You mean the Andes ain't in western China? You say: "You're back to an old conundrum you haven't resolved: how does anyone confirm that another person has a serviceably similar notion as you do?"
If I say, "Please pass the potatoes," and you pass the potatoes, I conclude our notions are serviceably similar. To show how dicey my judgment is, I confess I am working on a stageplay talking about a lot of this allegedly non-theatrical philosophy of language stuff. At one point Bren is on a role and he says, "...Then I have a catchy routine for explaining that no one can possibly "learn a language" because there is no such entity. "And then... No. Better to just sum it up. If there are no meanings except me-meanings -- your own personal notions -- and if, as my mantra says, all notions are indeterminate, indefinite, multiplex and transitory, morphing like a writhing cloud, then communication that's perfect mutual understanding is forever beyond our reach. Like so much, it's improvable, but will always be incomplete. (Even if, against trillions-to-one odds, two people ever did entertain totally identical notions, they could never know it.) Devious little suckers our notions. Making fun of us constantly..."
