What Words Do – Literal Meaning vs Manifest Meaning

 “Actions speak louder than words,” the saying goes. And it is quite clearly true. If someone says “I love you,” and another person gives you a gift that shows they have been paying attention to your likes and interests, the second person’s intention comes across much more strongly. But there is a deeper level to the phrase “actions speak louder than words:” words are a kind of action.

In our culture, we think of words as a tool for communicating ideas based on the words’ literal definitions. If I say, “Light is an electromagnetic wave,” it is natural to assume I am communicating the physical structure of light, and that is the end of the story. But if we are in a group of people talking about cultivating an inner light to share with the world, and I say “Light is an electromagnetic wave,” then the group would give me dirty looks. This might frighten me, and I would say, “What? It’s true.” This would drive a wedge between me and the rest of the group, and they might ask me to leave.

Here is what just happened. If we look at the literal meanings of the words, “Light is an electromagnetic wave,” and, “What? It’s true,” we find a true story. Light is physically an electromagnetic wave, and it is indeed true. But the actions of these words, what I call their manifest meaning, is to say “I do not buy into your spiritual metaphor and neither should you,” and then, “You shouldn’t be upset, because I am not trying to get you to change your beliefs.” In the realm of actions, these true phrases are, in fact, deceitful.

If you think about it, we never say anything simply because it is true. There is always a reason behind what we say. I have never mentioned before that there is a large parasol in the yard outside my window, even though it is true. This is because I have never had a reason to bring it up. Even now the reason I am telling you about it is not because it is true (although it is), but because it illustrates the point of this blog post. The reason we say words is not because of their literal meaning, but because what we say and when and how we say it is an action.

In order to understand other people, we must not only look at the literal meanings of the words they say, but at the actions they are performing by saying them. If we get too caught up in the literal meanings of the words, we get confused and do not understand. This is true not only for others, but for ourselves as well. In the above example, the person who says “Light is an electromagnetic wave” does not understand their own actions, because they are fixated on the literal meanings of their words. The exchange is not about physics, it’s about personal growth and its effects on others.

So we see that for words to be true, they must not only be literally true, but manifestly true. Yet I would go even further and say manifest truth is more important than literal truth. There are times when what someone needs to hear is not what is true, but something motivational. For instance, if someone is going through a hard time, we can tell them, “Hang on, everything will be okay soon,” even if there is no sign of when things will be okay. Maybe it’s literally true, and maybe it’s not, we don’t know. But the manifest truth, “You don’t have to suffer as much if you think positively,” is. However, straight-up telling someone “You don’t have to suffer as much if you think positively” is not nearly as motivating, and for some people it has its own manifest meaning, “You are to blame for making yourself suffer.” This is obviously not the message we want to get across, so instead we say, “Hang on, everything will be okay soon.” Everybody knows this statement’s literal truth is uncertain, but it is still sometimes the right thing to say; its manifest meaning is true.

Knowledge is power, and with power comes responsibility. The positive value of recognizing words as actions is immense. It can help us understand and make peace with one another, especially regarding sensitive topics. But there are those who use manifest meaning to manipulate others for their own gain, and understanding the idea of manifest meaning helps us guard against their influence. In politics, manifest meaning is prioritized over literal meaning, no matter what party, no matter what country. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the current United States President, Donald Trump.

It is no secret that Trump spouts nonsense all the time. There’s no point beating around the bush; he does not care about literal truth, and everyone can see it as plainly as the Emperor’s New Clothes. Some people point to the nonsense he says and call him an idiot. But this interpretation is wrong, as evidenced by this one damning fact: Trump got elected President of the United states. You don’t bumble your way into that position. Trump’s ejaculations of the mouth may be nonsense when taken literally, but it all has the same manifest meaning: “Life is a status game, and I’m the winner.” If we interpret his words under this lens, it all clicks into place.

You may be wondering, what is the manifest meaning of this blog post? That, my dear reader, is the question you should ask anytime you read a text. In this case, it can be summed up in this simple idea: words are not just words, they are actions. They have effects and consequences, sometimes independent from their literal meanings. If we want to understand others and navigate through the maze of human communication, we must internalize this and practice speaking and interpreting in terms of manifest meaning rather than getting caught up in the endless, needless tangles of literal meanings. When we do, we will discover life to be so much clearer than it appeared before.

