[lit-ideas] Re: Wittgenstein's Punch Line
- From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 17:08:23 -0330
Y'know , as Jack Benny put it well, if you have to *explain* the joke ...
Cheers, Walter
Quoting Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx:
> McEvoy amusingly rephrases the conversation as being:
>
> Russell: Are you tormented by your logic or your sins.
> Witters: Both.
>
> McEvoy comments:
>
> "The Russell story about whether W was tormented in thought by "logic" or
> his "sins" - "Both" replied W - might easily be thought that of a humourless
>
> person..."
>
> For the record, as quoted by C. B .:
>
> In a message dated 2/13/2014 7:54:11 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> cblists@xxxxxxxx writes:
>
>
> "Once I [Russell] said to him [Witters]: 'Are you thinking about logic, or
> about your sins?' 'Both', he replied."
>
> In propositional logic:
>
>
> Ïw(p, q)
>
> where "p" is logic
>
> and "q" is 'my sins'.
>
> There may be an implicature that logic IS a sin. As the Queen reminds to
> Alice:
>
> "I can't believe that!" said Alice.
> "Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long
> breath, and shut your eyes."
> Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe
> impossible things."
> "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was
> your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've
> believed
> as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
>
> i.e. the Queen believes.
>
> She believes that p1, p2, p3, p4, p5, and p6
>
> -- the fact that each proposition is impossible should concern Witters --
> NOT the Queen.
>
> Now, it may be argued that thinking is mono-propositional. Suppose I think
> that the cat is black and that the cat is on the mat. This may be
> summarised as me thinking that the black cat is on the mat.
>
> If I think that London is the capital of the United Kingdom and that
> Picasso is a great painter, a cognitive psychologist may wonder if these
> thoughts are thought IN SUCCESSION.
>
> Back to Russell:
>
> Russell: Are you thinking about logic, or about your sins?
>
> Witters: Both.
>
> Russell is assuming a monopropositional account of thinking.
>
> Are you thinking p OR q?
>
> Answer: I'm thinking p AND q.
>
> The problem is that 'my sins' and 'logic' do not really allow for a
> propositional format -- in terms of 'that'-clause.
>
> Witters was thinking that he was a sinful person and that logic is
> important.
>
> These two thoughts look indeed so disparate that Witters's curt reply, as
> McEvoy suggests, cannot but be understood as a 'punch line' (keyword:
> punchiness).
>
> Or not.
>
> Cheers
>
> Speranza
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