The supposition is not really specific enough to sensibly answer the question. We have to make decisions step by step, acknowledging mis-steps as we discover them — Ludwig V

I would I have something like this in mind:

From RFM 153 “What does people’s agreement about accepting a structure as proof consist in? In the fact that they use words as language? As what we call “language”.

Imagine people who used money in transactions; that is to say coins, looking like our coins, which are made of gold and silver and stamped and are handed over for goods. But each person gives just what he pleases for goods, and the merchant does not give the customer more or less according to what he pays. In short this money, or what looks like money, has among them a quite different role from among us. We should feel much less akin to these people than people who are not acquainted with money at all and practice a primitive kind of barter. “But these people’s coins will surely also have some purpose!” Then has everything that one does a purpose? Say religious actions.

It is perfectly possible that we should be inclined to call people who behaved like this insane. And yet we dont call everyone insane who acts similarly within the forms of our culture, who uses words ‘without purpose’. (Think of the coronation of a King)”

One need not take as one's target so radical a form of the thesis to show that cognitive relativism is unacceptable, however. This can be demonstrated as follows. Suppose that cognitive relativism is the case. How then do we recognize another form of life as another form of life? The ability to detect that something is a form of life and that it differs from our own surely demands that there be a means for us to identify its presence and to specify what distinguishes it from ours. But such means are unavailable if the other form of life is impenetrable to us, that is, if it is closed against our attempts to interpret it enough to say that it is a form of life. This means that if we are to talk of other forms of life at all we must be able to recognize them as such; we must be able to recognize the existence of behaviour and patterns of practices which go to make up a form of life in which there is agreement among the participants by reference to which their practices can go on. Moreover, if we are to see that the form of life is different from our own we have to be able to recognize the differences; this is possible only if we can interpret enough of the other form of life to make those differences apparent. And therefore there has to be sufficient common ground between the two forms of life to permit such interpretation.

I would agree from this perspective. Those who engage in the language game of “forms of life” need to agree in judgment when it comes to pointing out differences. You can call this the observing community. Yet, if another community is so radically different in terms of action and judgment and its use of symbols, communication is impossible under such circumstances. However, it is not impossible for the observing community who can see these differences to carry on conversation among themselves since there is agreement in use and judgment in their language.

And yet this thesis seems entirely implausible. For instance, I have never heard of a culture who does arithmetic completely different from any other culture. Where is the arithmetic that is untranslatable? — Count Timothy von Icarus

Yep, and this was my point, if they are completely different in action/ judgement, why call it arithmetic at all.

And aside from that, it seems to leave the door open on an all encompassing skepticism, for on this account how can anyone be sure that they truly share a form of life with anyone else? — Count Timothy von Icarus

Well it will not be from some self evident absolute certain proposition. But that we act and judge similarly in most case to sustain the form of life.

But to my mind this capability doesn't jive well with the concept of entirely disparate, sui generis forms of reason (e.g., that Chinese reason is entirely different from French reason). — Count Timothy von Icarus

But has not history shown that what intelligent people called “reasonable” and “unreasonable” has changed from time to time.

'm not sure how the vague metaphor here is supposed to address the point TBH.

But funny enough this is a point of contention in Wittgensteinian circles precisely because he uses a lot of vague metaphors. — Count Timothy von Icarus

Ok, point taken, I rather not hide in vague metaphors. Let us start with some quotes from Wittgenstein:

PI 23 "...Here the term "language-game" is meant to bring into prominence the fact that the speaking of language is part of an activity, or of a form of life."

PI 65 "Here we come up against the great question that lies behind all these considerations. - For someone might object against me: 'You take the easy way out! you talk about all sorts of language-games, but have nowhere said what the essence of a language-game, and what makes them into language or part of language. So you let yourself off the very part of the investigation that once gave you yourself most headache, the part about the general form of propositions and of language. And this is true.'-Instead of producing something common to all that we call language, I am saying that these phenomena have no one thing in common which makes us use the same word for all, - but that they are related to one another in many different ways. And it is because of this relationship, or these relationships, that we call them all "language"."

PI 67 "I can think of no better expression to characterize these similarities than "family resemblances"; .....And I shall say: 'games' form a family."

OC 204 "Giving grounds, however, justify the evidence, comes to an end;- but the end is not certain propositions' striking us immediately true, i.e. it is not a kind of seeing on our part; it is our acting, which lies at the bottom of the language game."

