[C] [Wittrs] Re: the apotheosis of Wittgenstein
- From: Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 12:23:37 -0800 (PST)
(JP)
... here is what I would say.
It is difficult to translate the grammar of "mistake" when at the outset we
grant vastly different levels of play. It is common to think, e.g., that if God
made a mistake, it would widely understood as calamitous. The idea is, I think,
that since God is "big," the mistake must be gargantuan. But yet it would
perfectly reasonable to assume that if God made a mistake, it would not be
cognizable to us as a "mistake" at all, because the plane of reference would
not be the same. That is, "mistake" or "error" is something that arises out of
a way of knowing.
And so, if Beethoven made a mistake in music, it might not sound like a mistake
to us. Indeed, we might need trained to see it as a mistake. But if Beethoven
made something we (Lilliputians) consider a "mistake," what would truly be the
error would be our placing an ordinary and routine aesthetic as a frame for
judgment of his. (See Jerry Springer).
And so, applying this to Wittgenstein, one would never take the Emperor's
"admission" of a mistake as anything but part of the music. It's part of the
performance. We'd have to first understand the framework of the Emperor to see
what the conditions for asserting mistake are in this realm.
I say again. Anyone who sticks his nose into a Wittgenstein book with the
purpose of informing his own reference frame is not doing the matter properly.
What you do is try to learn the reference frame of the Beethoven. You chase his
mind. Yours is irrelevant in the project. Only after you have an idea of what
runs through his head can you begin to say such-and-such about the level of
play you are encountering.
One wants to say: you cannot criticize Wittgensgtein before
communion.
Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq.
Assistant Professor
Wright State University
Personal Website: http://seanwilson.org
SSRN papers: http://ssrn.com/author=596860
Discussion Group: http://seanwilson.org/wittgenstein.discussion.html
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