If we think of the word “meaning”, we assume an interpretation of something and creating a true statement about it.
We do that on the basis of a criteria we apply (can be any number of them) and construct the meaning of the basis of an inductive process to reach a conclusion. We do that on the basis of experience, learning from others, all kinds of sources.
Sometimes we accept unconditionally what we had been told, like many orthodox religion followers who accepted without question all the dogma of the church or a mosque, and created emotional states or themselves on the basis of meaning they created for themselves in that context.
Suddenly we had created a “truth” statement or ourselves. Something is now “true”, often being devoid of any logical basis. Sometimes it is enough for people to say “Becayse Bible told me so”, etc. When I ask, “How do you know it is true”? they say, “Because my Dad told me” or “because I am a good Christian and the Bible says you don’t question anything”. Argument closed.
We also say something is true because we feel it, and we apply meaning to the “feeling” somewhere in the body. The feeling never occurs by itself but as a result of some kind of an internal verification process (which usually is super fast). The Feeling always happens with a picture and some kind of an internal auditory statement.
We also use language, so in order to construct a meaning we use language internally, saying something means something or something causes something, and then interpret that as “truth”.
In that light, when we talk with others, in order to have a valid argument, we must first establish that we are talking about is congruent with what they are talking about, or at least find a way to agree that we are talking about the same thing.
And this is where we apply the beautiful Meta Model – the model of precision, which is used to distill individual criteria people apply when talking about something.
This is why the specific parameters in the primes proof so elegantly demonstrate the power of precision and show how essential it is to pay attention to nuances of language. In the proof itself we had identified not only the basic presupposition but also clearly defined the criteria.
If a number is a prime, it means it MUST be divisible by itself and 1 only. If it is not, it cannot be divisible by itself and 1 ONLY, which excludes all the other numbers from the set of primes. In order for any of that to be possible, we must assume (presuppose) the existence of numbers as such, and also presuppose an infinite number of them. Clear and elegant.
Lets take a vague concept such as holly spirit or ego or love or happiness…
What do they mean? If people talk about God, how do we know we are talking about the same thing? How can we be sure we apply the same meaning to the same word?
Isn’t it only sound to ask questions before we embark on an argument about God? Some will kill because someone else says Jahve rather than the Lord.
Why would that be any different? What is the meaning here? What kinds of beliefs underlie such argument? Meaning is derived from an internal process that includes a verification process.
Language is purely mathematical. We create meaning based on how we structure our experience, language being a part of it.
We are just not used to a deductive process which Math uses in the primes proof.
We build our experience inductively- gather data, store it and apply the laws of probability when we construct a meaning.
In Math we assume only the basic parameters (or precision, whereas the Meta Model is redundant) and from there we build logical constructs.
Both are needed and represent the Yin and the Yang. Statistics is inductive.Math is deductive.
Just a thought.
Written by Anita Kozlowski, Founder of Live With Power NLP Seminars.
Anita Kozlowski is an internationally licensed NLP trainer, therapist, strategic business and success coach. She has used innovative therapy to change lives through a unique system that has been proven to work. As an internationally licensed NLP trainer, she has trained thousands of individuals from all walks of life in pure NLP, for which she has received recognition on three continents.