[lit-ideas] t Horwich on wittgenstein
- From: Adriano Palma <Palma@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2013 05:51:39 +0000
the problem is that : it is true that p isn't equivalent to p
this does take an argument and the best way to frame it is humor and fiction
cases
superman flies is not equivalent to it is true that superman flies,
try as you may, you end up sayign something false
…
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Omar Kusturica
Sent: 06 March 2013 03:02 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Horwich on wittgenstein
This is an interesting article, thanks R. Paul, I will only comment on this bit:
Wittgenstein’s conceptual pluralism positions us to recognize that notion’s
idiosyncratic function, and to infer that truth itself will not be reducible to
anything more basic. More specifically, we can see that the concept’s function
in our cognitive economy is merely to serve as a device of generalization. It
enables us to say such things as “Einstein’s last words were true,” and not be
stuck with “If Einstein’s last words were that E=mc2, then E=mc2; and if his
last words were that nuclear weapons should be banned, then nuclear weapons
should be banned; … and so on,” which has the disadvantage of being infinitely
long! Similarly we can use it to say: “We should want our beliefs to be true”
(instead of struggling with “We should want that if we believe that E=mc2, then
E=mc2; and that if we believe … etc.”). We can see, also, that this sort of
utility depends upon nothing more than the fact that the attribution of truth
to a statement is obviously equivalent to the statement itself — for example,
“It’s true that E=mc2” is equivalent to “E=mc2”. Thus possession of the concept
of truth appears to consist in an appreciation of that triviality, rather than
a mastery of any explicit definition. The traditional search for such an
account (or for some other form of reductive analysis) was a wild-goose chase,
a pseudo-problem. Truth emerges as exceptionally unprofound and as
exceptionally unmysterious.
Assuming arguendo that it is true that: “It’s true that E=mc2” is equivalent
to “E=mc2”, can we not easily rephrase the question in some other terms, such
as: "What enables us to say that E=mc2 " or "Why is E=mc2" or even "is
E=mc2" ? Where the discussion continues more or less as before.
O.K.
________________________________
From: adriano paolo shaul gershom palma <palmaadriano@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 7:52 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Horwich on wittgenstein
Horwich expresses an extreme pessimism, which may be the right reading of
wittgenstein position 9somethign far more Spengler-like than philosophical in
mood of Schopenhauer, two authors that Wittgenstein read well, by the bye)
On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:21 AM, Robert Paul
<rpaul@xxxxxxxx<mailto:rpaul@xxxxxxxx>> wrote:
This comes a little late in an unfinished discussion, and its author yields
several times to his own craving for generality, but nevertheless...
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/was-wittgenstein-right/
Robert Paul,
thinking how easy it must be to get published in the NY Times.
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