[Wittrs] Re: Wittgenstein and "Brain Scripts"
- From: Glen Sizemore <gmsizemore2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:33:38 -0700 (PDT)
--- On Thu, 9/24/09, Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Wittrs] Wittgenstein and "Brain Scripts"
> To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 6:28 PM
>
> Here is what I want to say: grammar is the processing
> language the brain learns to make sense of ordinary
> language. There is a sub-surface system of processing that
> is going on.
>
> Wittgenstein:
>
> "It seems that there are CERTAIN DEFINITE mental processes
> bound up with the working of language, processes through
> which alone language can function. I mean that processes of
> understanding and meaning. The signs of our language seem
> dead without these mental processes: and it might seem that
> the only function of the signs is to induce such processes,
> and that these are the things we ought really to be
> interested in. [BB, p. 3] (See also, PI, sect. 358). [note:
> allcaps used in place of italics
> –sw]
Sean, Wittgenstein is playing "devil's advocate" here - or rather, he is
playing the "cognitivist's advocate," as he does so frequently. Yes, TO THE
COGNITIVISTS, he is saying "It SEEMS there are certain definite mental
processes..." and "the signs of our language SEEM dead without these mental
processes: and it might SEEM that the only function of the signs is to induce
such processes." But this is not his position, and the use of the term "seems"
is almost always a dead giveaway that Wittgenstein is stating the "traditional"
position before he proceeds to demolish it. You are welcome to the traditional
mentalist view, and that is what you have unfailingly expressed. But it is not
Wittgenstein's view. [My emphasis in bold.]
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