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
Tag: Wittgenstein
The Actual Colour of the Sun
‘The sun is actually white, it just appears yellow to us through the Earth’s atmosphere.’ This is a line that appeared on Facebook a while ago, courtesy of my friend Else Cederborg, who posts all sorts of curious and interesting things. It is a common form of argument that most will readily understand and generally … Continue reading The Actual Colour of the Sun
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…
In the beginning was the word… or was it?
Reflecting on the origin of words leads us into interesting territory. I do not mean the origin of particular words, though that can be interesting too; I mean the notion of words as units, as building blocks into which sentences can be divided. How long have we had words? The temptation is to say ‘as … Continue reading In the beginning was the word… or was it?
The Lords of Convention
‘The present king of France is bald’ seems to present a logical problem that ‘the cat is on the table’ does not - there is no present king of France, so how can we assert that he is bald? and is the sentence true or false? But I am much more interested in the second … Continue reading The Lords of Convention
The Mechanism of Meaning (it’s all in the mind)
Meaning matters. It is bound up with so many things: understanding and misunderstanding, doubt and certainty, to say nothing of philosophy, poetry, music and art; so it is worth considering the mechanism by which it operates. 'Mechanism' is a useful image here: when mechanisms are hidden - as they generally are - their effects can … Continue reading The Mechanism of Meaning (it’s all in the mind)
Storypower: Quigley’s Ineffable Escapade
‘The solution to the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem. (Is not this the reason why those who have found after a long period of doubt that the sense of life has become clear to them have been unable to say what constitutes that sense?)’ (Wittgenstein, Tractatus, 6.521) That remarkable … Continue reading Storypower: Quigley’s Ineffable Escapade
The Exploration of Inner Space II : by way of metaphor
In a recent piece, prompted by Eliot’s line ‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality’ I suggested that we have constructed a carapace that protects us from Reality much as a spacesuit protects an astronaut or a bathysphere a deep-sea explorer. This in itself is an instance of how metaphor works as a tool of thought … Continue reading The Exploration of Inner Space II : by way of metaphor
For us, there is only the trying
One thing that being a writer brings home to you is the tentative nature of all writing: it is always an attempt to say something - one that can be more or less successful - and it is always a struggle. And the more difficult the matter, the greater the struggle, because we are conscious … Continue reading For us, there is only the trying
Force of Habit
'Mind-forged manacles', as well as being one of Blake's most resonant phrases, also shows how well (and succinctly) poetry (and art in general) can express a complex idea that it is difficult to express by standard reasoning. At the heart of Blake's phrase is a contradiction, something that is anathema to conventional reason: 'forging' is … Continue reading Force of Habit
COMPLEAT TROWZER 