Meanings, Concepts, and the Uses of Verbal Expressions

Abstract

In chapter two I frequently used such expressions as ‘the meaning of an expression,’ ‘the concept of so-and-so,’ ‘the uses of an expression,’ ‘the expression X has the same meaning as the expression Y.’ And we shall continue to meet these expressions in succeeding chapters. Although I did say something about “uses” in relation to the nature of “ordinary language(s)” (chapter two), I said little about concepts or synonymity. Nor have I hitherto attempted to deal with these in a separate section, at some length. In the present chapter we shall attempt to arrive at a clear understanding of the major differences and the relations between “meaning,” “use,” and “concept.” The notion of synonymity will be clarified in chapter four. I shall not attempt to say what “meaning,” “concept,” “use” are,in the sense of providing definitions of the corresponding terms, in any usual sense of ‘definition.’ But some direct, explicit, as well as implicit, analysis — whether or not capable of terminating in a definition of some sort — of the concepts meaning, concept and use will of necessity be made in the course of the discussion.