WORDS
or
LANGUAGE, WORDS AND METAPHYSICS
ANIL MITRA PHD, COPYRIGHT © July 2003
CONTENTS
PLANS 2
WORD SYSTEMS 2
DOCUMENTS TO INTEGRATE, OTHER SOURCES 3
INTRODUCTION 3
General Considerations 3
Detailed Systems 3
Plan for detailed systems 3
Outline and Plan for Words 3
1 SUBSTANCE ONTOLOGY 4
1.1 Substance Ontology 4
1.2 Agents, mind… and metaphysics 4
1.2.1 Experience, attitude and agency as
characterizing ‘dimensions’ of mind 4
1.2.2 Communication 4
1.3 Examples of some word forms 4
1.4 Materialism 5
1.4.1 An Agent-Metaphysics 5
2 LANGUAGE 6
2.1 Propositions 6
2.2 Speech Acts 6
2.3 Words, Meaning, and the Subject-Predicate form 6
2.3.1 Syntax, Grammar 6
Plans: Alternative Syntax 6
2.3.2 Words 6
2.4 Word Play 6
2.4.1 Sound, sign, context and symbol 6
2.4.2 Use, practice and paradigm 6
2.4.3 Language, languages and linguistics 6
2.4.4 Metaphysical possibility 6
2.5 Common Word Plays 6
2.5.1 Being at play in the field of the real 6
2.5.2 Sentences as words 6
2.5.3 Compounding of words 7
2.5.4 Word stems: concept and use 7
2.5.5 Standard or common stems, affixes and inflections 7
2.6 Linguistics 7
2.7 Philosophy of language 8
2.8 Philosophy of language, central concerns –
what are they and what should they be: 8
2.8.1 Mental aspects of language 8
2.8.2 Language and the world 8
2.8.3 Language mechanisms 8
3 ALTERNATIVE METAPHYSICS 10
3.1 Construction of metaphysics: local and universal metaphysics 10
3.2 Systems in which there are no elementary objects 10
3.3 Systems in which there are no absolute objects 10
3.4 Systems in which mind is fundamental 10
3.5 On the authenticity of local metaphysics 10
3.6 A Fundamental Principle of Metaphysics 10
3.6.1 The Word ‘Nothing’ and Alternatives 10
3.6.2 Basis in the Latest Science? 10
3.6.3 Basis in Metaphysical Argument 11
3.6.4 Basis in Being 11
Plan: Explore Words for Alternative Metaphysics 11
4 BEING WORDS 12
4.1 … essential words for basic Metaphysics 12
4.2 A system of Being Words 12
4.2.1 Some Words 12
4.2.2 Alternate Words 12
4.2.3 Generators 12
4.2.4 Concepts 12
4.2.5 Sources 12
4.3 Some issues of use and the ontological status
of objects 12
4.3.1 A solution to the metaphysical dilemma 12
4.4 Comment on being at play in the field of the
evolution of language 12
Plan for Being Words 13
4.5 Being words are among the fundamental 13
4.6 What is the basis of Being words? 13
4.7 An a-material Agent metaphysics 13
4.7.1 Introduction 13
4.7.2 The a-material agent metaphysics 13
4.8 The problems of the Agent-Metaphysics 13
Plan for Agent-Metaphysics words 13
5 BASIC WORDS 14
5.1 The concept 14
Plan for being and basic words 14
Some plans for basic words 14
5.2 Key ideas for basic words 14
5.2.1 Word, concept and object 14
5.2.2 Metaphysics 14
5.2.3 Word 14
5.2.4 Concept and object 14
5.3 The implementation 14
5.4 Topics and Words to be Explained 14
5.4.1 Metaphysics 14
5.4.2 Language and Metaphysics 14
5.4.3 Language and Logic 14
5.4.4 Language 15
5.4.5 Elements of Language 15
5.4.6 Grammar and Syntax 15
5.4.7 Sentences - parts of speech 15
5.4.8 Semantics 16
5.5 Linguistics glossary 16
Sources and plans for language and linguistics 16
5.5.1 Concepts – linguistics 16
5.5.2 Thoughts – language 16
Additional Plans for basic words 16
Plan: develop and mesh the following with being words 17
6 MIND WORDS 18
6.1 Introduction 18
6.2 Theory: words for the study and philosophy of mind 18
6.2.1 Metaphysics and theory 18
6.2.2 Aspects of Mind 18
6.2.3 Biological Aspects 20
6.2.4 Artificial Intelligence 20
6.2.5 Scientific Aspects 20
6.3 Description: words that are used to communicate
mental function 20
