TimS comments on How do you interpret your "% positive"? - Less Wrong

4 Post author: PhilGoetz 06 April 2013 12:16AM

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Comment author: TimS 08 April 2013 01:52:34AM 2 points [-]

In a very boring sense, "I'm wearing socks" is constructed, in that wearing, socks, and maybe even I are arbitrary labels.

Still, you didn't construct the meaning yourself when you read the sentence. It was constructed by society, and you appealed to that context to interpret what I meant.

You might respond that the social context under-determines the meaning of words. That's true. But even so, we mostly understand each other in ordinary conversation. At that level, Phil Goetz's question is meaningful (if not particularly interesting to me).