearly. The place where I got that statement was from a glossary of
    > terms with special meanings in Neurodynamics "An Exploration In Mesoscopic
    > Brain Dynamics" (2000, Springer-Verlag)
    >
    > Grant
    >

    I'm not sure what you're talking about here. I own that book and it doesn't have a glossary. I also own *Societies of Brains*, which does have a glossary. And that glossary has a definition for "meaning": "the location of a focus of intentional relations; a part of a trajectory traced by chaotic dynamics in the brain." If you want to know what that definition means, then you're going to have to do some reading. I suggest you start with his book *How Brains Make Up Their Minds.*

    Unfortunately this is not something I can explain in a paragraph or two. If you really want to know what Freeman things, then you're going to have to do some reading in his work.

    Bill Benzon

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