As I see it, A.C Graying desire is to hold on to the idea that there is one common essence for "truth", "reality", and "value" because the only alternative is "cognitive relativism." However, what I was suggesting is we need not fall into relativism either. First, words like "truth", "reality", and "value" will have multiple uses and thus have family resemblances that will related these word conceptually. These multiple uses are discovered by examining the forms of life which are grounded in the some human activity. That said, these concepts can take place in such radically different forms of life, the family resemblances are not strong enough to call them related. Hence, I introduce the term "stranger" to describe such a case. For example, if we visit another world where the inhabitants utilize symbols like 1, 2, +, -, etc and made expressions such as 1 + 1 = 3 were carried out, would we want to say this is some sort of arithmetic that was carried out? Or is the judgment so radically different that we would not want to call it "arithmetic"? To say "truth" is relative seems to presuppose that there is something conceptual linking all these words together but somehow the outcomes conflict. But that need not be the case, if these concepts are used is such dramatically different ways in which humans act and judge in entirely different ways, why should we even talk as if they had some relationship that deserve to fall under the banner of "truth".

A similar thing that crops up in these relativistic accounts is a sort of cognitive relativism. I'll let A.C. Grayling describe this one:

Cognitive relativism is a troubling thesis. Consider the point that it makes the concepts of truth, reality, and value a matter of what sharers in a form of life happen to make of them at a particular time and place, with other forms of life at other times and places giving rise to different, perhaps utterly different or even contrary, conceptions of them. In effect this means that the concepts in question are not concepts of truth and the rest, as we usually wish to understand them, but concepts of opinion and belief. We are, if cognitive relativism is true (but what does true now mean?), in error if we think that truth and knowledge have the meanings we standardly attach to them, for there is only relative truth, there is only reality as we, in this conceptual community at this period in its history, conceive it. — Count Timothy von Icarus

I guess there is a lot of "trouble" to go around when it comes to this thesis. I think we can all agree that there are different concepts. Do we need to police the use of the words "truth", "reality" and "value", so we can ensure a unifying meaning for each of these terms? If someone chooses to use the word "truth" in such a an odd way where they judge differently than myself, they act differently than myself, why should I feel trouble to such a degree that I need to relegate my concept of "truth" to mere opinion and belief? I should say that I feel more inclined to just say that their concept of "truth" no longer resembles mine; so sooner or later they are not part of the family but mere strangers.

One of those possibly pseudo-questions which may be sophistry; but, in your opinion do you think physics describes logic? — Shawn

Not sure what this could mean, but maybe one can give it meaning. For example, I had a computer which can display a simple valid argument using traditional symbolism, say modus ponens. Could we not describe the physics behind the computer’s expression of this argument. If so, could we not do the same with a human?

If there is no mind to experience and conceptually designate “red” does red ever aquire an inherent existence independent of a third party mind? — Mp202020

What is more fascinating is that anyone understands what one is referring to with regards to a supposedly private object that no one has access to but we feel the idea about shared judgments on a common public property of an object is somehow found wanting.

An individual sees the sun rise in the east on 100 consecutive days. They become aware of the rule that the sun rises in the east, and then live by the rule that the sun rises in the east. — RussellA

It seems debatable that an individual becomes aware of a rule as described. There is quite a lot of stage setting that would occur to understand if such an individual had such a rule. For example, he would need to learn and demonstrate to a community the ability to count to 100; grasp the convention of east, west, north, south; how to pick an object called “Sun”; what it means for a “Sun” to rise and set, just to name a few. If this individual could grasp all of this, one can begin to feel confident they grasp the rule, and they have senses like the community.

he difficulty is that I don't trust myself to dispense with all my selfish interests during this imaginative exercise. It is rather easy to say that if I was a slave, I would accept my slavery because those are the rules. It is equally easy to say that if I was a slave, I would do my level best to escape, despite the rules. For my money, it is much better to start where we are. Other people may start in different places. When we disagree, we shall have to have an argument. That's how it works. How can Rawls' exercise help? Back to ordinary language? — Ludwig V

My main point with this example is that Rawls is not looking to the ordinary use of "Just" to come up with his conception of "Justice" nor should he. Could you imagine taking Wittgenstein or Austin recommendation. Look at the ordinary use, look at the language game, the form of life; OK, for example, I live in an environment where "street justice" rules. As a little kid I watch my brother kill someone in front of my eyes and I say to him "Why did you do it" He says, "Because he look at me in a funny way, he disrespected me, so I killed him, it was Just." I understand its use, the action, and the context. Give me that "arm-chair" we can do better. And that goes with any term, maybe it will serve us better if we change it, add to it, subtract from it, etc.. And why can't a philosopher do this, instead of sitting around and describing how the term is actually used.

