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Luke

['Member']Joined: March 05, 2017 at 12:26Last active: February 26, 2026 at 00:019 discussions2669 comments

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Wittgenstein does not deny that we have mental processes or private experiences. His argument is that we do not have a private language to describe a ...
February 25, 2026 at 13:55
If you look back, I never said he rejected the inner. I said (new emphasis): The "way we talk about the inner" is/was by presupposing the name and obj...
February 24, 2026 at 13:37
Yes, he rejects the 'name and object' model that he mentions at PI 293 with regard to the Beetle in the Box. Behaviourists and mentalists both make th...
February 24, 2026 at 04:25
If the 'grammatical fiction' is the behaviorist's error (as you say), then why does Wittgenstein use the word 'I' at 307? He says: 'If I speak of a fi...
February 24, 2026 at 00:26
Is it Wittgenstein or the behaviorist who says that pain behaviour is a grammatical fiction? How is behaviour a fiction for either of them? But the be...
February 23, 2026 at 21:52
The behaviourist believes that everything except behaviour is a fiction. yet you interpret W to say that pain behaviour is a (grammatical) fiction? I ...
February 23, 2026 at 21:16
:up: It is not the behaviourist's account that Wittgenstein calls a grammatical fiction at PI 307, it is his own. Wittgenstein says that he is the one...
February 23, 2026 at 14:18
If you agree to this then it’s no longer clear to me where you think our disagreement lies. My reading: Wittgenstein rejects the behaviourist idea tha...
February 23, 2026 at 01:36
“To deny the mental process would mean to deny the remembering” - PI 306
February 22, 2026 at 23:31
It sounds like you are not remembering. It’s like saying: ‘when I say “ouch” it does not mean I have a particular pain sensation.’ Then why do you say...
February 22, 2026 at 21:50
In the context of PI 307: “Are you not really a behaviourist in disguise? Aren't you at bottom really saying that everything except human behaviour is...
February 22, 2026 at 21:26
I believe it does. Otherwise, why would you say it? The grammatical fiction is the assumption that the word “remember” gets its meaning from a descrip...
February 22, 2026 at 21:05
I believe this would mean they were no longer a behaviorist. Maybe we have different definitions. You said earlier that a behaviourist is an empiricis...
February 22, 2026 at 20:53
The behaviourist rejects the existence of private sensations because they are not empirical; because the behaviourist cannot see them. Wittgenstein do...
February 22, 2026 at 16:14
Are you asking how we learn the language or learn the meaning of a word? Most often from other people.
February 22, 2026 at 13:45
At PI 307, W is accused of being a behaviourist in disguise who is "basically saying that everything except human behaviour is a fiction." W replies: ...
February 22, 2026 at 13:36
Oh I see. I was talking about the word "infinity", whereas you are talking about the referent of the word "infinity". Anyhow, this was the point of my...
February 22, 2026 at 12:16
So? We can still learn how to speak a language and use words. Why not?
February 22, 2026 at 11:41
What's grammatical about that? It sounds metaphysical. Wittgenstein doesn’t reject the reality of inner experience, but he does reject the idea that t...
February 22, 2026 at 05:11
:up: I didn't realise it was a new site. Are we all moving there? Anyhow, I've just joined. Thanks.
February 22, 2026 at 01:54
Yes, exactly. I think we are in agreement. BTW, I note that in the other thread linked to by @"Banno" above, you requested links to Daniele Moyal-Shar...
February 22, 2026 at 01:24
In my original post, I distinguished between our inner life as a metaphysical fiction (denying that we have inner experiences) vs. a grammatical ficti...
February 22, 2026 at 01:19
Most fluent English speakers know what "sunset" means. The blind person I introduced to our discussion is an English speaker. Your original argument w...
February 22, 2026 at 01:11
I was offering my 2 cents on PI 307 and W's remark about behaviourism there. I may need you to explain how your quotes relate to that.
February 21, 2026 at 15:11
I'm trying hard to think of a reason why the blind person would understand the particular word "sunset" to mean "something I have never seen", but I c...
