Tuesday 10/23

Philosophical Investigations, 143-192

Discussion Questions

First Question: Learning Another Language Game

In what does the pupil's capacity to learn the new language game at 143 consist?

Second Question: How Far is Far Enough?

What is Wittgenstein suggesting at the close of 145 when he writes, "[n]ow, however, let us suppose that after some efforts on the teacher's part he continues the series correctly, that is, as we do it. So now we can say he has mastered the system.—But how far need he continue the series for us to have the right to say that? Clearly you cannot state a limit here."

Third Question: Finding the Formula

How does Wittgenstein reject the proposition that understanding how to go on is a matter of grasping an algebraic formula from which the series may be derived?

Fourth Question: Understanding

At 154 we are told that "understanding is not a mental process." How can this be?

Fifth Question: Reading

156 begins a curious interlude to Wittgenstein's discussion of the concept of knowing how to go on where he focuses instead on the concept of reading. (The interlude does not end until 185 where he returns to his discussion of knowing how to go on.) What is the relationship between the two concepts Wittgenstein seeks to identify? That is, what lessons does he draw from considering reading which bear on knowing how to go on? Or, at least, what are his considerations about reading?