Can Meaning Be Fixed?
Meaning, like water, takes form when poured in the pot of intellect and knowledge. Meanings are fruit of perception and are an exercise in imagination. How can meaning be fixed when people differ in their knowledge, experience, and intelligence? An interpretation which, one attributes to a meaning, actually, reveals one’s characteristics of personality. While Emily Dickson views death as “a wild night and a new road”; for others, death may mean a solitary escape into peace. Giving a fixed meaning to a word or an idea brings running horses of imagination to halt and a static imagination, withers the fruit of wisdom. Meanings cannot be fixed. In fact, meaning should never be fixed.
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Introduction
1.1. Dissecting the statement
1.2. Thesis: Meaning cannot be fixed
2. Brief Explanation of the statement
2.2. What is meaning?
2.3. How meaning can or cannot be fixed?
3. Why Meaning Cannot Be Fixed?
3.1. Varied level of education results in varied interpretations
3.2. Bitter or sweet experiences, determine taste of the meaning
3.3. Profession can fashion meaning differently
3.4. Approach towards life, casts shadow on meaning.
3.5. Intelligence merits intelligent explanation of meanings
3.6. Diverse societies provide diverse ecosystems for a meaning.
4. Words and Ideas Which Validate that Meaning Cannot Be Fixed
4.1. Death: an escape for some, disaster for others
4.2. Happiness: equally attainable in rags and riches
4.3. Terrorist: an enemy or a freedom fighter?
4.4. Loss: a surrender or a pathway of experience which, leads to success?
4.5. Money: a piece of paper or key to everything in life?
4.6. Goal: an end or a new beginning?
5. Why Meaning Should Never Be Fixed?
5.1. Fixing meaning would stall evolution of human intellect
5.2. The world of scientific discoveries will be turned into a barren wasteland
5.3. Poetic and Literary pursuits will sprout no flower.
5.4. Draconian laws and their narrow interpretations would choke freedom of speech.
Conclusion
Meaning is a reflection of personality in mirror; different personalities have different reflections. A fixed meaning and a fixed approach washes away spice from life. Individuals differ in terms of their faculties of heart and mind. Consequently, they have different meanings of same idea or concept. This subjective approach to meaning has enabled human to prosper. If meanings were fixed, life would be monotonous and boring. The idea that meaning cannot be fixed has filled life with rainbow of curiosity, discovery and inquisition.