May 7, 2010.
Wittgenstein opens PI Augustine’s picture:
Common sense description: words name objects, sentences are combinations of such names
Every word has a correlated meaning which is the object for which the word stands.
Problem: what object does the word ‘and’ stand for?
Standard thought is this picture is the main object of criticism of PI
Gustafsson thinks this is making too much philosophy out of the Augustinian picture.
(in fact, Augstine himself doesn’t subscribe to the philosophical implications commonly attributed to the passage)
This simple picture is attractive and can be applied in good ways or bad ways.
Pictures for Wittgenstein operate on a primative level, can’t say they’re right or wrong.
Wittgenstein in Foundations of Mathematics: “We don’t judge the picture but we judge by means of the picture.”
They are prototheories / paradigms that are bad if cut from their useful applications.
e.g. Start looking for the correlate of the word red, postulate Platonic forms and get philosophical confusion
Cannot be argued against because counterexamples can be absorbed by a picture, which can be elaborated upon
The closer the picture is to a fully fleshed out theory, the harder (more artificial-seeming) this becomes.
If Wittgenstein is not strictly criticizing Augustine, is he at least criticizing Plato?
Wittgenstein quotes Theatetus picture of language: Socrates is presenting something he has heard and he concludes we don’t really understand it.
Wittgenstein considers himself in a common struggle with Plato and Augustine. He is attracted by these pictures but is trying to overcome them, just like Plato and Augustine.
If Wittgenstein is documenting his personal struggles, then what philosophical value is there? Is it just of autobiographical interest?
There are many levels of PI - he provides arguments and uncovers paradoxes.
Is he merely providing more details to the pictures in order to try to avoid the counterexamples/paradoxes? Is he trying to get rid of pictures altogether? Experts are divided.
Some say ‘meaning as use’ is a picture, one he thinks is less harmful than augustinian view
He doesn’t really want to construct theories, but rather wants philosophical peace / quietism.
thinking as something that goes on inside your head
regarding infinity as merely something very large