The Search for Meaning: Part One

If it is possible to mean something with the words that we use, if it is possible for language to have meaning, and to hold it, what then is the source of meaning? If language is built upon the foundation of meaning, what then is the bedrock upon which meaning is situated? Or are we to believe that it is, so to speak, "turtles all the way down"?

There are those who would advocate a sort of infinite regress in language. After all, "meaning" is a word, just like any other word. To search for a meaning of "meaning" that exists outside of language might not be logically possible. Words get their meanings from other words; to look for a single "origin" of meaning is absolutely impossible. Words only mean what they mean because of the total language they find themselves in. This is, roughly, the "structuralist" position regarding meaning and language, as was first given shape by linguistic pioneer Ferdinand de Saussure.

But although this question is apparently only a linguistic concern, it has much broader philosophical implications. Effectively, structuralism amounts to a transcendental nihilism, a denial not only of meaning in the world, but of meaning itself, effectively charging meaning itself with meaninglessness. But, if meaning itself were truly meaningless, surely that wouldn't mean a damn thing.

Meaning is not meaningless. There is meaning, both in the world and in the words we use. Where does it come from, and where does it go? This is perhaps the most elusive question we can ask. Like Orpheus trying to lead his beloved Eurydice out of the underworld, if we glance back at her too soon, we shall lose her forever. It is this way with meaning: it is always closest to hand, yet if we reach out to touch it, it slips away and our hands "grasp nothing save the yielding air".