Don't these terms - “Truth”, “Knowledge”, or “Free Will” - already have uses and meanings? So to my favourite quote form Austin:

First, words are our tools, and, as a minimum, we should use clean tools: we should know what we mean and what we do not, and we must forearm ourselves against the traps that language sets us. Secondly, words are not (except in their own little corner) facts or things: we need therefore to prise them off the world, to hold them apart from and against it, so that we can realize their inadequacies and arbitrariness, and can re-look at the world without blinkers. Thirdly, and more hopefully, our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing, and the connexions they have found worth making, in the lifetimes of many generations: these surely are likely to be more sound, since they have stood up to the long test of the survival of the fittest, and more subtle, at least in all ordinary and reasonably practical matters, than any that you or I are likely to think up in our arm-chairs of an afternoon—the most favoured alternative method. (Austin, J. L. “A Plea for Excuses: The Presidential Address”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1957: 181–182) — Banno

I see your quote and raise you three:

From Wittgenstein Blue Book "Philosophers very often talk about investigating, analysis, the meaning of words. But let's not forget that word hasn't got a meaning given to it, as it were, by a power independent of us, so that there could be a kind of scientific investigation into what the word really means. A word has the meaning someone has given to it."

From Quine, Word and Object, "There are, however, philosophers who overdo this line of thought, treating ordinary language as sacrosanct. They exalt ordinary language to the exclusion of one of its own traits: its disposition to keep evolving."

And lastly from the arm-chair itself to make my point, from John Rawls "Principles of Justice", "My aim is to present a conception of justice which generalizes and carries to a higher level of abstraction the familiar theory of the social contract as found, say, in Locke, Rousseau, and Kant. In order to do this we are not to think of the original contract as one to enter a particular society or to set up a particular government. Rather, the guiding idea is that the principles of justice for the basic structure of society are the object of the original agreement. They are the principles that free and rationale persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality defining the fundamental terms of their association."

Wittgenstein has, however, gone into history as someone who does not understand mathematics particularly well: — Tarskian

Wittgenstein's take on the matter was rejected unanimously: — Tarskian

Based on what I read by your post, I would recommended a much more sympathetic reading of Wittgenstein's views on Godel's Theorem in the book "Godel's Theorem in Focus, Chapter VIII by S.G. Shanker's , "Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Significance of Godel's Theorem. As Wittgenstein said in RFM VII 19 "My task is, no to talk about (e.g.) Godel's proof, but to by-pass it. This is taking a position not as a mathematician, but as a philosopher. Not to critique the proof itself, but the metaphysical assumptions that some would claim, namely the platonists.

I will put forth some passages that I find that present this point:

"In Philosophical Remarks Wittgenstein insisted contra Hilbert that ' In mathematics, we cannot talk about systems in general, but only within systems. They are just what we can't talk about(PR 152). The argument as presented sounds dogmatic, but it follows from the preceding clarification of the meaning of mathematical propositions as determined by intraliguistic rules rather than a connection between language and reality. The point of this normative conception of mathematical propositions and proofs is to clarify that the meaning of a mathematical concept is not an object or 'configuration' but rather, the totality of rules governing the use of that concept in a calculus." Mathematical propostions are not about anything (in a descriptive sense) yet neither are they meaningless: they are norms of representation whose essence is to fix the use of concepts in empirical proposition."

and

"Godel's argument pushes us to accept that there are two versions of the same proportion which is true but unprovable in one system while true and unprovable in another. But the whole point Wittgenstein's argument on the autonomy of mathematics systems is that a mathematical proposition is internally tied to its proof/proof system:"If, then, we ask..."Under what circumstances is a proposition asserted in Russell's game?", the answer is: at the end of his proofs, or as a "fundamental law (Pp). There is no other way this system of employing asserted propositions in Russell's symbolism' (RFM I APP III 6).

and

"In short, the meaning of a mathematical proposition is strictly determined by the rules governing its use in a specific system. If dealing with autonomous calculi then no matter how similar the rules of the two systems might be, as long as they differ - as long as we are dealing with distinct mathematical systems - It make no sense to speak of the same proposition occurring in each. The most that can be concluded is that parallel propositions occur in the two systems which can easily be mapped onto each other. Hence Godel was barred by virtue of the logical grammar of mathematical proposition from claiming that he had constructed identical versions of the same mathematical proposition in two different systems."

Not god necessarily. Here's what a currently limited AI thinks (ChatGPT) — Tom Storm

I think “God” is a vague enough term that it fits pretty much all of these examples with the exception of the last. As for the last, well, all of our understanding of simulations is they are created by a simulator(s), but if one is attached to the idea that with infinite amount of time something like this will randomly happen, sure.

