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    If meaning is grounded in communal form-of-life rather th... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Speaker-meaning is explanatorily prior to expression-meaning

    If meaning is grounded in communal form-of-life rather than mental acts, then expression-meaning in the practice is prior to any particular speaker's meaning.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Language rules are learned through social practice, not private introspection, so shared usage patterns necessarily precede individual understanding.
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    • 2.A speaker's idiosyncratic mental state cannot make an expression meaningful if the community doesn't recognize that meaning in their practice.
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    • 3.Children acquire language by participating in communal forms-of-life before developing sophisticated individual intentionality.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Communal meaning is itself composed of individual speakers' meanings; treating it as ontologically prior inverts the actual dependence relation.
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    • 2.Novel, creative, or deviant uses of language by individuals can shift communal practice, showing speakers' meanings sometimes lead rather than follow.
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    • 3.The claim confuses practical priority (learning order) with metaphysical priority (what grounds meaning's existence and nature).
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    Related

    A speaker's idiosyncratic mental state cannot make an expression meaningful if t...Children acquire language by participating in communal forms-of-life before deve...Communal meaning is itself composed of individual speakers' meanings; treating i...Language rules are learned through social practice, not private introspection, s...
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    Novel, creative, or deviant uses of language by individuals can shift communal p...Speaker-meaning is explanatorily prior to expression-meaningThe claim confuses practical priority (learning order) with metaphysical priorit...

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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