Words

People it seems have tendency towards a confusion by which they come to believe that the word synonymous means ‘the same as’ clearly that is not the case, synonymous means similar in meaning or something thereabouts it doesn’t mean ‘the same as’ or ‘alternative to’ the fact of the matter is that different words, no matter how similar to each other they may be have different meanings. The way by which this confusion arises is that it is very difficult to describe exactly how or in what manner one word has a different meaning to another without making recourse to that words synonyms. There is I believe a solution to this problem perhaps even a number of solutions.

For instance say, this word is like that word only it’s a bit colder in feel, or its more cerebrally based. For example ‘intelligent’ has a more cerebral base to it whereas ‘clever’ has a more practical base. Also one could think about the derivation of the word, think of what culture it comes from and of what concepts that culture had and which it didn’t have, say that this word comes from there and that it does not within its self have this or that concept, or one could simply say this has a more Greek feel to it whereas that is more french. This is of course something that one could not do with other languages such as french or Greek as they has very few if any words within them that come from other languages and cultures.

One other method by which this confusion arises is that people rarely learn words by having them explained to them, you learn mostly from hearing words and seeing what circumstances they are used in. Thus the final method by which this confusion could be averted is by reforming our various cultures in such a way as to make so that you would learn mainly by having words explained to you and only secondarily by hearing their usage in the outside world. The only problem with this is that it would slow down the learning process and thus slow down the rate of innovation within society, however it may also make it into a much more intelligent and thoughtful society more capable of solving its problems and those of the greater world, so perhaps the extra time and money spent on education would be worth it in the long term, which leaves only three questions.

How long will it hold up the education process?

How much more money would thus have to be spent on it?

And,

Can such an amount be affordable to society?