[lit-ideas] Re: What Wittgenstein Could See
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 10:15:09 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Paul <Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Aug 10, 2004 11:55 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: What Wittgenstein Could See
JL writes:
The Humpty Dumpty quote:
`In winter, when the fields are white,
I sing this song for your delight --
"Only I don't sing it,' he added, as an explanation. 'I see you don't,' said
Alice. `If you can see whether I'm singing or not, you've sharper eyes than
most,' Humpty Dumpty remarked severely. Alice was silent."
The Wittgenstein quote:
"I can see you know nothing about rocks".
-------------------------------------------------
Truth be told, double-negationwise, I tampered with the quote a bit. The
'original' is in Malcolm's 1958 Memoir of Wittgenstein. (I don't have the text
at hand; I don't have _any_ texts at hand; they're all in boxes making their way
across town to be with the rocks.) Wittgenstein had some house plants in his
digs at Cambridge, and left them either in Malcolm's care or in the care of
another disciple for a few days. When he returned, the plants were dead.
Wittgenstein's comment was 'I can see that you know absolutely nothing about
plants.' If this isn't right, it's close. But it was plants, not rocks.
Thanks for Carroll's nice little philosophical joke.
A.A. I heard a discussion with Michio Kaku, the physicist. Lewis Carroll, as
everyone knows, was a mathematician. What I didn't know is that he wrote Alice
in Wonderland as a demonstration of black holes as passages between universes.
He did it as a children's book because he knew it would not be understood.
Einstein and the others followed not too long afterward with their amazing
theories. Actually, also according to Michio Kaku, Einstein believed that
theories have to be simple enough that children can understand them. Only then
do they have the elegance that makes them viable. Hence the search for a one
inch long formula for super string theory, along the lines of E=MC2. Simplify,
simplify as Thoreau said.
Andy Amago
Robert Paul,
who thinks Judy Evans is a babe
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
