subject to change
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
  inscrutible reference
Thanks to Shane, I know now that the thing I was pointing at is called "university seating". For those who weren't in my class yesterday, perhaps because you were sent here by Google, university seating constitutes a fine example of Quine's assertion in "Ontological Relativity" that direct ostension is uncertain. I'm still not sure what I was pointing to, was it a seat, a work area, a segment of a larger piece of furniture? University seating is such an odd object that not only is it very difficult for an observer to figure out what someone means when they point at it, I was unsure what I was point at.

Even after considering the web-site. I'm still not sure if "university seating" refers to the type of furniture to which the object containing the ostensive point of my pointing belonged, or if its a brand name for the parts from which such things are built. Perhaps they should call such constructed furniture "gavagai" because even as the pointer, in this case, I'm not sure if I'm indicating a peice of furniture or a collection of undetached furniture parts.
 

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