Beneath the Words

Why do we speak? Why do we write? It’s because we have something to communicate, so we do it with the words whose definitions represent it most correctly, right? No, not usually. We naturally think that whenever we speak, the most important thing is the topic of conversation, but really the content of the words rarely matters; it’s the context that lies beneath them that is important. A person wants to convey a feeling, or connect with another person, or find mental stimulus, or show dominance, and so they choose their words, tone, and body language in order to do it. The literal definitions of the words are often little more than a distraction.

When we engage in small talk, we aren’t really talking about our relatives and the weather, but showing the other person that they are worth our time. Or, we might be showing off our competence, that we have something useful to offer about any topic the conversation turns to. Or, by uttering specific phrases or sympathies with certain viewpoints, we might be signaling different aspects of ourselves, to see if we can connect with the other person.

Oftentimes people will repeat sayings or claims in order to signal they belong to a group. “Government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem,” “all white people are a little bit racist,” “Make America great again,” and “The Lord is risen,” are all examples. People who say these things may believe that they’re conveying a literal message, but really they’re feeling out whether the person they are talking to belongs to the same group as they do.

When someone says, “global warming is a hoax,” they aren’t talking about global warming. Instead, they are signaling to their in-group, as described above, but they are also doing something else. Because it contradicts the words of those in power, it gives them a thrill of freedom, effectively saying, “you can’t tell me what to say.” Alternatively, when a representative of an oil company says the same words, they are trying to get money. Neither is actually talking about the scientific phenomenon of global warming.

When does the literal content of the words matter? Remember, the fundamental question is what we should do, not what is true. Everything in our lives comes down to determining what actions we choose and how much effort we put into them. Thus, the literal meanings of our words are only directly important when those who are speaking are trying to get those who are listening to cooperatively do something. More specifically, instructions, laws, teaching, and problem solving.

But what about philosophy? What about intellectual conversations and blog discussions? Aren’t those impossible without taking the literal meanings of the words? That’s true, but the meanings of the words are only important because they facilitate the purpose of the discussion, which is to engage the rational part of the brain. Let’s take this blog for example. It’s very analytical, talking about my thoughts and observations about things. Its lifeblood is the content of the words. But it’s not these words that matter; I could talk about any of a million things, and it would serve its purpose just fine. That purpose is to think out loud, to arrange my thoughts and perceptions into a picture that makes sense. And your purpose for reading it is most likely the same.

But seriously, I’m a writer. Shouldn’t I, of all people, believe in the value of words? Of course I do. It’s just that, as a writer, it’s more important to me than to anyone to recognize that it’s not the definitions of the words that are most important, but understanding the purpose beneath the words, so that I can use them in the best way to fulfill that purpose. A good story needs to make logical sense in order to keep the logical part of the brain satisfied, but more importantly it has to engage the reader’s emotions and imagination. If a story just tells about how this happens and the characters go there and do that, it’s boring and not worth reading. This is where the power of songs and poems come from. You’ve probably noticed that the best ones aren’t the ones that tell a logical story or are literally descriptive, but the ones that stir the emotions and the imagination. It’s not the words that matter, but the purpose beneath the words.

The Stigma Against Being Wrong

When it comes to knowing things, we like to be right. We give praise to people who have lots of knowledge, and ridicule those who hold false beliefs. We feel it is our duty to correct them, because we feel it is wrong for people to believe false things. In fact, we use the same word, “wrong,” that we use to describe evil actions.

Why do we do this? Why do we feel so strongly that everyone should believe the truth, or at least as much of the truth as we feel should be obvious? Perhaps we believe that they must have based their beliefs on faulty reasoning, and by using that same reasoning they’ll fall prey to con artists and propaganda. Perhaps it is because we fear their false beliefs will cause them to hurt people. Perhaps it is because we care about them and don’t want them living in delusion. Part of it is certainly because we are afraid that our own beliefs might not be as well-grounded as we think, and the more people who agree with us, the more comfortable we can be with those beliefs.

Regardless, we treat having false beliefs as an abnormal condition that must be corrected. However, this stigma does more harm than good. Other people are as certain in their beliefs as we are in ours, and instead of seeing the truth in our words, they think we are the ones who need correcting. This leads to closed minds and hostility, and leaves us worse off than when we started.

To avoid this, to have good relationships and work productively together, we need to recognize that if someone believes something that is not true, it does not make them a bad person. If someone has the wrong idea of God or insists that the Earth is flat, it’s not that big a deal. Let them believe what they believe. The world is big enough for the both of you. No one believes only true things. We are all full of bias and assumptions. We are human, and what we really need is to be respected, not pressured to conform our beliefs to someone else’s expectations.

