Does a kitten, born at the center of a knot of yarn, only become entangled when it moves its paws through the yarn that surrounds it? Or better yet, does it have any better a chance of escaping its ball of yarn by gathering what it can reach into ever tighter knots? Wittgenstein, more than many, it seems, tends to confuse clever wordplay with clever ideas... and frankly, leaves himself much more tangled a kitten, than he was born.
@AutodidacticPhd i think your comment there was more wordplay than ideas (oh sweet irony). what is the yarn? is it bad to be tangled? is there anything outside the yarn to escape to? also, what makes you think that philosophical ideas are anything other than wordplay and that the former are to be preferred? respectfully, i doubt that you yourself even know what you mean by all this. are you criticizing any specific text of wittgenstein, or have you read all the corpus and formed an opinion?
@jonwarsh The yarn is language and culture itself, and in the first instance becoming entangled is simply the process of those symbols becoming so familiar that they are taken for granted. I generally would then say that if there is anything outside the "yarn", it is irrelevant, as we cease to exist outside the context it provides. I actually do tend to see philosophy as wordplay, or the gathering together of tighter knots, and in some cases, knots so tight they cease to be useful as yarn...
...admittedly the analogy was spur of the moment and whimsical on purpose, so is easily picked apart. And respectfully, the idea that you could have anything like an informed opinion on my understanding or intentions from such an artificially cramped writing sample is arrogant to the point of laughable; as seems your use of the word "respectfully". My opinion, clearly labeled as a mere impression, is an old one formed from a selection of excerpts, but I have yet to see good reason to revise it.
You make me wish; read and understand every book on you uploads. Have you heard of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam? I can send you a link if you want me too?
Does a kitten, born at the center of a knot of yarn, only become entangled when it moves its paws through the yarn that surrounds it? Or better yet, does it have any better a chance of escaping its ball of yarn by gathering what it can reach into ever tighter knots? Wittgenstein, more than many, it seems, tends to confuse clever wordplay with clever ideas... and frankly, leaves himself much more tangled a kitten, than he was born.
AutodidacticPhd 11 months ago
@AutodidacticPhd i think your comment there was more wordplay than ideas (oh sweet irony). what is the yarn? is it bad to be tangled? is there anything outside the yarn to escape to? also, what makes you think that philosophical ideas are anything other than wordplay and that the former are to be preferred? respectfully, i doubt that you yourself even know what you mean by all this. are you criticizing any specific text of wittgenstein, or have you read all the corpus and formed an opinion?
jonwarsh 9 months ago
@jonwarsh The yarn is language and culture itself, and in the first instance becoming entangled is simply the process of those symbols becoming so familiar that they are taken for granted. I generally would then say that if there is anything outside the "yarn", it is irrelevant, as we cease to exist outside the context it provides. I actually do tend to see philosophy as wordplay, or the gathering together of tighter knots, and in some cases, knots so tight they cease to be useful as yarn...
AutodidacticPhd 9 months ago
...admittedly the analogy was spur of the moment and whimsical on purpose, so is easily picked apart. And respectfully, the idea that you could have anything like an informed opinion on my understanding or intentions from such an artificially cramped writing sample is arrogant to the point of laughable; as seems your use of the word "respectfully". My opinion, clearly labeled as a mere impression, is an old one formed from a selection of excerpts, but I have yet to see good reason to revise it.
AutodidacticPhd 9 months ago
You make me wish; read and understand every book on you uploads. Have you heard of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam? I can send you a link if you want me too?
1awareness 1 year ago