If you believe we live in a simulation, or likely, what follows? God the simulator.

It is believed that nothing can travel faster than light, we don't know that for sure, but if it turned out to be untrue it would not invalidate Einsteinian physics, because the latter demonstrably works to a very high degree of accuracy. — Janus

I like to explore this idea that "we don't believe(or know) nothing can travel faster than light" or "we don't know that for sure." One reason I have often heard is that you would need an infinite amount of energy to move a mass to the speed of light that makes it impossible, and no one knows where to get an infinite amount of energy. So, we are waiting around to figure it out and that is why "we don't know for sure." But I think when we say "we don't know for sure" and "we don't believe nothing can...", or even "we know nothing can..." may be inappropriate expressions to use in this case. The reason being that this notion of the speed of light is intertwined with our notions of time, space, and change. For instance, if something is traveling at the speed of light, objects from that perspective are not experiencing time (I like to think of a observer moving at the speed of light away from a clock where the light ray hitting the hands of the clock never to reach the observer and so are frozen in time.). So, it is not that no object can move faster than the speed of light, but fundamental notions of time and space lose all meaning pass these limits. So, to say we believe or know nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, is more like saying, we can't give meaning to our notion of time and space beyond this limit. There is nothing to believe, know or even doubt. We may think we are imagining possible hypothetical possibilities, but that is not the case, these theories are limiting not only what can be physically achieve, but even what can be sensible imagined at a conceptual level. Now does this mean we can't redefine speed/time/space is some manner to our liking? Of course not, and maybe we can redefine these ideas in such a way that when we utter the words "faster than the speed of light.", they have a clear meaning. But this does not mean that terms like time/space in this new paradigm will resemble anything from the previous paradigm.

This is what I think Wittgenstein gets at a little in "On Certainty" when he said:

167 "It is clear that our empirical propositions do not all have the same status, since one can lay down such a proposition and turn it from an empirical proposition into a norm description. Think of chemical investigations. Lavoisier makes experiments with substances in his laboratory and now he concludes that this and that take place when there is burning. He does not say that it might happen otherwise another time. He has got hold of a definite world picture - not of course one that he invited: he learned it as a child. I say world picture and not hypothesis, because it is the matter-of-course foundation for his research and as such also goes unmentioned."

In that conception I'm speaking only about so-called propositional knowledge, not know-how, knowledge by participation or acquaintance.

Why would you use that definition? The way I see it it clarifies the difference between knowledge and belief. I'm not sure what you would count as knowledge. Would you say that you know that the big bang theory or the theory of evolution is true? I wouldn't, I'd say rather that I have very good reason to believe they are true, but that I don't know if they are true.

What do you think I am losing by thinking about it that way? — Janus

Interesting question, not sure I can answer that from a personal psychological perspective. Additionally you bring in “truth” which adds an additional complexity. Nevertheless, I will give it a go in some general fashion.

Since you bring in the mix scientific theories, I will go with that theme. Is Newtonian and Einsteinian physics knowledge? I think it would be difficult to argue with a scientist to say that it was not. I presume you would argue that Einsteinian physics proved Newtonian physics false. But this sounds strange because Newtonian physics works very well in many circumstances. Our knowledge of Newtonian physics allows us to make many predictions that prove useful in going about in our daily lives. But instead of using a word like “false” should we not say “less accurate in prediction of measurable properties in situations at high speeds”?

Lastly, lets take a look at your definition of belief/knowledge in relation to Newtonian/Einsteinian physics: “if there can be any doubt that it is true, then we don’t know it either”. What is the nature of this doubt? That you could imagine otherwise?, For example, I can imagine something faster than the speed of light therefore Einsteinian physics is only a belief not knowledge. If this is how one sows the seeds of doubt on a scientific theory, thank goodness most scientists would ignore it as a philosophical eccentricity and get on doing science.

I'm not getting your point. Are you claimimg I don't know what knowledge is? Or that you do? — Janus

I find your definition of knowledge quite narrow. If someone ask me if I knew the verification principle of meaning, I would provide a definition, provide some examples to show what I would call something meaningful and not meaningful. This would demonstrate to someone I had knowledge of this principle, by providing the definition and showing its application. Why would we not say that I am knowledgable of this philosophical principle? The same goes with your definition of knowledge. The real question is why would I use this definition in the first place for, what value does it have, what clarity does it give me, yeah maybe it protects me from making any error but at what cost.

