[lit-ideas] Wittgenstein's Poker

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 21:03:20 EDT
After Wittgenstein:
 
        "Words are functional. Objects  are functional. Zum-handt.
         To the hand. A poker says  what a poker does. To poke.
         But a poker can also  become a dangerous weapon, in
         the wrong hands."
 
                          Philosophical Investigations.
 
 
 
                    "Richard has this horrible ideas: to share his room
                     with those manics of the Cambridge Moral Science
                     Club -- Witters was there, queer as a coot, as often,
                     and an economist from London, Carl Something. They
                     talked and talked and talked. I left early to H4, got
                     undressed, until Richard woke me up, "You forgot 
                    your  knickers in H3". "They are not mine!", I smelled.
                                                  Memoirs of M. M.
 
-- why is it that memories are written when people lose them?
 
 
In a message dated 5/7/2009 7:57:40 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Interesting possibility but it doesn't sit  well with the attributed remark 
(using 

[my own]

memory) that  Popper was an "ass" (actually this may have been just one of 
the author's of  "W's Poker" made-up quotations
 
 
[No. He did say, 'he is an ass', and wrote it in the bathroom, too]
 
 
>). And it is doubtful Popper was "at ease", though appearances can be  
deceptive. They were both, Popper much more consciously so, seeking to be heir  
to >Russell (even though Wittgenstein had radical plans to restructure the  
whole estate).

As an online site has it, both were 'prima donnas' (I hate that plural), so 
 what can you expect?
 
>It seems clear enough that Wittgenstein suffered from self-disgust  (esp. 
re his sexuality) but also he had disgust/contempt for others - including  
students >and the academic world generally. (This disgust with others fuelled 
 his own self-digust).
 
Yes, but that's hardly an excuse to brandish a red-hot poker on the face of 
 a visiting country fellowman.
 
---- On the other hand, I think he was bored.
 
I suppose Popper thought it witty, "Are there Philosophical Problems?".  
"Yes, not to threaten a visiting lecturer with a poker". 
 
I mean, it's insulting per se to go to a philosophers' meeting with a  
_question_ like that. Never mind if the answer is going to be positive.  
Apparently, by the time Popper finished his lecture, most of the 30 
participants  
had left.
 
----- This connects with Yost's claim, 'science' aesthetics, on which  
McEvoy has remained oddly mute. For surely the meeting was "Moral Science 
Club": 
 one of the most stupid labels for a club I ever heard of. And I thought 
Witters  was, er ..., witty.
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza
    Buenos Aires, Argentina
**************Remember Mom this Mother's Day! Find a florist near you now. 
(http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=florist&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000006)
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[lit-ideas] Wittgenstein's Poker

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