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How Do Words Get Their Meaning? | The Meaning of Meaning

How Do Words Get Their Meaning? | The Meaning of Meaning

Published 1 week, 2 days ago
Description
How do words get their meaning?

Settle into The Meaning of Meaning, a thoughtful sleep story about the moment a sound becomes a name, a name becomes an idea, and the world begins to make sense.

The evening star shines in the west after sunset and the morning star in the east before dawn. They carry different names, though both are the planet Venus. Beside a honeysuckle-covered well-house, cold water runs over Helen Keller's hand while Anne Sullivan spells a word into the other.

Tonight we follow the question of meaning through the lives and ideas of people who tried to understand it.

Frege wonders how two names can tell us something new. Ogden and Richards talk late into the night on a Cambridge staircase. Wittgenstein watches what words do, while philosophers in India ask how a whole thought can arrive through sounds that disappear.

Along the way, we meet Peirce's signs, Xunzi's names, familiar words that turn strange with repetition, and the everyday things that give a life meaning.

The journey ends at the quiet well-house, where the pump is still and nothing needs naming before morning.

You don't need to find the right words tonight. Let the story keep you company as you settle down to rest.

This sleep story is told slowly and gently for sleep, relaxation and quiet late-night listening.

Explore The Idea of Ideas series:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd5WzOPdClFY

Listen to more Sleep Stories from the Pioneers:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRypv-XVJDZk

Explore Sleep Stories from the Pioneers:

https://pioneersofhumanbehaviour.com/sleep-stories/

Support the project:

https://ko-fi.com/pioneersofhumanbehaviour

Sleep well. 🌙

Stories to fall asleep to. Ideas worth waking up with.
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