It is not really knowledge, but a stipulative definition of it, based on the logic I understand to be inherent in the idea of knowing. — Janus

Sort of like Euclid’s Element definition of a point: “A point is that of which there is no part.” But if asked by a Mathematician “what is a point?” And I reply with this definition, do I not demonstrate I know what a point is?

And I would go further and say that if we don't know that we know it to be true, that is if there can be any doubt that it is true, then we don't know it either. I'm not imputing this to Wittgenstein but highlighting the point where I probably disagree with him. Is there anything that you believe could not possibly be false? — Janus

Let me ask, do you believe your position that “if there can be any doubt that it is true, then we don’t know it either” can be doubted as true? If so, this is not knowledge, just belief.

I'm not sure that we have the same view on hinge beliefs. It depends on what you mean by "logical consequences" of a hinge belief. There is no doubt that hinge beliefs have consequences in our acts (linguistic and non-linguistic), and that there is a logical scaffolding to our belief systems. However, we have different views of hinges if you use "logical consequences" as a synonym for correct reasoning (inductive and deductive). Also, hinge beliefs don't depend on some practical effect. A practical effect would give some justification for the belief, which goes counter what a hinge belief is. — Sam26

I definitely want to use “logical consequences” somewhat loosely here, meaning that Euclid and Anselm may not be using some shared universal logic here. Lastly, what I am emphasizing is these “hinge propositions” are a choice, you either use them or you don’t, and whether you use them or not may be because there is a value to them. Whether one can articulate the value is another story. I am sure there are these “hinge propositions” hidden in the background of every day life that most do not question and/or aware of.

Yep, belief/propositions have consequences when one uses them, I do not see how one escapes this existential fact about living in the world. If one goes on doubting one has a hand because of intellectual reasoning, yet keeps using the word in practice like everyone else, what was the point of doubting? Alternatively, if one chooses not to use the word “hands” because of some radical doubt, I pity one’s chances in surviving our world.

What is the nature of a hinge belief? What if someone's world picture includes belief in God as a hinge belief? Or, what if another world picture excludes belief in God as part of their hinge beliefs? Can we just decide whether this or that belief is a hinge? — Sam26

I'm not sure what you mean. — Sam26

Consider the following:

A. From Euclid’s Elements
1. A point is that of which there is no part
2. And a line is a length without breath
3. And the extremities of a line are points

B. From Anselm’s Proslogion
1. You are something than which nothing greater can be thought.
2. And certainty this being so truly exists that it cannot be even thought not to exist.


If I had to characterize “hinge proposition” I would say it is one where a human accepts it and its logical consequences as a whole. This acceptance would not be because it strikes us as true but that it has some pragmatic effect on us that when we put them into practice it brings value and meaning to our lives.

Take example A and definition number 1. Does that strike one as true? You could probably make the case that it is plain nonsense by itself. But if one accepts the definition and moves forward with it, the fruitfulness may be seen. And the same goes example B.

What is the nature of a hinge belief? What if someone's world picture includes belief in God as a hinge belief? — Sam26

Is this not the nexus between the intellect and action, rationalism and pragmatism, where the human leaves the third person intellectual detachment and enters in the first person animal needing to survive and reproduce?

One last tantalizing passage from Wittgenstein and his thinking about concept formation. From Culture and Value:

"Life can educate one to a belief in God. And experiences too are what bring this about; but I don't mean visions and other forms of sense experience which show us the 'existence of this being', but, e.g. sufferings of various sorts. These neither show us God in the way a sense impression shows us an object, not do they give rise to conjectures about him. Experiences, thoughts, - life can force this concept on us. So perhaps it is similar to the concept of 'object'.

This is not about pondering the use of the word "God", but pondering life itself.

What do you think that is? — Fooloso4

Do you have examples or do you have in mind what statements such as the following: — Fooloso4

Part II of the PI is often an overlooked, less quoted part of the book. But I believe it hints at the many directions Wittgenstein was possibly exploring. Lets take a look at some:

In these passages, it is not just analyzing the use of words that Wittgenstein is exploring.

Part II, section I, "One can imagine an animal angry frightened, unhappy, happy, startled. But hopeful? And why not? A dog believes his master will come the day after tomorrow? And what can he not do here? How do I do it? How am I supposed to answer this? Can only those hope who can talk? Only those who masters the use of a language. That is to say, the phenomena of hope are modes of this complicated form of life." I think here Wittgenstein is pondering the relationship between primitive reactions and complex form of life, is he not asking questions and looking for an explanation, and not just wanting to describe the language of hope?

