Concept
Meaning (existential)
Overview
interpretation of meaning in existentialism
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Sec. 1. _The Place of Meanings in Mental Life_ [Sidenote: Meaning is central] As in our discussion of judgment we were making more explicit what is involved in inference, so in the discussion of meaning we are only recurring to the central function of all reflection. For one thing to _mean_, _signify_, _betoken_, _indicate_, or _point to_, another we saw at the outset to be the essential mark of thinking (see p. 8).
John Dewey, How We Think
The chapter “MEANING: OR CONCEPTIONS AND UNDERSTANDING” is titled for Meaning; names Meaning several times.
Meaning is simply a function of the situation: this thing means that thing: meaning is this relationship. A meaning is something quite different; it is not a function, but a specific entity, a peculiar thing, namely the man _as_ suggested.
John Dewey, Essays in Experimental Logic
Names Meaning several times; states what Meaning is.
The word "dog" bears no resemblance to a dog, but its effects, like those of an image of a dog, resemble the effects of an actual dog in certain respects. It is much easier to say definitely what a word means than what an image means, since words, however they originated, have been framed in later times for the purpose of having meaning, and men have been engaged for ages in giving increased precision to the…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
The chapter “LECTURE X. WORDS AND MEANING” is titled for Meaning; names Meaning several times.
Philosophers who discussed Meaning (existential)
Related ideas
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Outline of metaphysics.