Words, Words, Words…, and Tables, Cars and Elephants — Intensional and Extensional Orientation

Abstract

What usually matters to us is what people do rather than what they say. Having read Russell’s passage, this is what we might presume should be the case. Words may be seen as mere symbols; they stand for something else. We can change them, coin new ones instantly, manipulate them, abandon them, forget them, and so on. Why should we treat them seriously? What appears to be most important to most of us is what happens to our body — whether we are for example physically unhurt and unimpeded, well fed, warm. Are words in fact often taken very seriously?

Thinking that you know when in fact you don’t is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do; but if I were writing a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not commit myself until I had seen one enjoying this unappetizing diet. (Russell 1976: 115)