Part II section ii, In saying "When I heard this word, it meant.... to me" one refers to a point in time and to a way of using the word. (Of course, it is this combination that we fail to grasp.) Again Wittgenstein is going beyond just the analysis of the use of a word, but looking also at the relation of reference and time.

Part II section v, "It is like the relation: physical object-sense impression. Here we have two different language games and a complicated relation between them-If you try to reduce their relation to a simple formula you go wrong." Here a fascinating discussion between two different philosophical outlooks one founded on a naturalistic view and the other a more introspective view?

Part II section x "How did we ever come to use such an expression as "I believe.." Did we at some time become aware of phenomenon (of belief)? Did we observe ourselves and other people and so discover belief?" A very interesting question, but will the answer come from analysis of the use of words?

Part II section xi "I shall call the following figure, derived from Jastrow, the duck-rabbit. It can be seen as a rabbit's head or as a duck's. And I must distinguish between the 'continuous seeing' of an aspect and the 'dawning' of an aspect." What is Wittgenstein doing in this passage? In trying to describe a picture, is he exploring how we borrow from our language to describe what seems to be a rather interestingly unique experience and to get another human being to see it as I do?

Lastly, Part II section xii "If the formation of concepts can be explain by facts of nature, would we not be interested, not in grammar, but rather in that in nature which is the basis of grammar? - Our interest certainly includes the correspondence between concepts and very general fact of nature. (Such fact facts as mostly do not strike us because of their generality.) But our interest does not fall back upon these possible causes of the formation of concepts; we are not doing natural science, nor yet natural history-since we also invent fictitious natural history for our purposes.

I am not saying; If such and such facts of nature were different people would have different concepts (in the sense of hypothesis). But: if anyone believe certain concepts are absolutely the correct ones, and that having different ones would mean not realizing something that we realize-then let him imagine certain very general facts of nature to be different from what we are used to, and the formation of concepts different from the usual ones will become intelligible to him."

I think this is the most interesting direction Wittgenstein is considering here. The philosophy of concept formation. This is not about describing how we use our words, but exploring how we come to formulate our concepts.

To this end what I regard as most important is not simply getting Wittgenstein right but the attempt to get him right, even if we decide he gets it wrong. If is an exercise in thinking and seeing. — Fooloso4

On Certainty and for that matter PI is an un finished work. I would rather not like to think about “getting it right” as much as a continuation of what he had started. This is more exciting because it could take philosophy is new and interesting directions.

urther, although rejects radical skepticism he does hold a more measured and moderate skepticism.

651. I cannot be making a mistake about 12x12 being 144. And now one cannot contrast
mathematical certainty with the relative uncertainty of empirical propositions.

Empirical propositions do not have the certainty of mathematics. In the Tractatus he says:

6.36311 It is an hypothesis that the sun will rise tomorrow: and this means that we do not know whether it will rise.

We may not doubt whether the sun will rise tomorrow, but whether or not it will is a contingent rather than necessary fact. — Fooloso4

I think Wittgenstein in "On Certainty" is exploring this distinction between contingent and necessary. In some ways in seems to be approaching a view of Quine where our most fossilized propositions can be up for revision. Consider the following:

213 "Our empirical propositions' do not form a homogeneous mass"

217 "If someone supposed that all our calculations were uncertain and that we could rely on none of them (justifying himself by saying that mistakes are always possible) perhaps we would say he was crazy. But can we say he is in error? Does he not just react differently? We rely on calculations, he does't, we are sure, he isn't."

167 "It is clear that our empirical propositions do not all have the same status, since one can lay down such a proposition and turn it from an empirical proposition into a norm description. Think of chemical investigations. Lavoisier makes experiments with substances in his laboratory and now he concludes that this and that take place when there is burning. He does not say that it might happen otherwise another time. He has got hold of a definite world picture - not of course one that he invited: he learned it as a child. I say world picture and not hypothesis, because it is the matter-of-course foundation for his research and as such also goes unmentioned."

447 "Compare with this 12X12 = 144. Here too we don't say "perhaps". For, in so far as this proposition rests on our not miscounting or miscalculating and on our senses not deceiving us as we calculate, both proportions, the arithmetical one and the physical one, are on the same level. I want to say: The physical game is just as certain as the arithmetical. But this can be misunderstood. My remark is a logical and not a psychological one."

