[Wittrs] Re: Wittgenstein and "Brain Scripts"
- From: "jrstern" <jrstern@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:47:59 -0000
--- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Glen Sizemore <gmsizemore2@...> wrote:
>
> 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.
I agree with Glen that Wittgenstein is just setting up a view here,
which he refutes at the top of page 4:
"There is one way of avoiding at least partly the occult appearance
of the processes of thinking, and it is, to replace in these processes
any working of the imagination by acts of looking at real objects."
Now, one must read *this* carefully, too, because it may be that
what Wittgenstein is saying here - is what he means! He wants to
replace the "occult appearance" of the process with a non-occult
appearance, yet keep the process, some process, even some physical
process. Read the rest of the page. Still, this is BB, early
in W's late game. What about the PI 358? Even more problematic,
reads as if W is asking, but not really answering, which is after
all rather how I take much of his later writing, when taken at
full face value.
So I must disagree with Glen when he asserts that these kinds
of sayings of W constitute a cognitivist advocate, when in fact
he is at even greater pains to deny that, too. More's the
shame, of course, IMHO.
So, what does that leave? What indeed. Dissolving. Therapy.
Josh
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