February 1987
1. Meaning is a function of people, not of things such as signs, signals and symbols.
2. People express themselves to “mean” through what they do and don’t do, often using signs, signals and symbols.
3. There are four parameters of meaning when someone communicates with another:
- a. Purpose or intent, reflecting the desires of the heart. Known to self only, hypothesized by all other humans.
- b. Assertion, the idea content of a message, reflecting the mind. Known to self, must be hypothesized by others. Also, contains the support or backup elaboration of meaning reflected in clarification, verification, understanding, evaluation and application content of the message.
- c. Physical action of the person in signing, signaling or symbolizing the message. This is the strength aspect of a message. These are normally the sentences uttered.
- d. Relevance of the message. The effect it has or will have, including what will happen next if the message is reacted to and reflected in the actions of the hearer(s) or not. This is the might aspect of the message.
4. Hypothesizing a person’s meaning (desire, assertion/support, and relevance) as attached to a signal structure (sentence), we may call “capture.” (Normal capture puts support in the place of the signal structure for convenience sake, but the original aspect of capture must be kept in mind, thus separating what a person “says” from what we hypothesized him to “mean.”)
5. A capture is analysis of a time-slice of a person. We can capture an eternal existence, a mortal lifetime, a career, a term of office, a year, a month, a day, a minute, or an instant.
6. A person who has integrity is easier to capture than one who doesn’t. For one who has integrity of heart, might, mind and strength, every capture is very much the same (same desires, typical message and support, typical relevance).
7. But:
- a. Few persons are integrated.
- b. Some persons who are integrated become disintegrated.
- c. Some persons who are disintegrated become integrated.
- d. Most people are simply guessing when they capture, anyway.
So unless one has a sure-fire method of knowing the truth about metaphysical matters, every capture must remain a hypothesizing, a guess.
8. Quality of capture improves as the following variables increase:
- a. The integrity of the capturer.
- b. The possession of an epistemology which delivers truth to the capturer.
- c. The more truth the capturer already has in his or her mind about the universe.
- d. The length of the time-slice of the person being captured being considered by the capturer.
- e. The integrity of the person being captured.
Thus, the ultimate in capture is a god understanding God (seeing as we are seen, knowing as we are known).