Ex Nihilo (Nihil Fit): Out of Nothing (Nothing Comes)

The law of conservation of energy states that energy is neither created nor destroyed, it can only be altered in its form.  In a sense, in other words; all that ever was, will always be.  Our bodies grow through the consumption of energy, ingested in the form of mass then converted to the form called "energy".  This "energy" is then used with remaining mass to construct new forms and structures within our bodies.  Nothing is lost, and nothing is gained in a universal sense, but in the specific context regarding our perceptions we have grown a couple of inches, mended a bone, or simply closed our eyes.  The flow of energy then is the flow of everything, at least so far as we know, and we don't know a lot.  How then does the law of conservation of energy apply to the understanding of meaning and language?  The answer is simple, or is it?  It all depends on the approach taken, while hopefully nothing is lost in the translation.

Richards and Ogden's view on language and meaning is that something is lost in the transmittance of a though to a word, and then to another being.  "Language if it is to be used must be a ready instrument...Thus such shorthand as the word "means" is constantly used so as to imply a direct simple relation between words and things, phrases and situations" (Richards and Ogden 1275).  The shorthand of the word "means", as it is used to describe these relationships, can also apply to the word itself.  The word "means" is shorthand for this idea of relationships between things and other ideas.  The word is a combination of symbols, which come together to serve as a placeholder for the idea of "means".  This idea of "means", in turn, is the combination of a collection of ideas, making it a "mixed mode" in regards to Locke's analysis of language.  Through this compression of symbols and ideas, it feels like some meaning is lost.  Why is that?  Well, if we apply the law of conservation of energy it begins to make sense.  The formation of the thought or idea can be attributed through the stimulation and growth of a new connection in your brain.  In order for this to occur, mass must be converted into energy and vice-versa.  Forms must change.  The loss of meaning in the transference of speech and the creation of words, thoughts, and ideas, is not a loss on a universal scale, but a loss on our perceptive scale.  The precise neuronal structure of two individual's brains are like snowflakes.  It is almost infinitely improbable that two would be exactly the same.  Then, to add to the unlikeliness of two individual's sharing the exact structure and thus the same brain state and same understanding of an idea, the law of conservation of energy would require all influences to be acting on the individual's bodies in the same manner at the same time for there to be an exact state match.  This is laughably implausible, and short of a miracle impossible. Therefore, language as shorthand and as a placeholder for ideas is doomed to fail, as are all other forms of communication, in the transference of exact ideas.  This is somewhat ironic.  All we are is energy in different states.  We are the same, and we are different.  We are paradoxes, paradoxes are we.