613 "If I now say "I know that the water in the kettle on the gas flame will not freeze but boil", I seem to be as justified in this "I know" as I am in any. "If I know anything I know this".- Or do I know with greater certainty that the person opposite me is my old friend so and so? And how does that compare with the proportion that I am seeing with two eyes and shall see them if I look in the glass?-I don't know confidently what I am to answer here.-But still there is a different between cases. If the water one the gas freezes, of course I shall be as astonished as can be, but I assume some factor I don't know of, and perhaps leave the matter to physicists to judge. But what could make me doubt whether this person here is N.N, whom I have know for years? Here a doubt would seem to drag everything with it and plunge it into chaos."

I would say he was exploring this distinction between contingent/necessary and seeing that some empirical proposition can be held as firmly as mathematical propositions, and even these firmly held mathematical propositions we can imagine folk reacting to them differently where notions of "right/incorrect" seem to lose any sense.

Wittgenstein's point is that no justification is required. Certain propositions, viz., hinge propositions are generally outside our epistemological language games. — Sam26

What I am emphasizing here is what Wittgenstein says in On Certainty in the following:

110 “….As if giving grounds did not come to an end sometime. But the end is not an ungrounded presupposition: it is an ungrounded way of acting.”

Note that with a mere belief, one might respond to the question "Why do you believe that?" with the answer "I just do," and that's acceptable as a mere belief; but a claim to knowledge as JTB requires more, it requires that the belief be justified and true. And of course, Wittgenstein in challenging Moore's use by asking what would count as a justification for "I know this is a hand." Wittgenstein is telling us that Moore's use of "I know..." is akin to an expression of a conviction, not objective knowledge as Moore thinks it is. — Sam26

If I was Moore, I would demonstrate my knowledge by showing him traditionally held techniques, actions accomplished by using a hand, and convince him that knowledge as JTB should be revised to demonstrable public action (DPA).

Moore conflates, as many people do, the use of "I know..." as an expression of a conviction, as opposed to an expression of epistemology (JTB). "Suppose I replaced Moore's 'I know' by 'I am of unshakeable conviction' (OC 86)?" — Sam26

It would equally absurd that Moore stand in front of a lecture and say “I, with conviction, have two hands” along with “I know”. The most natural reaction would be to think something is not quite normal here.

OF COURSE, all of this relies on even thinking his Old or New Testament matters or is the right approach.. Something that seems completely off the table to the adherents. You see, you can't directly attack Wittgenstein, only provide either primary sources (from the GURU himself), or from one of his approved sooth-sayers.. — schopenhauer1

You would enjoy Gellner’s Word and Things, he has very similar points throughout his book.

But you are right, Wittgenstein can give one mental whiplash, from solving all of the problems of philosophy to looking at philosophy as a mental disease needing a cure.

I say this too because I notice a tendency whereby when you question Wittgenstein's ideas, the only answer that seems to be legitimate to the majority who jump on these threads is to quote another line from Wittgenstein.. As if you cannot refute Wittgenstein, you can only have varying levels of understanding of Wittgenstein. — schopenhauer1

I would agree with you that it can be very difficult to debate the ideas of later Wittgenstein. But this is likely due to the approach to philosophy he takes where he wants to emphasize description and use of words rather than provide explanation and the theorize. What is there to debate when he is just describing how we commonly employ are language in everyday life. But the next step is where one has to decide if peace can be found in this analysis of words, or continue to be tormented by problems traditional philosophy has presented to us. I think most would agree that most modern philosophers either ignore Wittgenstein and continue on theorizing, or give him respectful nod and continue theorizing.

That said, can one criticize Wittgenstein? Of course, even Wittgenstein heavily criticized his early work, the Tractatus, that is pretty much how Philosophical Investigations is set up. And as for Philosophical Investigations itself, I believe even Wittgenstein viewed this work as an incomplete and that it still needed to be improved upon, see Preface to Investigations. As for other philosophers, there have been many interesting attempts, for example:

1. Word and Things, Ernest Gellner
2. The Metaphysics of Meaning, Jerrold Katz
3. The Concept of a Person, essays: "Philosophy and Language" and "Can there by a Private Language", A.J. Ayer

To name of few. But my favorite criticism and one that has stuck with me the most and is very simple and to the point, from Quine's Word and Object:

"There are, however, philosophers who overdo this line of thought, treating ordinary language as sacrosanct. They exalt ordinary language to the exclusion of one of its traits: its disposition to keep on evolving."

agree with you. If the past still exists, why can't we visit it and change it? — Truth Seeker

A problem I see here is what would we call “evidence” to either confirm or deny one of these theories. What would that look like? When I go “back to change” something existing in the past, when I get there, am I changing something which is presently in front me that is supposedly in the past. Is this evidence of presentism or block theory?

