 Hello my friends. Our move from upstate New York is now complete and we are in Charleston, South Carolina So if there's a bit of an echo in this video, you'll have to be patient with me I'm in the process of setting up my own little new studio and it is a work in progress philosophy is really Really hard and one of the reasons it's so hard is because of this imperfect medium of communication called language At some point most people in their intellectual and philosophical development realize that The way we think language works in youth is not actually the way language works in adulthood What I mean is we think that there's an objective definition for words and then we grow up and we have conversations and we realize Oh hang on what I mean by particular words is not what other people mean by particular words a Surefire way to make virtually no progress in talking about philosophy with somebody is to insist on Only using your definitions for words or saying that the other person's definitions are wrong That's not the right way to think about philosophy. You have to think about philosophy and World views as coming as a kind of theoretical package that is unique to the mind of the person that you're communicating with So rather than arguing about the objective definitions for words It's better to argue about the meaning of the word in context of the theory of the person articulating The idea for example, let's say we're talking about happiness One way to talk about happiness is to say what does the word? Happiness mean and you have a long back and forth about what it means in the history and the etymology of the word And you're using it this way or that way and you get in fisticuffs about what the meaning of happiness is Another superior way to talk about happiness is to say this what do you mean by the word? happiness I Can tell you what I mean by happiness and I can also tell you that what you mean by the word and what I mean By the world is different. Therefore, we need to talk about how we're using that word in context of the theory that we're articulating Lots of people including professional philosophers Fall into this naive notion that only the definitions that they're using in their theories are the correct way to Use language and one of the unfortunate side effects of this is that it stunts people from understanding How alternative theories can be internally coherent consistent and perhaps explanatory So I was recently having a conversation about this with a couple of words that I use a lot one is logic the other is existence and Unproductive way to approach questions of logic in existence. This is a what does logic mean? What does existence mean and then say you're using the word the wrong way? No? The correct way to understand these really deep and abstract concepts is to say, okay What do you mean by the word logic? I'll tell you what I mean by the word logic and we can talk about why we mean those things when we use that Particular word and how does the concepts that are associated with that word? How do they fit together in your worldview and with existence? So again, it's the specific conversation. I was having about existence. I was saying there are different types of existence There's physical existence and there's non physical existence There are ideas in our head and there are things in the world So I have an idea of a table my idea of a table. I assume is different from a table in itself Okay, different types of existence Perfectly coherent consistent in the way that I use language in the theories that I'm developing Well, this I was talking with a gentleman who was saying no that there's only one type of existence what you mean to say is that you have a idea of a table and the table and the idea Exists and is non physical and the table exists and is physical But there's only one type of existence and my response is say, okay, we're using words a little bit differently That's fine What is more accurate is to say that's the way you use language. That's nice that that's how you make that ontological distinction great I talk about it a little bit differently. This is where you see I guess you could call Unintentional theoretical arrogance that people deeply think that their way of using language is the objectively correct way And in fact a lot of times these type of people will will kind of clump together Especially if they use language in a somewhat shared fashion even unbeknownst to them they're gonna be using language different than anybody else in the world But they kind of clump together and think that they these are the people that have this one coherent world view and everybody else's silly Not even realizing rather elementary insight, which is to say hang on Lots and lots of alternative coherent consistent theories can use language in a way that I don't necessarily Use it so I have to ask what do you mean by X whatever X is a Fantastic example one that gets me in trouble all the time and I'm revising my own Language because of this is the word God or the word love If you guys have been watching my work for a while, you know, I have a special place in my heart for love I think it's really really important for human existence However, what I found is people mean different things by the word love And so when I speak so highly of love people think I'm some people use that word and they think I'm talking about a feeling like a Nice happy warm feeling in your chest if I were to say something like in my coherent world view Love is the highest state of human existence. Love is the meaning of life love is divine people think what I'm saying is a Chest feeling is the meaning of life a chest feeling is divine. That's not what I mean But what I've also found is so many people don't understand exactly what I mean that it's now on me to say, okay I'm gonna change the word that I use So I like the word love. I still kind of use it Frequently, but I'm finding it gets me into trouble because people think I mean something that I don't mean or God Do I believe in God? Yeah, but what I mean by that word is not what 98% of other people mean by that word This is why I think a lot of thinkers throughout history have concluded that Labels can be counterproductive. It comes from the ambiguity of language What I mean by a label is not what you mean by a label and if I say I am X Then you're gonna pigeonhole me and think that I hope to have beliefs that I don't have Fortunately, this can all be overcome the ambiguity of language can be overcome the arrogance of presumption of knowledge can be overcome Just by communicating in a little bit different way So instead of saying oh, you're a theist that means X the correct way to say is what do you mean by that word? When you say theist, what does that mean when you say love? What does that mean? Last thing I want to say on this topic is don't take my word for it do a little empirical and examination Instead of thinking that everybody else uses language in an objectively wrong way Try to communicate with them and make sense of their worldview Try to listen to somebody's ideas try to listen to somebody's theories try to listen to somebody's language and say in what context Do these words make sense? How could it be that these person uses words this way and they're actually making a good point? And they actually have a coherent theory if you do that and if you're talking with somebody that has an open mind You will discover that what you thought was just stupidity is actually just a difference in the way that people use language This has becomes Invinently more true when you're talking with people that have more sophisticated or nuanced beliefs You have to immediately go to language rather than talking about rather than thinking you're using the same language From the very beginning you have to say okay, you and I are using language a little bit differently We got to get on the same page to figure out exactly what we mean by our words In doing so I think you'll find a powerful case for intellectual humility and perhaps patience with other people because when you realize other people use language Different from you you'll also realize you use language different from other people So just like you want them to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to piece together your worldview in a coherent way You'll find you are justified in extending that courtesy to other people