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Essay / Augustine's Dialogue with Adeodatus first to Adéodat “if man is man” (The Teacher 8.22.64). Adeodatus responds that the man is in fact a man. Augustine then asks if the syllable “ho-” means something other than “ho-” and “mo-” means something other than “mo-” and that. these conjoined syllables are a man. Adeodatus replies that each syllable means only what they mean and that they are a man. Augustine then asks, if you are a man (homo), are you then these conjoined syllables? his line of questioning, establishing the distinction between the sign and the signifiable.Say no to plagiarismGet a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayBy analyzing the reasoning errors of Adeodatus, he realized that he should never have admitted that "ho-" and "-mo" together are man but rather that they form the sign that represents man. Augustine reinforces this point by giving an example where a comedian would make a person say lion and then could not deny that the lion had come out of the speaker's mouth to the comic's great mockery. Adeodatus points out that it is obvious that what we say does not come out of our mouth but that we signify things by our speech, unless "the signs themselves are signified, and we have discussed this class [of signs] a short time ago” (8.23.109). Augustine continues his reasoning by wondering if man is a name. Adeodatus begins to accept this in light of the previously established conclusion that every word is a noun. Augustine points out that the language he uses is not precise because, in saying that man is a name, he would be saying that he himself is a name. Augustine understands how Adéodat came to accept conditions that would lead him to a false conclusion. “The law of reason implanted in our minds has overcome your prudence” (8.24.122-123). Augustine explains that we unconsciously make a distinction between whether we discuss the word "man" as a sign or as a signifiable. If we understand man as a part of speech (a sign), then it is correct to say that man is a noun, however if man is understood as a reference to the signifiable, then it is correct to say that man is an animal. Augustine points out that unless someone explicitly asks about man as a sign, e.g. "is man a noun", then the rule of language would immediately apply to that which is signified by the syllable “man” — for example if he asks “what is it?” man ". The conversation then moves on to why the rule of language is the way it is, for example, why saying that "Therefore you are not a man" is offensive when in the context of "man" being a syllable, it is true. Augustine explains that by virtue of what a sign is intended to do, the sign by default points away from itself and toward the signifiable because it "naturally has the most power – so that once the signs heard, attention is directed towards the things signified. » (8.24.150-151). Augustine then raises the point “that the things signified must be valued more than their signs.” Whatever exists because of another must be worth less than that because of which it exists,” meaning that the word man, for example, is worth less than the concept of man itself. Adeodatus points out that in some cases the concept is viewed with great contempt by giving the example of "dirt". By itself, the word "dirt" is only one letter away from the Latin word for sky, but the.."
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