It seems this idea of “going back to change” edges in being nonsense.

Also, I think many do not realize that the “God hypothesis” has come back in a stealthy sort a way. Instead of the watch needing a designer, the simulation needs a simulator.

Your are being too kind to call this even “highly improbable”. Just because we can imagine such fanciful scenarios does not mean they are possible.

It's what direct realism always was, e.g. going back to Aristotle. Direct realists believed in things like A Naïve Realist Theory of Colour/primitivism, whereas indirect realists believed that colour is a mental phenomenon (which may be reducible to brain states).

Now that the science shows that the indirect realists are right, it seems that direct realists have retreated to a completely different position, consistent with indirect realism, but insist on calling themselves direct realists anyway. — Michael

Not sure if “science” is much of a friend of indirect realism. When we observe light passing through a prism that reveals multi-colors, scientists were not unraveling its secrets by studying “mental phenomena” or “brain states.” Scientists are studying light, prisms, and colors to see if they fit current scientific theories, or needing new theories. Or, if they notice some folk do not judge colors like most of us, scientists do not study “mental phenomena” to discover what the issues are but maybe examine what physiological differences are between normal and abnormal cases in humans.

Maybe the only utility I could see in imagining “mental phenomena” is to get the scientist to consider human physiology first, and not other factors external to the human body. But, at the end of the day, this construct of “mental phenomena” is only a grammatical fiction.

The way they navigate and talk about the world is the same, and yet the way they see (and smell and taste) the world is very different. — Michael

Only in your imagination. In fact, they see the world the same. When we use the expression “to see the world differently”, we usually referring to how people act/react, judge, express themselves differently in the world.

We experience representations, not objects, in terms of sight. That seems inarguable, and therefore there is no way to pretend what we see is the object. No one but philosophers posit this, anyway, and so we can be fairly sure there's hide-the-ball going on. — AmadeusD

This is an odd use of the word "representations". Do we experience representations? I guess you could if you mean we have experience making solar system models in which different colored size balls represent different planets. Or maybe, we have experience teaching chemistry with sphere and stick pieces that represent atoms and bonds. But I do not think you are suggesting these are example of "experiences of representations".

Obviously, I do not believe you are suggesting that a scientist is observing human brains "experiencing representations" when humans are looking at objects. And would we want to say that when a scientist images brain activity, say with a EEG, fMRI, PET, MEG, CT, or SPECT instruments, while a human looks at a object that these images are representations of an objects? No, I think we would be incline to say that a scientist views these images as representations of the activity of some portion of the brain when the human is exposed to a particular object.

Probably, only philosophers and scientists who get "metaphysical" are inclined to talk about experiencing "representations" and not "objects". They are inclined to want to say we don't experience objects like humans, brains, trees, balls, planets, nerves, colors, screens, EEG, fMRI, PET, MEG, CT, and SPECT, but representations of humans, brains, trees, balls, planets, nerves, colors, screens, EEG, fMRI, PET, MEG, CT, and SPECT.

A brain seems less of a posit, than a representation of a brain.

For example, as an Indirect Realist, I can say "I see a green apple", using the word "green" in a figurative rather than literal sense. — RussellA

Saying that an Indirect Realist is using the word "green" figuratively is a bit odd.

With the help of Chat Smith, let's take a look at some phases that are used figuratively:

1. "Green with envy":Espressing jealously
2. "Green thumb": referring to someone who has natural talent for gardening
3. "Green Light": Signifying permission to proceed or approval
4. "Green around the gills": Describing someone who looks pale or sick
5. "Green-eye monster" Referring to jealously or envy often in the context of romance
6. "Greenback": Informal term for currency
7. "Green with laughter": Describing someone who is extremely amused or entertained

Can we add "Green Apple" to this list? Is this not what is meant by "literal" anyway so we can set-up the contrast with these figurative uses?

I think so.

This would be an interesting road than the well traveled indirect/direct debate, the standard metre

So what more can be added to this experiment so that it supports indirect realism? — Banno

Let me add one more experiment: again the subject is blind-folded but this time the subject has his nervous system numbed. The scientist places the ball in his hands, “in direct contact”. In this scenario the subject never reports out that he has made contact with the ball.

In summary, in one case, the subject does not have contact with the ball yet the causal process is present in the nervous system. In the other case, the causal process is not present in the nervous system even though the subject is in contact with the ball.

What I believe this shows indirect realism does not get support from science as much as they would think. Certainly, there is not enough support to revise the way we talk about every objects like balls, trees, etc…. What science can do is described how the nervous system works under a variety of conditions.