Abstract
This article is an attempt to develop a counter-argument to the contention that meaning is bound by language. Locating itself within the realist ontology of language developed by Saint Anselm of Canterbury, it will be argued that language comprises representations of entities perceived both extra to the perceiver and through introspection. Thus, a language game cannot be a closed system in the sense that by its very existence representations of extralinguistic being are contained therein. If truth is defined as that which is the case, the task of the perceiver becomes apprehension of being beheld without the cloud imposed by symbols: representations are not what they represent, instead they serve as windows onto a view of what is. Following exploration of psychological studies on contemplation, it is argued that it is in desymbolised moments of attentive awareness of being that meaning, unfiltered by the representativeness of language (and indeed, other symbolic systems), can arise. It will be proposed that in contemplative traditions, being is not reduced in perception, and the moment of meaning comes to the fore in the engagement and encounter with being.
Highlights
Saint Anselm‟s realist ontology draws attention to the complex relationship between reality and language
Anselmian realism posits an ontological separation between signifier and signified. If it is the case, this ontological separation could restrict human linguistic activities to language games with meanings established by practice, rather than in correspondence to extra-linguistic being
In the light of Saint Anselm‟s proposition that language can never provide humans with an adequate account of truth or being, as truth is only contained in the entity of which the symbol is but a representation, an important question arises
Summary
This work explores the obstacle that language-bound humans face that renders them unable to grasp reality unhampered by the limits of linguistic categorisation. The language-bound argument opposes the contemplative experience wherein unity with being is obtained. It is the latter for which this article argues. The ontology that will be employed, that of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, will be the lens through which the study is carried out. His realist ontology will be explained prior to our consideration of various “language-bound” positions (among these Lakoff, Johnson, Rorty and Fodor). The extralinguistic partial apprehension of reality will be argued for
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