"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death."
Seems to be a variation on Epicurus:
“Why should I fear death?
If I am, then death is not.
If Death is, then I am not.
Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?
On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 4:22 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In a message dated 4/26/2015 9:33:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx writes:
"Anyway, happy birthday, Witters! (even if it does seem a bit ironic to
celebrate the birth of people who are dead. We don't celebrate Death day.
Or do we?"
I think part of the implicature by R. Paul (since Omar K. was asking about
it) was in the subject line
Der Tod ist kein Ereignis des Lebens ...
followed by
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Vienna, 26 April 1889 -- Oxford, 29 April 1951
Historical reminder from RP
"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death."
So we have:
i. Witters was born in Vienna.
ii. Witters died in Oxford.
(ii) is not an event in Witters's life.
This is so crucial that we can number it:
iii. Witters's death in Oxford is not an event in Witters's life.
YET -- the implicature:
iv. Oxford was unimportant in Witters's life.
v. Cambridge wasn't.
has a few counterexamples.
G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker instituted a Wittgensteinian school at St.
John's, and ages before that G. A. Paul motivated (with his Wittgensteinian
queries about lack of problem in sense data) H. P. G. to essay on the
causal theory of perception.
Witters visited Oxford a few times, and it would be good to revise the
week, or so, before April 29 1951. I'm sure it was eventful.
Witters was possibly a counter-example to Cambridge, and it's not
surprising that Witters influence in Oxford was great. Indeed, it was so
great that
H. P. G. once heard J. L. Austin challenge this:
"Some" (implicating: 'most around here') "like Witters, but Moore's MY
man."
Oddly, Moore was Cambridge, too, but trust an Oxonian to be provocative to
choose a Cambridge man as HIS man.
Popper may have argued that
iii. Witters' death in Oxford is not an event in Witters's life.
is perhaps analytic (analytically true) and thus 'definitional', or the
'fruit of conceptual analysis'.
Cheers,
Speranza
References
Toulmin, The Vienna of Wittgenstein
Simpson, The Oxford of Witters
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