Thursday 10/25

Philosophical Investigations, 193-243

Discussion Questions

First Question: Mechanism to the Rescue?

A machine seems to contain within it in its deterministic precision just how to go on. The possible movements seem already to be in it, inscribed by its having been engineered thus-and-so. Considering this notion of possibility, Wittgenstein concludes (194) that "[w]e mind about the kind of expressions we use concerning these things; we do not understand them, however, but misinterpret them. When we do philosophy we are like savages, primitive people, who hear the expressions of civilized men, put a false interpretation on them, and then draw the queerest conclusions from it." What considerations lead him to draw such a sweeping conclusion?

Second Question: The Skeptical Challenge to Rule-Following

What skeptical conclusion is Wittgenstein drawing at 201 where he summarizes the argument, "[t]his was our paradox: no course of action could be determined by a rule, because every course of action can be made out to accord with the rule. The answer was: if everything can be made out to accord with the rule, then it can also be made out to conflict with it. And so there would be neither accord nor conflict here."?

Third Question: The Private Language Argument

At 202 Wittgenstein briefly draws a corollary from his discussion of rule-following:

202. And hence also 'obeying a rule' is a practice. And to think one is obeying a rule is not to obey a rule. Hence it is not possible to obey a rule 'privately': otherwise thinking one was obeying a rule would be the same thing as obeying it.

What is his argument here?

Fourth Question: The Skeptical Solution to Rule-Following

What is it to obey a rule?