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Ultimate meaning

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Then I'll add some content to it.

Is the "ultimate meaning" actually devoid of any meaning?

Is the answer that there is no answer?

Is life nothing more than death?
 
the first sound that came to mind was "Sam", pronounced more like "Som".. a slightly longer, more relaxed "ah", but spelled Sam.
 
twin earth

hilary putnam said:
We begin by supposing that elsewhere in the universe there is a planet exactly like earth in virtually all respects, which we refer to as ‘Twin Earth’. (We should also suppose that the relevant surroundings [are exactly the same as for] earth; it revolves around a star that appears to be exactly like our sun, and so on.) On Twin Earth there is a Twin equivalent of every person and thing here on Earth. The one difference between the two planets is that there is no water on Twin Earth. In its place there is a liquid that is superficially identical, but is chemically different, being composed not of H2O, but rather of some more complicated formula which we abbreviate as ‘XYZ’. The Twin Earthlings who refer to their language as ‘English’ call XYZ ‘water’. Finally, we set the date of our thought experiment to be several centuries ago, when the residents of Earth and Twin Earth would have no means of knowing that the liquids they called ‘water’ were H2O and XYZ respectively. The experience of people on Earth with water, and that of those on Twin Earth with XYZ would be identical.
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Putnam argues that "meaning aint in the head" since earth's h2o is essentially different to twinearth's xyz. He goes on to ask, what if a little bit of h2o got onto twinearth and a little bit of xyz got onto earth, would the inhabitants of each point at it and call it "water"?

mods add poll please:
-the meaning of the two liquids are different because of their molecular difference
-the meaning of the two liquids are the same for their functional role in both worlds
 
Dedbeet said:
If you can't contribute, complain. If you can't even do that... moderate (chuckling)...
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Then why aren't you modding yet?

alasdairm said:
if my posts annoy you, perhaps you annoy my posts.

alasdair
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If you get angry with someone "crapping on our forum", then be a mod (again) and give him an infraction. Isn't he simply asking that in his first post?
 
I'll close this, if you actually want to discuss the twin-earth thing start a new thread and I'll add a poll.
 
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