[lit-ideas] Wittgenstein's Moses
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 05:26:26 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 5/12/2014 1:29:19 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
palmaadriano@xxxxxxxxx writes:
this is getting real deep, a relation between the name and the bearer....
I got 4 names, do I get to pick which relation I like on Monday, Wednesday
and Friday, and the other four days Speranza makes choice?
This commenting Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There is a modern Israeli female name "Moshit", i.e. "Mosesa." I once knew
a pretty girl with that name, but I kind of didn't like the name.
In turn commenting on:
>A friend of mine once found a cat amidst a storm. He named the cat
"Moses".
> It turned out to be a female cat, and he was wondering if "Moses", in
>Hebrew, has a feminine counterpart -- although "Mosesa" did pretty well.
And ultimately meant as a commentary on Wittgenstein discussion on the
'dossier' for the name 'Moses'. It perhaps wasn't clear (to Wittgenstein, even)
that, I would think, when Moses's mother named Moses 'Moses', she meant it
_literally_.
From Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses
"The biblical text explains the name Mošeh
משה
as a derivation of the root mšh משה
"to draw", in Exodus 2:10:
"she called his name Moses (משה): and she said,
"Because I drew him (משיתהו) out of the water""
(King James Version).[8]
(Similarly my friend named the kitten 'Moses', because he drew the kitten
from behind a trea, and saved him from a storm, and out of a water pond,
almost).
"The name is thus suggested to relate to drawing out in a passive sense,
"the one who was drawn out"".
But of course Mill thinks that names need not have a meaning. This is
parodied in the conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty (paraphrased):
Humpty Dumpty: Mmm. Alice. Strange name. Does it mean anything?
Alice: Must a name mean something?
Humpty Dumpty: Of course it does. Mine means the handsome shape I display.
With a name like YOURS, you should have any shape whatsoever.
--- (As a matter of fact, "Alice" means something -- even if Miss
Hargreaves was never told).
"Those who depart from this tradition derive the name [Moses] from the same
root but in an active sense, "he who draws out", in the sense of "saviour,
deliverer"".
"The form of the name as recorded in the Masoretic text is indeed the
expected form of the Biblical Hebrew active participle."
"Josephus argued for an Egyptian etymology, and some scholarly suggestions
have followed this in deriving the name from Coptic terms mo "water" and
`uses "save, deliver", suggesting a meaning "saved from the water"" -- as
when a kitten is saved from a storm, the kitten can aptly be baptised "Moses"
descriptively or "Moshit", if a female (My friend was not observant enough
as to the gender of the kitten at the time -- plus they say it's pretty
difficult for the non-specialist to determine the gender of kittens at a very
early age).
"Another suggestion has connected the name ['Moses'] with the Egyptian
ms, as found in Tuth-mose and Ra-messes, meaning "born" or "child"."
Cheers,
Speranza
-----
In Section 79 Wittgenstein writes:
"If one says
i. Moses did not exist.
this may MEAN various things."
"It may mean:
ii. The Israelites did not have a single leader when they withdrew from
Egypt——or:
iii. The Israelite's leader was NOT called Moses——-or:
iv. There cannot have been anyone who accomplished all that the Bible
relates of Moses——or:
v. etc. etc.
"We may say, following Russell: the NAME "Moses" can be defined by means of
various descriptions."
"For example, as
vi. "Moses" names the man who led the Israelites through the wilderness.
vii. "Moses" names the man who lived at that time and place and was then
called 'Moses'.
viii. "Moses" names the man who as a child was taken out of the Nile by
Pharaoh's daughter.
and so on.
"And according as we assume one definition or another the proposition, our
original utterance
i. Moses did not exist.
acquires a different SENSE, and so does every other proposition about
Moses."
"And if we are told, in general
ib. "N did not exist"
we do ask: "What do you mean? Do you want to say . . . . . . or . . . . . .
etc.?"
"When I make a statement about Moses,— am I always ready to substitute some
one of these descriptions for "Moses"?"
"I shall perhaps say as follows."
"By "Moses" I understand the man who did what the Bible relates of Moses,
or at any rate a good deal of it."
"But how much?"
"Have I decided how much must be proved false for me to give up my
proposition as false?"
"Has the NAME "Moses" got a fixed and unequivocal use for me in all
possible cases?
"Is it not the case that I have, so to speak, a whole series of props in
readiness, and am ready to lean on one if another should be taken from
under
me and vice versa?"
palma
cell phone is 0762362391
*only when in Europe*:
inst. J. Nicod
29 rue d'Ulm
f-75005 paris france
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