Plan: words descriptive of mental state 20
6.3.1 Cognition and attitude 20
6.3.2 perceiving qualities, sensing 20
6.3.3 perceiving objects, perception 21
6.3.4 conceiving, thinking 21
6.4 Feeling and experience 22
6.4.1 experience 22
6.4.2 alertness 22
6.5 Emotion 22
6.5.1 simple emotions 22
6.5.2 other emotions, mental states
characterized by emotionality 22
6.5.3 mood 22
6.6 Agency 22
6.6.1 willing or conation 22
6.6.2 acting 22
6.7 Being 22
6.8 Integration and personality 22
6.8.1 dynamics 22
6.8.2 neurosis 22
6.8.3 personality factors 22
6.8.4 gestalt 22
7 KNOWLEDGE WORDS 23
7.1 Preliminary 23
Some Plans for Knowledge Words 23
7.2 Knowledge Words of a general nature 23
7.3 Functions 23
7.3.1 Cognition 23
7.3.2 Emotion 23
7.3.3 Motivation 23
7.3.4 Intuition 23
7.4 Degrees of Certainty 23
7.5 Modes of Expression and Communication 23
7.5.1 General communication 23
7.5.2 Action - stylized as/for communication 23
7.5.3 Iconic Expression or Depiction 23
7.5.4 Language 23
7.5.5 Para-verbal 23
7.5.6 Combined symbolic and iconic 23
7.6 Specialized Knowledge Words 24
7.7 Innate Knowledge 24
7.7.1 Innate Knowledge - Human 24
7.7.2 Innate Knowledge - Species 24
7.7.3 Innate Knowledge - Physical, Ultimate 24
7.8 The Object of Knowledge 24
7.9 Relation Between Mind and World 24
7.9.1 How the world presents or appears in knowledge 24
7.10 World Constitution - Relation to Mind 24
7.10.1 World is "made" of knowledge categories 24
7.10.2 Realism - world exists independently of knowledge 24
7.11 Theories of truth 24
7.12 Traditional 24
7.13 Deflationary 24
Plans for the second part of Knowledge Words 25
8 TRANSFORMATION WORDS 26
8.1 Seeing 26
8.2 Doing 29
8.3 Being 31
8.4 Other 34
LATEST REVISION AND COPYRIGHT 35
PLANS
Long term plan 3
Plan for detailed systems 3
Outline and Plan for Words 3
Plans: Alternative Syntax 6
Plan: Explore Words for Alternative Metaphysics 11
Plan for Being Words 13
Plan for Agent-Metaphysics words 13
Plan for being and basic words 14
Some plans for basic words 14
Sources and plans for language and linguistics 16
Additional Plans for basic words 16
Plan: develop and mesh the following with being words 17
Plan: words descriptive of mental state 20
Some Plans for Knowledge Words 23
Plans for the second part of Knowledge Words 25
WORD SYSTEMS
Word System 1. Categories and Generators 3
Word System 2. Words for Linguistics 7
Word System 3. Philosophy of Language 8
Word System 4. Nothingness 10
Word System 5. Alternative Metaphysics 11
Word System 6. Some Being Words 12
Word System 7. Agent-Object Metaphysics 13
Word System 8. A Set of Basic Words 17
Word System 9. Mind Words 18
Word System 10. Knowledge Words: Concepts 23
Word System 11. Knowledge Words
Systems for the disciplines and practical arts 25
Word System 12. Transformation Words. Seeing,
Doing, Being and other Transformation Words 26
DOCUMENTS TO INTEGRATE, OTHER SOURCES
Long term plan
Long term: study languages
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of Words is to list a set of words adequate to the purposes of Journey in Being. Language is a window on reality or, more accurately, a window on reality as known to the bearers of language. A second, implicit and related purpose is to formulate principles – critical and imaginative – by which such a list may be formulated
Journey in Being has a number of levels – from the personal to the universal and it includes the human “enterprise” of being and of knowledge. Thus the purpose of Words is to write principles for formulation of a system of “words” adequate to the being and knowledge “purpose.”
