Our practises of measuring and quantifying things have given rise to many linguistic tools and methods which we can spend years studying and mastering in their own right — for example, by studying fields like Statistics.
You are definitely rapping at the window at something very true, the representational view distorts the view we have of ourselves and how we function as animals. I would push back on one implication though: in deflating the representationalist picture, there's a suggestion that the question itself was empty to begin with. I don't think that follows. The failure of that picture might mean we need a different kind of attentiveness to what's already there, rather than concluding there was nothing there to find. Wittgenstein never ceased asking questions even well after PI, and although he never gave much in terms of alternatives, I don't read him as condemning the idea that we can explore our condition through expressive practice — art, poetry, and so on. Happy to hear whether I'm misreading you though.
I don’t entirely disagree, but I also do think Wittgenstein was somewhat conflicted in himself over this. i.e.
“PI, 133. We don’t want to refine or complete the system of rules for the use of our words in unheard-of ways. For the clarity that we are aiming at is indeed complete clarity. But this simply means that the philosophical problems should completely disappear. The real discovery is the one that enables me to break off philosophizing when I want to. a The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself in question. a Instead, a method is now demonstrated by examples, and the series of examples can be broken off. —– Problems are solved (difficulties eliminated), not a single problem.“
I sat here like 20 min trying to comment but repeatedly deleting them because I felt like I was just saying similar things to you in more clunky ways..maybe that would be useful to someone in some way but I’m not sure 😅
You are definitely rapping at the window at something very true, the representational view distorts the view we have of ourselves and how we function as animals. I would push back on one implication though: in deflating the representationalist picture, there's a suggestion that the question itself was empty to begin with. I don't think that follows. The failure of that picture might mean we need a different kind of attentiveness to what's already there, rather than concluding there was nothing there to find. Wittgenstein never ceased asking questions even well after PI, and although he never gave much in terms of alternatives, I don't read him as condemning the idea that we can explore our condition through expressive practice — art, poetry, and so on. Happy to hear whether I'm misreading you though.
I don’t entirely disagree, but I also do think Wittgenstein was somewhat conflicted in himself over this. i.e.
“PI, 133. We don’t want to refine or complete the system of rules for the use of our words in unheard-of ways. For the clarity that we are aiming at is indeed complete clarity. But this simply means that the philosophical problems should completely disappear. The real discovery is the one that enables me to break off philosophizing when I want to. a The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself in question. a Instead, a method is now demonstrated by examples, and the series of examples can be broken off. —– Problems are solved (difficulties eliminated), not a single problem.“
Unfortunately I never used the finger thing. I agree with most of this though!
I sat here like 20 min trying to comment but repeatedly deleting them because I felt like I was just saying similar things to you in more clunky ways..maybe that would be useful to someone in some way but I’m not sure 😅