As I said at the end of my prefatory remarks, questions concerning the meaning of even very ordinary sorts of expressions can become quite interesting. This is especially true when the familiar is looked at from an unusual perspective or within an unfamiliar context. But it must also be said that questions about meaning are not interesting merely. Questions about meaning are not idle. The ultimate question "What is meaning?" is of the same order as those that ask "What is beauty?", "What is knowledge?", "What is goodness?", "What is justice?", and "What is truth?" Although pursued at the level of greatest generality, and hence at the highest levels of abstraction, these are not mere exercises in mental gymnastics. Answers to these questions carry consequences, and sometimes quite weighty ones, at that. It is the business of philosophy to ask, and to try to answer, such questions.