cases it will be impossible to decide with any certainty what an image
means. I think this lies in the nature of things, and not in defective
analysis.
We may give somewhat more precision to the above account of the meaning
of images, and extend it to meaning in general. We find sometimes that,
IN MNEMIC CAUSATION, an image or word, as stimulus, has the same effect
(or very nearly the same effect) as would belong to some object, say,
a certain dog. In that case we say that the image or word means that
object. In other cases the mnemic effects are not all those of one
object, but only those shared by objects of a certain kind, e.g. by all
dogs. In this case the meaning of the image or word is general: it means
the whole kind. Generality and particularity are a matter of degree. If
two particulars differ sufficiently little, their mnemic effects will be
the same; therefore no image or word can mean the one as opposed to the
other; this sets a bound to the particularity of meaning. On the other
hand, the mnemic effects of a number of sufficiently dissimilar objects
will have nothing discoverable in common; hence a word which aims at
complete generality, such as "entity" for example, will have to be
devoid of mnemic effects, and therefore of meaning. In practice, this is
not the case: such words have VERBAL associations, the learning of which
constitutes the study of metaphysics.
The meaning of a word, unlike that of an image, is wholly constituted
by mnemic causal laws, and not in any degree by likeness (except in
exceptional cases). The word "dog" bears no resemblance to a dog, but
its effects, like those of an image of a dog, resemble the effects of an
actual dog in certain respects. It is much easier to say definitely
what a word means than what an image means, since words, however they
originated, have been framed in later times for the purpose of having
meaning, and men have been engaged for ages in giving increased
precision to the meanings of words. But although it is easier to
say what a word means than what an image means, the relation which
constitutes meaning is much the same in both cases. A word, like an
image, has the same associations as its meaning has. In addition to
other associations, it is associated with images of its meaning, so that
the word tends to call up the image and the image tends to call up the
word., But this association is not essential to the intelligent use of
words. If a word has the right associations with other objects, we shall
be able to use it correctly, and understand its use by others, even if
it evokes no image. The theoretical understanding of words involves only
the power of associating them correctly with other words; the practical
understanding involves associations with other bodily movements.
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