Some Principles of Phenomenological Hermeneutics

4. Our symbolic world is not separate from our beings, especially in regard to language: we 'are' language, in that what distinguishes us as persons is that we are beings who are conscious of themselves, that is, can know themselves symbolically and self-reflexively. As Heidegger remarked, "Language speaks man." We are not beings who 'use' symbols, but beings who are constituted by their use. It follows that all experience is articulatable in principle; although it is not reducilble to its articulation, it is brought into being for us through its symbolic representation. As Paul Ricoeur remarks in "Phenomenology and Hermeneutics", "To bring [experience] into language is not to change it into something else, but, in articulating and developing it, to make it become itself." It also follows that being and meaning are taken, by humans, to be as good as the same, although signification does not exhaust expereine (see next point). (Copyright 1996 by John Lye)

The Ministry of Fisheries suggest drowning crabs and lobsters in fresh water before cooking them. The Ministry of Fisheries' primary purpose is "to ensure that fisheries are sustainably used within a healthy aquatic ecosystem". What this means is they are responsible for conserving the resource they are promoting the exploitation of. So drown your lobsters in fresh water before you cook them.

i have several lemonade ice blocks in my freezer. i think about four. i bought them in a box of maybe ten. i am pretty sure i have only eaten three of them but selling anything in a box of seven seems a bit unlikely. Although it is Holy Week. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Part of me thinks maybe i should save the rest of the lemonade ice blocks until Sunday but i think i will probably eat one this afternoon. It is possible that someone else ate some of them, but it seems unlikely that someone else would have eaten three. Three is kind of a lot but not spread over a few days, like a week or so, that wouldn't be that many. i will write five cards this afternoon congratulating ten people for giving birth to children and eat one of the lemonade ice blocks, and maybe check the box to see how the numbers are playing out.