If it's not shared, how do you get communication?
What is shared are the world around us and our capability of language. (Identifying symbols in information streams, grammar etc)
Ok, so we speak the same language, and we live in the same world, but there is no possibility of the concept in my head being understood by you. How do we communicate under those conditions? Can you give an example?
There needs to be some sharing of concepts, some common understanding, for any form of communication.
Every concept and perception of that concept are unique, therefore, you are correct. We can only share aspects of a concept where our experiences or comprehension (theory) overlap.
The actual experience and utility of any concept remains unique to the user, often very similar to that of another, but never precisely the same for the simple observation that no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time.
Yes, exactly.
And why would I need to share the concepts I have in my mind?
To communicate them to others.
The statement 'And why would I need to share the concepts I have in my mind' is intended to convey some kind of meaning. The meaning is something akin to what you were trying to convey at the time of writing. The meaning I pick up won't be exactly the same, but it has to be enough for me to get some idea of your meaning, or the while exercise is pointless. So every instance of communication involves one person sharing concepts with another person.
We can exchange words to try and convey what we means and we expect other people to understand the concepts we explain. Maybe it works, maybe it does not. But according to this view we don't need to assume that somewhere not our minds are concepts pretty much living a life of their own somewhat like celestial bodies and tornadoes do.
Not like expressions of physical forces, no, but they do need to be independent of the mind that created them. We can still discuss Newtonian mechanics, even though Newton is dead. If there is an idea that was in his head, that is now (in some related form) in mine, then it must have been moved, or transmitted or shared in some way.
If, as you suggested earlier, there is no shared concept, then we have a number of consequences from that. It becomes meaningless to say that a version of Newtonian mechanics is 'correct' or 'incorrect', it becomes meaningless to say that something is 'accurate' or 'inaccurate', and it becomes meaningless to say that Newtonian mechanics are 'useful' or not 'useful' or even that they have certain mechanical properties. Because anything even loosely inspired by the original writings of Newton is equally Newtonian Mechanics, from the one where the guy simply copied down the formula wrong, to the guy who gave up halfway through and starting doodling ninja hamsters on the side of the page. If there is no shared concept, then what separates an accurate rendition of Newtonian mechanics from doodles of ninja hamsters?
And I still haven't seen any good explanation of why concepts should be anything but ideas inside our minds (make it neuronal processes inside our brains if you want to be materialistic about it).EB
Because concepts get out and spread to other people, while neuronal processes (or indeed words on paper) don't.