There is a time and place for everything.The time to debate facts with reason and evidence is when both parties come to the table with open minds, ready to think about things in new ways. This means you have to be willing to listen to them too, and change your mind if they present a good enough argument.

There are also times when a person’s convictions must be challenged, like when they believe God told them to kill someone. The line between false beliefs that are tolerable and those that are not is when they cause the person holding them to neglect their responsibilities. What exactly counts as a responsibility is debatable, but many of the things we argue about, like the compatibility of science and religion, are not even close.

This message is as much for me as for anyone. When I hear someone say biological evolution doesn’t happen, or universal basic income is socialism, or global warming is a hoax, I get mad. A few weeks ago, after I started writing this, I made a fiery reply to someone’s facebook post about multiverses. Reflecting on it afterward, I wondered if I was qualified to speak about being tolerant of others’ beliefs. However, I’ve realized that respectfully allowing others to be wrong is important enough that it’s worth saying, even if I’m not a shining exemplar of it.

Miscommunication and Mental Dictionaries

When you speak the same language as someone, it is assumed that you understand each other. After all, that is the point of language in the first place. However, the process is not nearly as smooth as we might believe. To understand this, let’s look at the mechanisms behind how language works. First, the person who wants to speak has a thought, and they want to produce the same thought in the other person’s mind. They translate the thought into words, and then speak those words. The person on the receiving end hears the words, and translates them into their own thoughts. If all goes well, the thoughts the second person ends up with are the same thoughts the first person started with.

Many of us naively assume everyone who speaks the same language has common definitions of the words in that language. After all, words mean what they mean, right? Well, let’s look at how dictionaries work. If you want to know the definition of a word, you look it up and the dictionary tells you. However, it tells you using other words, all of which can be found in the same dictionary. It is entirely self-referencing; it does not relate any word to any kind of objective meaning. When translating between thoughts and words, we use our own mental dictionaries, which are constructed by what we think words mean. Our beliefs about the meanings of words are not built around any kind of objective meaning, but are shaped by our own experiences. Thus, since everybody’s personal experiences are different, everybody’s mental dictionary ends up slightly different from everybody else’s.

Because of this, people can use the same words, but speak different languages in a sense. This is what happens when people “talk past each other,” or try to have a conversation, but feel like the other person does not understand a word they say. In order to solve this problem, we need to remember that the purpose of a conversation is to communicate a message, not to convince the other person that their definition is wrong. We might try using different words, but sometimes there aren’t enough words held in common to do so. If we want to be the most effective, we should concede to temporarily use the other person’s definition. The skill of being able to jump between definitions depending on who you are talking with can make it much easier to get along with lots of different people.

Let’s consider some examples of people using the same words with different meanings. First, “reality.” When a physicist talks about reality, they mean the objective aspects of the world that exist and have properties independently of anyone’s beliefs, knowledge, or perception. However, when a psychologist or philosopher talks about reality, they might mean that which affects one’s behavior and conscious experience. These people would say the pulled muscle in my hip is more real to me than the extreme poverty of a child in Nigeria, whereas a physicist would say they are equally real.

Another word that is used differently by different people, and which is the cause of much animosity among people these days, is “racism.” When most people talk about racism, they mean judging a person by their skin color instead of their individual characteristics. This, of course, can be done by anyone toward anyone. But when people in social justice circles talk about racism, they are referring to the extra hardships of life that are put on some groups of people and not others. To these people, being racist means participating, knowingly or not, in the features of the social system that allow these unfair hardships to happen. This kind of racism only flows in the direction of the underprivileged groups. If someone says, “it’s impossible to be racist against white people,” and the person they are talking to says, “that statement is racist,” they are talking about two different things, and must realize this quickly or their friendship will be in jeopardy.

There is little point arguing over whose definitions are correct. After all, it is not the words themselves that have meaning, but rather the meaning is produced when the words are translated by people into thoughts. If this idea seems strange, imagine speaking English to someone who only knows French. Before your words have any meaning to them, they must be taught to understand them. The same is true for someone who speaks the same language, but uses words differently.

In order to get along with people, you will want to practice listening for signs that you are using words differently. The most obvious is when the other person seems to make no sense at all. If an otherwise intelligent person says something that is ridiculously stupid, chances are that what they mean to say actually makes sense, and they used words that you use differently. A less obvious sign is if they say something that seems hurtful or prejudiced, especially if it is unprovoked. If you can’t tell by their words, check their mannerisms, because it is easier to tell someone’s intentions that way. Always remember that it’s not the words that are important, it’s the communication of one person’s thoughts to another.