I've often on this forum maintained there is no entity that is a mind-independent "meaning". When we hear an utterance, see a painting, read a poem, notion arises in our mind. By "notion" here I have in mind feelings, attitudes, beliefs, images -- in sum, "consciousness".
The arising notion is more or less different in each of us even when we are subjected to the same occasion for sense data, the same "stimulus". That's because, once we are stimulated, our notion is a function of two things: our stored inventory of memories and associations, and our receiving apparatus. I'd claim there may be some novelty to my ideas about the alleged ontological status of "meanings", "categories", "words", etc, and the IIMT character of notion, and a few other things, but I confess I feel I'm citing a commonplace, a platitude, when I note that -- because of our differing histories and processing machinery in our skulls -- no two of us can entertain the exact same notion when exposed to the same stimulus. And I can't make fresh that stale bread by presenting it in a brand new polysyllabic wrapping. ************** Worried about job security? Check out the 5 safest jobs in a recession. (http://jobs.aol.com/gallery/growing-job-industries?ncid=emlcntuscare00000003)
