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Document Details :

Title: Two Questions about the Meaning of Meaning
Author(s): PATTYN, Bart
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 6    Issue: 3-4   Date: 1999   
Pages: 215-219
DOI: 10.2143/EP.6.3.505344

Abstract :
It would seem obvious to assume that nothing enters our consciousness that does not have a 'meaning'. Feelings, customs, prescriptions, gestures — all these are involuntarily interpreted and valued in function of various historical, social and cultural conceptions and circumstances. This is why philosophical considerations about justice, ethics and rights nowadays are linked with the concrete 'meaning' of goods, customs, institutions and persons. Walzer is no exception when he situates his moral and political reflections in the 'meaning' that goods, customs and institutions have in a particular culture at a particular time.

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