7
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
Ahh, one of those tautologies he speaks of. In any case, I suppose he means there is much that is so deeply impenetrable that we cannot make pictures of it for speech purposes. That is, we cannot speak "aRb" if we don't know a, b or R, though we may have a primitive intuition of such a "fact."
Think of most English-speaking people who have only one or two words for "snow." That is because their survival is not dependent on knowing the fine points of types of snow. Northern indigenous people, on the other hand, have many words to describe snow and need not pass over in silence a discussion of such matters. Similarly, scientists, mathematicians and other specialists have many words to describe technical matters that ordinary people lack.
But more importantly, it is amazing how people can find ways to talk about new things that would have befuddled their forebears. Yet, we may also concede that many people report on religious and spiritual mysteries and ecstasies that cannot be adequately described with words.
One also suspects that W. had run out of steam trying to use a mathematical-logical outlook to abolish all the pesky problems of philosophy. Intuitively he realized that if he continued to dig, he would run up against enigmas that were too difficult to cope with.
Think of most English-speaking people who have only one or two words for "snow." That is because their survival is not dependent on knowing the fine points of types of snow. Northern indigenous people, on the other hand, have many words to describe snow and need not pass over in silence a discussion of such matters. Similarly, scientists, mathematicians and other specialists have many words to describe technical matters that ordinary people lack.
But more importantly, it is amazing how people can find ways to talk about new things that would have befuddled their forebears. Yet, we may also concede that many people report on religious and spiritual mysteries and ecstasies that cannot be adequately described with words.
One also suspects that W. had run out of steam trying to use a mathematical-logical outlook to abolish all the pesky problems of philosophy. Intuitively he realized that if he continued to dig, he would run up against enigmas that were too difficult to cope with.
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