as if there was a need for exhibition in the sad decline of m. wittgenstein -----Original Message----- From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx Sent: 17 June 2013 03:31 AM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Witters's Superstition and Ambiguous Grammar Modern discussion of the infinite is now regarded as part of set theory and mathematics, unless you are a Griceian and regard it as part of the theory of implicature ("As far as I _know_ -- not far, I think -- there are infinitely infinite stars"). This discussion is generally avoided by philosophers ("I have other infinite things to say" being the lame excuse) An exception was Wittgenstein, who made an impassioned attack upon axiomatic set theory, and upon the idea of the actual infinite, during his "middle period". Witters writes in "Philosophical Remarks", § 14: "Does the relation correlate the class of all numbers with one of its subclasses?" Typically, Witters goes on to answer his own question: "No." "It correlates any arbitrary number with another, and in that way we arrive at infinitely many pairs of classes, of which one is correlated with the other, but which are never related as class and subclass." Witters goes on: "Neither is this infinite process itself in some sense or other such a pair of classes." Witters, unlike Grice, concludes, typically, by blaming English (or German, strictly) on this: "In the superstition that correlates a class with its subclass, we merely have yet another case of ambiguous grammar." Or not, of the course. And YET, Popper thinks 'infinity' belongs in World 3. Cheers, Speranza ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ======= Please find our Email Disclaimer here-->: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/disclaimer ======= ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html