Let’s talk about meaning

A few days ago I received a note from my grandson J. J said he had decided to join the Army Reserves. At that moment there developed a new connection between the Iraq war and me. At that moment the Iraq war became meaningful to me in a way far different from what it might have been before.

Meaning happens when there develops a confluence of emotion and knowledge such that a domain of knowledge becomes part of me. Meaning happens when a domain of knowledge becomes a vital part of me.

I witness on TV a mother crying because her son is missing; I immediately resonate with a feeling that is somewhat like that of the mother, I sympathize with that mother. I do not need to go to any effort to place myself into the shoes of that mother.

But suppose I see on TV a mother proudly embracing the death of her son, the suicide bomber. Empathy can happen when I try to create an analogy in my imagination that will allow me to understand what another person feels. To understand that mother I must make a significant effort to place myself into the shoes of that mother. If I am successful I can then say I understand that mother.

Understanding is the creation of meaning; it is a subjective happening when there develops a confluence of emotion and knowing that might be regarded as a tipping point. It happens in a moment and often only after a good bit of effort. We know many things but understand only a few.

Our schools and colleges teach us what to know but seldom have anything to say about understanding. In our world of production and consumption understanding is a luxury that we must work at to achieve.

Question for discussion

Do you experience things that I call understanding or do you think that understanding and meaning are something entirely different from what I have defined here?

experience is what makes understanding.

wow

wow

is a nice game, I agree.

Do you experience things that I call understanding or do you think that understanding and meaning are something entirely different from what I have defined here?

What I think you're doing is forgetting to take into account the varying degrees of "understanding" and "meaning".

One can, for example, "understand" how to lay brick to create a wall. Conceptually, it's a pretty simple thing, and so the "meaning" of building a brick wall is also pretty simple.

But when you try to lay the damned bricks in the mortar, and keep the bricks all lined up properly, vertically and horizontally, the "meaning" of laying brick takes on a whole new "understanding".

Baron Max

Coberst:

I have, in fact, had an interesting connection to this.

Recently, I finally saw the 1983 film of Gandi's life, aptly entitled "Gandhi". You know, the one with Benjamin Kingsley.

Anyway, in the scenes where he is starving himself repeatedly, the meaning of the protest was felt especially keenly on account of the fact that I have felt how awful it is to fast. One time, I decided simply not to eat for around a week and the pain during the end was quite pronounced.

In essence, I experienced the Baron Max-esque "brick laying". Without which, I would not have understood Gandhi's struggle as vividly.

Understanding usually can only come from experience. How you define experience could be the question.

Right now you are still only imagineing what the mother feels like. Yes you are more able to now that your grandson threw in for his country, however you STILL don't really know what it feels like. You cannot understand it fully until it actually happens to you.

Coberst:

I have, in fact, had an interesting connection to this.

Recently, I finally saw the 1983 film of Gandi's life, aptly entitled "Gandhi". You know, the one with Benjamin Kingsley.

Anyway, in the scenes where he is starving himself repeatedly, the meaning of the protest was felt especially keenly on account of the fact that I have felt how awful it is to fast. One time, I decided simply not to eat for around a week and the pain during the end was quite pronounced.

In essence, I experienced the Baron Max-esque "brick laying". Without which, I would not have understood Gandhi's struggle as vividly.

Good example.

I think that there are many ways to gain understanding which I define as creating meaning. I have often heard professors say that you never really know a subject until you try to teach it. I think that this is the type of effort required to reach understanding.

It is my opinion that many people never experience understanding in an intellectual matter. This is true because our schools and colleges never bother with understanding, and knowledge is all that is necessary in our production and consumption world.

I suspect that many people never work hard enough at an intellectual matter to reach understanding because it is not required for the normal mundane existence in which we live. The only opportunity one has to develop understanding in intellectual matters will come after their school days are over and they become self-actualizing self-learners.

Becker speaks of humans as meaning creating people. We humans live in our artificial world of symbols to which we give meaning and then these symbols take on great importance.