Wittgenstein at the bar of the Folies Bergere By what James Joyce would call a vicus of recirculation, I find myself once more in agreement with Ludwig Wittgenstein after an unexpected falling-out. It was my reading of Wittgenstein’s well-known dictum that ‘the meaning of a word…is its use in the language’ along with his notion … Continue reading Coming back to Ludwig
Category: language-related
The Shepherd Boy and the Philosopher: a fable about numbers
‘It's surreal to me that it's 2022 and there are still people out there who think 2 + 2 = 4 is an objective truth that was true before humans even existed and not just like a thing society agreed on because it's useful’ (culled from Twitter, where people say the most extraordinary things out … Continue reading The Shepherd Boy and the Philosopher: a fable about numbers
Hijacking the common speech: A bad deal is better than a worse one, but no deal is better than both.
The use and abuse of language has been critical to the continuing political crisis initiated by David Cameron's ill-judged and badly-executed attempt to stem the flow of votes from his party to UKIP in the 2015 General Election. Recently I remarked on how 'just get on with it' and kindred expressions had been subverted to … Continue reading Hijacking the common speech: A bad deal is better than a worse one, but no deal is better than both.
A picture of the world
Let us suppose two people, poring over a map spread on a table; make it an Ordnance Survey two-and-half-inch to the mile one. They are planning a cycle journey together that will traverse the area shown on the map, by one of several routes. Both are skilled in reading maps, so that in tracing a … Continue reading A picture of the world
Why Writing is like a Playtex Bra
‘It lifts and separates’ is a slogan that will be familiar to those of my generation - it was advertised as the chief virtue of the Playtex ‘cross-your-heart’ Bra. However, it also serves as a memorable illustration of my theory concerning the origin of what we think of as Language. The conventional account presents Language, … Continue reading Why Writing is like a Playtex Bra
‘Like, yet unlike.’
'Like, yet unlike,' is Merry's comment in The Lord of the Rings when he first sees Gandalf and Saruman together: Gandalf, returned from the dead, has assumed the white robes formerly worn by Saruman, who has succumbed to despair and been corrupted by evil and is about to be deposed. So we have two people … Continue reading ‘Like, yet unlike.’
St. Anselm and the Blackbird
Blackbird Its eye a dark pool in which Sirius glitters and never goes out. Its melody husky as though with suppressed tears. Its bill is the gold one quarries for amid evening shadows. Do not despair at the stars’ distance. Listening to blackbird music is to bridge in a moment chasms of space-time, is to … Continue reading St. Anselm and the Blackbird
Expressing conviction
In an earlier piece ('For us, there is only the trying') I observed that one of the insights that come with being a writer is the tentative nature of all writing, that it is always an attempt, and to that degree, never certain of success. I have been considering the implications of this insight since. … Continue reading Expressing conviction
More thinking about thinking
As I remarked elsewhere, a lot of my own thinking might be described as ‘subvocalisation’, i.e. speaking without voicing the actual words. Even as I am typing this, I am constructing the sentences ‘in my head’ - though I would not say that I hear them: this is not someone else’s voice, it is mine, … Continue reading More thinking about thinking
A penny for them…
‘What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? I never know what you are thinking.’ – Eliot, The Waste Land ‘He’s the sort that you never know what he’s thinking’ defines a recognisable character but carries a curious implication. There is a strong suggestion of duplicity, of inner workings at odds with outer show. Even among … Continue reading A penny for them…
COMPLEAT TROWZER 