Whats in a name?

…well, everything. Something which has been a constant irritant with me is the mutability of language. I say ‘rose’ and I mean ‘wild rose’, I say ‘rose’ you hear ‘red rose’. We seem to constantly under the impression that we all speak the same language, however, every time the subject matter gets heavier than the weather, the first stumbling block is definition. Everyone is convinced that their own definitions are the proper ones. When frequently people are not using words properly, because for many intangible ideas, there are no words. We all just apply the words that we personally, from our understanding, feel are most appropriate. But other people have felt that different words are more appropriate for the same concept. This leads to much confusion in discussions.
And many words have multiple definitions, often with slight, yet impacting differences. So a simple sentence about abstract issues quickly become confused, due to alternate definitions. The REALLY annoys me. Every new person whom you have discussions of a ‘deeper’ nature with, the beginnings are primarily getting used to differing definition sets. We need more words with substance. We have plenty of adjectives though.

Here’s an example

I think therefore I am

I: The self; the ego.
I’ll go the self
So: the self thinks there for the self is

Think:
1:To have or formulate in the mind.
2:To reason about or reflect on; ponder
3:To decide by reasoning, reflection, or pondering.
4:To judge or regard; look upon
5:To believe; suppose
6:To expect; hope
7:To intend
8:To call to mind; remember
9:To visualize; imagine
10:To devise or evolve; invent
11:To bring into a given condition by mental preoccupation
12:To concentrate one's thoughts on

I’ll choose 7 as my definition of think

The self intends therefore the self is.

Is: Third person singular present indicative of be
Be:
1:To exist in actuality; have life or reality
2:To occupy a specified position
3:To remain in a certain state or situation undisturbed, untouched, or unmolested
4:To take place; occur
5:To go or come
6:To equal in identity
7:To have a specified significance
8:To belong to a specified class or group
9:To have or show a specified quality or characteristic
10:To seem to consist or be made of
11:To belong
I’ll take 11
The self intends therefore the self belongs.

Hence, ‘I think therefore I am’ means: ‘I do things so I’ll fit in’.
Now I know I specifically chose definitions that were not intended by the sentence, but if you don’t know which definition someone is using for a word it is easy to misinterpret what someone means.

Ah well
-De