“‘What shall we call a “thing” anyhow?’ [William] James asks. ‘It seems quite arbitrary for we carve out everything just as we carve out constellations, to suit our human purposes.’ . . .

In counting the stars and finding a resemblance, we in one sense discover what was always there, but in another, by adding to it, create something entirely new.”

—Dennis Ford, The Search for Meaning: A Short History, 2007.