<<<Embodiment, that is, existence in a physical form, is vital in the meaning-making process. In fact, there seems to be general theoretical consensus on this: cognitive linguists (Lakoff and Johnson 1999), computer game theorists (Myers 2003), and phenomenologists (Ruthrof 2000) agree that human conceptual forms are determined by embodied consciousness and a sensory experience of things. >>> The implication of this 'general theoretical consensus' is crucial: it challenges head-on the myth that 'reason' is a disembodied universal metaphysical entity independent of human bodies. Our thinking, our feeling, our ideas, our myths,our music, our rationality all come from the same place, the specif...

<<<Embodiment, that is, existence in a physical form, is vital in the meaning-making process. In fact, there seems to be general theoretical consensus on this: cognitive linguists (Lakoff and Johnson 1999), computer game theorists (Myers 2003), and phenomenologists (Ruthrof 2000) agree that human conceptual forms are determined by embodied consciousness and a sensory experience of things. >>> The implication of this 'general theoretical consensus' is crucial: it challenges head-on the myth that 'reason' is a disembodied universal metaphysical entity independent of human bodies. Our thinking, our feeling, our ideas, our myths,our music, our rationality all come from the same place, the specifically human biological organism of not just brain meat but liver meat, heart meat, bowels. Our 'meanings' come from our total interactions as human beings.

Meaty stuff, life needs to be much longer to digest all these interesting articles. But there is humour- "Despite the misunderstandings it can bring, ambiguity is not a disadvantage of natural language, but rather a necessary quality of social communication. There are countless instances where precision, formalization through abstraction, or quantification would be contextually inappropriate, and would hinder or obfuscate the transmission of the intended message. A zesty illustration of this comes from Leo Finkelstein’s advice on clear communication for engineers, where he notes the inappropriateness of the following jargon-dependent statement in the context of a romantic encounter: “Whenev...

Meaty stuff, life needs to be much longer to digest all these interesting articles. But there is humour- "Despite the misunderstandings it can bring, ambiguity is not a disadvantage of natural language, but rather a necessary quality of social communication. There are countless instances where precision, formalization through abstraction, or quantification would be contextually inappropriate, and would hinder or obfuscate the transmission of the intended message. A zesty illustration of this comes from Leo Finkelstein’s advice on clear communication for engineers, where he notes the inappropriateness of the following jargon-dependent statement in the context of a romantic encounter: “Whenever I look into your eyes, I know that, from my perspective, I share with you a strong, interpersonal passion or enthusiasm statistically related at .05 or better to increased levels of self-disclosing behavior” (Finkelstein 2000, 7).

Do we see what exists in the mind-independent, or external, world, or do we project assumptions, expectations and moods, and see what our minds create?
[...]
A semiotic and phenomenological position, like the one adopted in this essay, would acknowledge the importance of the interpreter in attributing meaning, but would also recognize the inherent qualities of the object that direct the interpretations that can be produced. Meaning, for this approach, arises from the interaction of qualities of the perceived object with qualities of the perceiving subject.
[...]
[M]eaning is related to conceptual thinking, which in turn draws from perception – and perceptions can be “false” as often a...

Do we see what exists in the mind-independent, or external, world, or do we project assumptions, expectations and moods, and see what our minds create?
[...]
A semiotic and phenomenological position, like the one adopted in this essay, would acknowledge the importance of the interpreter in attributing meaning, but would also recognize the inherent qualities of the object that direct the interpretations that can be produced. Meaning, for this approach, arises from the interaction of qualities of the perceived object with qualities of the perceiving subject.
[...]
[M]eaning is related to conceptual thinking, which in turn draws from perception – and perceptions can be “false” as often as they can be “true” [...].
[...]
The prejudice that saturates first impressions, or reasoning by appearance, becomes codified into a cultural practice and is manifest in such phenomena as racism, ageism, and the exclusion of individuals seen as challenging the norm. This is compounded by the fact that humans are designed to rationalize and legitimize their behaviors in order to distinguish themselves from other animals (including humans from other communities) [...].
[...]
In addition to social prejudice, self-defeat can be a problem of communication. Humans have difficulty in projecting their desired meanings, or in “coming across” as they wish. [...] Søren Kierkegaard described colorfully the vicissitudes of desire and communication, of being and world [...].
[...]
The second reason why human communication requires improvement lies in the ideological [modernist] positioning of the human and the human’s life. [...] It seems that, although human conceptual and representational systems, such as language, are dynamic and adaptive, they do not adapt quickly enough to cater for the socio-emotional upheavals of transitional periods of human evolution, such as the one we are arguably undergoing now.

[Loc. cit.]