February 21, 2026 at 15:07
If a blind person were to say "What a beautiful sunset", it would not make the phrase meaningless. Everyone else could still use the phrase meaningful...
February 21, 2026 at 13:12
Wittgenstein does not subscribe to metaphysical behaviorism; he does not say that our "internal" feelings or pains are unreal; the sensation is not a ...
February 21, 2026 at 05:14
That's not how I read it. He says that we should look at the grammar of 'getting to know' in relation to new uses of words/phrases such as "unconsciou...
January 01, 2025 at 01:00
Yes, apologies for jumping ahead (to PI). I was just trying to shed some light on Ludwig V's accusation that Wittgenstein had a "gaping hole" and a "c...
December 24, 2024 at 05:12
Is Rouse's point that (i) there are no rules (or social regularities or norms within a practice), or that (ii) nothing compels us to follow them? The ...
December 24, 2024 at 05:02
Just reading through the thread (backwards) and wanted to comment on this. Apologies if it is off the current topic and that it probably ignores the c...
December 23, 2024 at 15:22
In what sense is the imagined cat invisible to the cartoonist? They picture it in their mind and attempt to express their imagined cat on paper. They ...
October 27, 2024 at 01:21
If seeing a cat, seeing a picture of a cat, and imagining a cat, can all be reduced to feelings, and if these feelings can all be compared, then (the ...
October 25, 2024 at 22:19
My point is that you don't judge a resemblance by comparing your physical states (e.g. your levels of hormones and neurotransmitters) when you imagine...
October 24, 2024 at 09:00
Have you ever checked your hormone and neurotransmitter levels in order to be satisfied of a resemblance? I would think that the resemblance is more l...
October 23, 2024 at 13:59
What criteria are met (or what is required) in order for “the visible shapes of a drawn cat satisfy what you had in mind”? If it’s not some sort of re...
October 23, 2024 at 00:19
If there is a word for "village" in the German language then its use/meaning must be very similar to its use/meaning in English, because that's what i...
July 21, 2024 at 15:59
It’s an interesting question, but I think it makes little difference given @"Antony Nickles" earlier non-epistemic view of (edit: other people’s) pain...
May 30, 2024 at 01:38
Which of these senses of "know" is the way the word "is normally used", as W says at PI 246? If there is a sense of "know" that means "acknowledging, ...
May 28, 2024 at 12:36
This contradicts Wittgenstein, who tells us at PI 246 that: “other people very often know if I’m in pain.”
May 28, 2024 at 04:15
Were you not using the word “know” as it is normally used when you said that we do not know the pain causing another to writhe in front of us (because...
May 27, 2024 at 21:56
This may not be the appropriate place to make this comment, but Wittgenstein says otherwise. At PI 246, he says that: “other people very often know if...
May 27, 2024 at 05:09
Daniel Hutto - Vale Daniel C. Dennett
May 06, 2024 at 08:27
The direct/indirect realist debate concerns perceptual directness, not epistemological directness. Russellian acquaintance is concerned with epistemol...
May 04, 2024 at 15:44
There is no sensory perception, then, only acquaintance? Acquaintance primarily concerns knowledge. The direct/indirect realism dispute primarily conc...
May 04, 2024 at 15:27
My usage is consistent. Indirect realists equivocate over the meaning of "perception", using it to mean both the sensory perception of external object...
May 04, 2024 at 15:14
Except your explanation of what indirect realists believe is that our perceptions of material objects are not mediated by the perception of some other...
May 04, 2024 at 15:01
That our perceptions of material objects are mediated by the perception of some other entity, such as sense-data.
May 04, 2024 at 14:30
It's something I do not accept. According to what I mean by it, it is that we have sensory perceptions of sense-data. but you have been telling me tha...
May 04, 2024 at 14:23
Direct realists claim that we have direct sensory perceptions of external objects: DR: Sensory perception----of----external object Indirect realists c...
May 04, 2024 at 14:02