“For both Rowland Hutt and Fania Pascal, listening to [Wittgenstein’s] confession was an uncomfortable experience. In Hutt’s case, the discomfort was simply embarrassment at having to sit in a Lyons cafe while opposite him sat Wittgenstein reciting his sins in a loud and clear voice. Fania Pascal, on the other hand, was exasperated by the whole thing. Wittgenstein had phoned at an inconvenient moment to ask whether he could come and see her. When she asked if it was urgent she was told firmly that it was, and could not wait. ‘If ever a thing could wait,’ she thought, facing him across the table, ‘it is a confession of this kind and made in this manner.’ The stiff and remote way in which he delivered his confession made it impossible for her to react with sympathy. At one point she cried out: ‘What is it? You want to be perfect?’ ‘Of course I want to be perfect,’ he thundered.”
“476. Children do not learn that books exist, that armchairs exist, etc.,etc. - they learn to fetch books, sit in armchairs, etc., etc. Later, questions about the existence of things do of course arise, “Is there such a thing as a unicorn?” and so on. But such a question is possible only because as a rule no corresponding question presents itself. For how does one know how to set about satisfying oneself of the existence of unicorns? How did one learn the method for determining whether something exists or not?
So one must know that the objects whose names one teaches a child by an ostensive definition exist.“ - Why must one know they do? Isn’t it enough that experience doesn’t later show the opposite? For why should the language-game rest on some kind of knowledge?
Does a child believe that milk exists? Or does it know that milk exists? Does a cat know that a mouse exists?
Are we to say that the knowledge that there are physical objects comes very early or very late?”
I think,most people would agree with Wittgenstein’s famous argument about language being limited or not a reliable tool to communicate about some big philosophical problems like “What is virtue?”,“What is knowledge? etc. But i am having a hard time grasping the silliness of this argument. If Wittgenstein denies that language cannot be used to talk about abtract concepts in a meaningful way because its impossible to know the true definition of these concepts and feelings we experience, he is essentially trying to enforce virtue when he is not sure if he is even talking about the same thing.I think exact sensation in two different people is impossible for example I may look at a blue colour of different shade and intensity than you based on our visual capacity and neural network.Similarly,It is impossible to paint the exact picture of some abstract concept of something in someones mind through language due to this subjectivity of sensation, but it is the thing we evolved from start and still evolving.He also put in question all the philosophers that lived before him. Wittgenstein claims for a better communication tool which can be used to talk about these concepts but he forgot to think that it takes millions and billions of years to evolve a structure of thoughts to communicate an idea.Language is still evolving, maybe one day it will become that ideal structure for Wittgenstein then. But for now we should not cry and go on rant about this natural gift from evolution.
Aries:“Don’t, for heaven’s sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.” Taurus:“If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.” Gemini:“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” Cancer:“I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse’s good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.” Leo: “When you are philosophizing you have to descend into primeval chaos and feel at home there.” Virgo:“If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.” Libra:“Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.” Scorpio: “If in life we are surrounded by death, then in the health of our intellect we are surrounded by madness.” Sagittarius:“Always come down from the barren heights of cleverness into the green valleys of folly.” Capricorn:“The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” Aquarius: “Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.“ Pisces: “We are asleep. Our Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.”
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