An Absurd Faith

Communication is a hope – an absurd faith that, yes, what you mean by the words you use is what others mean by the same words. This is obviously a philosophical problem. How do I know that when I say “horse”, another person is thinking of a horse and not a cow instead? How do I know when I point to something and call it “that”, that another person knows exactly what it is I'm pointing to? After all, they often don't. The “that”, and everything else about language, is vague, and that vagueness is simultaneously the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of language. It is a paradox that language is inherently vague, since it is often used as a tool for clarification. But this paradox is not a quagmire. It does not suck us under and into the muck; rather, it uproots us from our linguistic pretensions, such that we may soar.