On the other hand we
can perfectly well adopt the expression “this body
feels pain”, and we shall then, just as usual, tell it to
go to the doctor, to lie down, and even to remember that when the
last time it had pains they were over in a day.
“But wouldn't this form of expression at least
be an indirect one?” ‒ ‒ ‒ Is it using an
indirect expression when we say “Write
‘3’ for ‘x’ in this
formula” instead of “Substitute 3 for
x”? (Or on the other hand, is the
first of these two expressions
124.
the only direct one, as
some philosophers think?) One expression is no more
direct than the other. The meaning of the expression
depends entirely on how we go on using it.
Let's not imagine the meaning as an occult connection
the mind makes between a word and a thing, and that this connection
contains the whole usage of a word as the seed might be
said to contain the tree.