What is the purpose behind the purpose? It is not that such a list would be a complete specification of the possibilities of the Journey or of a metaphysics. Rather, such a list would be a contribution toward such purposes that would need supplement and correction according to occasions. Additionally, I expect to learn about the Journey, the world and metaphysics by study of linguistic possibility and the relation between word and world – between language, metaphysics and metaphysical possibility
It is clear that, regarded as a formal or logical task, the formulation and specification of a complete list of words is difficult if not impossible. The best that can be hoped for is to have a partial list that is otherwise open and would be adjusted to the needs as they arise. The purpose includes but is not primarily focused on the formal aspects of the enterprise
General Considerations
Accordingly, Words begins with a standard western metaphysics, the substance ontology, and its relation to a standard western form of truth expression, the subject-predicate form of the proposition or assertion. This is immediately generalized to the variety of kinds of speech act regarded as relation between word [or mind] and world. This system has a number of limitations which are considered next
On the side of metaphysics, I consider other metaphysical systems in which certain narrowing assumptions of the substance ontology are relinquished. On the side of language, I consider that thought is not restricted to language as conventionally understood and that the relationship between language and metaphysics is not as tight as may have been presupposed in the development based on the substance ontology. To some extent this is anticipated by allowing kinds of speech act beyond the proposition. Implicit here, since the other kinds of speech act are not directly about the world, is the consideration that not all meanings and uses can be specified by a dictionary, i.e., a listing of words and the ‘objects’ to which they refer. Some words have no direct referents but have effects upon the listener; language is also a vehicle of communication. Additionally, any system of words, regardless of its rational basis is in some ways no more than suggestive – formal language is [analogous to] a growing axiomatic system; this is because any actual system of metaphysics cannot pretend to completeness and because language, again, as usually understood, is not the only vehicle of thought. Is language [or its possibilities] adequate to the possibilities of thought, thought adequate to the possibilities of metaphysics and metaphysics adequate to the possibilities and actualities of being?
The standard metaphysics suggests a basic set of words and the alternative considerations suggest additions and refinements. The working out of a basic set requires some elaborations of metaphysics and occasions
Detailed Systems
Variety is built up by considering a variety of occasions
Plan for detailed systems
Plan for detailed systems
Eliminate this section
Gather all ideas and execute – including the following
Word System 1. Categories and Generators
WORDS AND THEIR GENERATORSBASIC / BEING WORDS
Word categories, parts of speech – elements of metaphysics, e.g
Substance Ontology
A system of Being Words [see]
What is the basis of Being words?
Syntax – metaphysical possibility
Existence – being, becoming
Alternate systems
USE [fills in details, the practical side of theory for basic / being words]
Survival
Growth… culture, exploration… growth into all being
MIND WORDS
Generators of mind words
Mind Words: Words for the study and philosophy of mind | Words that are used to communicate mental function
Quality
Knowledge and concepts of knowledge
Vision and transformation
TRANSFORMATION WORDS
The system of Experiments in Transformation of Being
SYSTEMS OF KNOWLEDGE
Formal systems – including descriptions, specifications of informal systems
Content and theory or concepts
Practical arts
Outline and Plan for Words
Outline and Plan for Words
Change this section title to “Outline;” eliminate the heading in “Plan” MS Word-Style
Words begins with the substance ontology and its relation to the subject-predicate form of the proposition. The five standard forms of speech act are introduced as functions of propositional content and illocutionary force. Various interpretations of the substance ontology are considered. This system forms a foundation for the standard vocabulary and syntax
Alternatives are based in [1] alternative metaphysics, [2] use and [3] thought that is not in language as conventionally understood
More on metaphysics and its relation to kinds of words and combinations [syntax…]
More on word construction and forms – alphabets, syllabaries, phonemes…
A variety of specialized systems is introduced as outlined above in Detailed Systems from Vision and the Words documents
1 SUBSTANCE ONTOLOGY
I start with substance ontology because, despite its recognized inadequacies, it remains in the background. It is ever present; when we forget it enters into our intuitive thinking; it is present in language in the often implicit presupposition that the ‘subject-predicate’ form of proposition embodies the finally adequate mode of statement about the actual world [Whitehead.]
1.1 Substance Ontology
On a simple substance metaphysics, the world is made up of objects with the following nature or predication:
Constitution. Each object has a constitution that is either elementary or compound. [Can an elementary object have interactions?]
Properties. The features that define an object and distinguish one from another are its properties. Properties are sometimes distinguished as primary and secondary. The primary properties are intrinsic, objective or true properties – simply the properties. The secondary properties are apparent, subjective qualities. However, the distinction is not clear. Thus, simply, the features that define and distinguish objects are properties. This leads to the Leibniz principle of indescernibles: for all objects x, y and properties φ, if φ(x) = φ(y) for all φ then x = y
Examples of properties are mass, position, temperature. Constitution may be regarded as a property. Examples of qualities are color and taste
Change. Objects may change with respect to constitution, properties [and qualities.]
Interaction. Objects have effects upon one other. ‘Effects’ cause ‘change.’ [If origins are regarded as effects, then effects determine the [properties of] the object.]
Examples of effects are force, heat transfer, creation/transfer of constituent objects
Objects have various types of relationship. They may be near or far, one object may be hotter than another… Relationships are expressed through comparison and difference of properties. Relationships among constituent objects constitute properties of the object
1.2 Agents, mind… and metaphysics
The point regarding truth and propositions can be expressed as follows: there are sentient beings or objects that perceive objects… and this may be generalized:
There are beings or agents that know [feel, perceive, and conceive,] think and decide, intend and execute action. Agents are effectual