Most of us wouldn’t think there was anything problematic about the meaning of names. When I use the name ‘Brad’ to talk about my good friend, we wouldn’t think to question what I actually meant by the name ‘Brad’. After all, I just mean Brad - that guy who pops up on MSN chat to distract me from my studies. But it turns out that a workable semantics of names is one of the most elusive goals of the philosophy of language today. In a very real sense, we still don’t know what names mean. There is still no agreement on how it is that we manage to use names as we do, or even how it is that we can refer to objects at all. At this point, your commonsense ideas are probably causing you to scoff. Of course we know what names mean - they mean whatever object they stand for! And maybe they do. By the end of this article, you might still think as you did at the beginning - but I doubt you’ll remain so confident.
What I find interesting about his post is the strong conviction he has concerning the power of marketing to determine what people think. Seth Godin believes in the power of the story - the narrative that can inspire us, shape our ideas, and ultimately consume the desired product (although he urges that the story itself must be authentic). Responsible marketing.
The Eastern coast of Australia (particularly Newcastle) has taken a bit of a battering from several storms in the last couple of weeks. These photos were sent to me today in one of those office email things that was doing the rounds. I don’t know where they come from or who took them. If you’re the owner of these pics and want them taken down - or even just want acknowledgement, please let me know. I just think they’re amazing photos worthy of further sharing.
One can learn a great deal about a society by understanding its literature - especially its popular literature, and of the Victorian Era, one could argue, that this book was perhaps one of the most popular. It was written at the height of empire - imperialism was not a dirty word, but was felt by all to be spreading modernity and civilisation across the globe. It was this sentiment that stood at the heart of the Victorian sensibility. King Solomon’s Mines similarly has this sentiment at its core.
In a two part post I put forward the thesis that competitive social instincts allow marketers to gain the influence that they do over our cultural forms of life. I argued that rather than influencing us directly, marketing messages are reinforced by peer group behaviour. I saw an example on youtube today that was so deliciously to the point that I had to share it.