[Wittrs] Re: Wittgenstein, Language, Thought and Mind

  • From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:24:49 -0700

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> (Reply to Nasha):
>
> Regarding the issue of "thoughts," I think the following discussion
> was helpful:
>  http://seanwilson.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=348&start=0&S=ea23ad7d48ebff75fa851131c581a764
>
> The thing to remember is that Wittgenstein is really against a contrived
> inner/outer distinction. He doesn't want you to talk with too much inner as
> much as he does not want too much outer. Nothing is hidden from you. But
> this does not mean that thoughts are "words" any more than it means words
> are "thoughts." Really, it means that both are sentential -- that we think
> by the same process that we language. That these are the same sort of thing.
> In fact, when Wittgenstein says that we could not understand anything
> without "language," he does not mean to say that an infant who cannot speak
> an English-language-word, but whose eyes become huge at the sight of a
> bright-colored object, is not "languaging" yet. Indeed, that would be a
> function of what cognitive processes are going on, and whether they are
> language-like. All that Wittgenstein was every doing was trying to destroy
> folk psychology (a little man in the head) without also becoming a brute
> behaviorist.

I'd append here that I don't think "languaging" is really distinct
from other processes and indeed, if we try too hard to build a wall
between languaging and not-languaging, it'll just crumble.

We think thinking or language is something unique, this proves to be a
superstition, not a mistake.

What he means there, I think, is it's fine to think this way, just if
you find yourself *believing* it, like some kind of trapped fly, then
maybe study some more and get free of such notions.

Kirby

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