Friday 17 June 2016

The Thoughts Of Berkeley In Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Russell (1961: 624):
Philonous [Berkeley] replies that he does not deny the reality of sensible things, i.e. of what is perceived immediately by the senses, but that we do not see the causes of colours or hear the causes of sounds.  Both agree that the senses make no inferences.  Philonous points out that by sight we perceive only light, colour, and figure; by hearing only sounds; and so on.  Consequently, apart from sensible qualities there is nothing sensible, and sensible things are nothing but sensible qualities or combinations of sensible qualities.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, we construe impacts on the body, such as light and sound, as meaning.

This does not mean there is nothing other than meaning.  It just means that meaning is a feature of construals, rather than of experience.  That is, meaning is immanent within semiotic systems, rather than transcendent of them.

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