More to the point (”Discourse is everything!”) earlier this centure (’01 or so) I was drilling through what I call “dialectical tension” and re-reading my favorite Habermas on discourse ethics. Bogged, I walked through the stacks and happened onto John Willinsky’s work on making scholarly papers accessible. (see “Public Knowledge Project”) What I realized with both those books not only at hand but in mind is that we very very naturally proceed as though Douglas Adams’ “42″ was meant to be an answer. But perhaps it was only an answer in the sense of response, as in reply, as in reaction. Perhaps it wasn’t at all an answer. Framed differently it could have been a statement; non sequitor it could have been the errror code for “Your question is poorly formulated.”

My point is that we would go on with “What does it mean to mean?” forever if we didn’t have to get the kids fed and dressed. 42. Things mean when they matter; information is data that makes a difference. A theory of semantics that isn’t operationally grounded is an excellent source of noise. But it’s late; I’m obviously tired.

cheers

Nice of them to do offer more query-able tags finally.