Sunday, December 12, 2004

The meaning of is is

This thing has been bothering me for a while. While others can give the meaning of English words I know, no one could give me what the meaning of 'is' is. Whomever I asked the question, they first tried to recall what the meaning was and after floundering for some time, they quickly pronounced me crazy! After some time on the internet, I came reference.com which defined 'is' as 'Third person singular present indicative of be.'

This dilemma was said to be leveraged on by Bill Clinton during his trial. Some say he was the first, but this lady says not so.

There is even a philosophy course at UTexas Austin, that ponders over the meaning of 'is'.

Now, who will answer the question, which came first - The chicken or the egg?

3 comments:

Lumbergh-in-training said...

Thanks Vasanth. Chennai, the city with the largest number of bloggers in India deserves a sub-industry for itself when Lahore and Karachi have their own, or Delhi or Mumbai for that matter

Paul said...

"[W]hich came first - The chicken or the egg?"

The reply to this is, "An earlier kind of egg". I remembered this from reading about Popper some time ago.

Anonymous said...

Manoj..Get me the meaning of/for meaning ..
Thanks