College Dropout John O'Connor wrote: >This might help: >3.323 >In the language of everyday life it very often happens that the same >word signifies in two different ways -- and therefore belongs to two >different symbols -- or that two words, which signify in different >ways, are apparently applied in the same way in the proposition. >Thus the word "is" appears as the copula, as the sign of equality, and >as the expression of existence; "to exist" as an intransitive verb like >"to go"; "identical" as an adjective; we speak of something but also of >the fact of something happening. >(In the proposition "Green is green" -- where the first word is a >proper name as the last an adjective -- these words have not merely >different meanings but they are different symbols.) it's often acknowledged here (and elsewhere) that words have a range of meanings; but, it is less often acknowledged that it matters *which* meaning is attached to a given word at a given time. I suspect that this is part of what LW meant by 3.324: "In this way the most fundamental confusions are easily produced (the whole of philosophy is full of them)." Joe -- Nothing Unreal is Self-Aware @^@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@^@ http://what-am-i.net @^@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@^@ ========================================== Need Something? Check here: http://ludwig.squarespace.com/wittrslinks/