Words Paradox

When reading Locke I began to consider words are paradoxical in multiple ways: firstly, as perfections and imperfections, secondly, as a means and obstacle to knowledge. Words are but subjective signs, representations of ideas, never quite grasping at the present thing but rather, to quote Derrida where it is applicable, "representing the presence in its absence" (Differance, 284). Words are "provisional", acting and signifying a thing that they are not, and thus able to have paradoxical qualities.

Words are used for recording and communicating. When recording, one is taking one's own thoughts and using words within themselves as a means of remembering their ideas. In this case the meanings and significances of each word are singular (pertaining to that sole individual) and, "if he constantly uses the same sign for the same idea", his words will be perfect in that they only have to hold coherent meaning to himself (Locke, 817). This is Locke's "perfection of language".

In contrast, when words are used to communicate (to help ideas traverse from one mind to another in hopes to find or share knowledge and understanding), the significances are subject to change from relayer to receiver. Thus lies the imperfection of language. Because words are but arbitrary signs and can carry various significances, any true or coherent value in the word-sign is lost or skewed in communication. Words are paradoxically perfect to the individual and imperfect as communicators in the same way that one's opinion is objective to himself yet subjective in the realm of others.

If words are necessary to communicate a complex idea and this communication is the way to knowledge, then words are a necessary means to knowledge. Humans desire knowledge and thus wish to use language to signify their thoughts, expressing ideas to one another and hoping to gain this knowledge. And how else would we share knowledge if not with words? Words are a must as a means in the path of gaining knowledge. Without them how could we communicate ideas?

And yet, because words are but signs and imperfections are pervasive in the act of communication, words also act as obstacles in the path to knowledge. "If we consider...the mistakes in men's disputes, how great a part is owing to words, and their uncertain or mistaken significations, we shall have reason to think this no small obstacle in the way of knowledge" (Locke, 824). The imperfections of words create disputes and misunderstandings of meaning, hindering the learning process and blocking the means of knowledge. In other words, words are a hindrance to the means that words create. Or words can (and will, because they are just subjective signs) act as a clog to their own flow.