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RussellA

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As there is a difference between what a rock is and what a rock does, there is a difference between what a concept is and what a concept does. I agree...
February 11, 2026 at 17:03
Not a problem, I am appreciating the opportunity to learn more about Wittgenstein. On the one hand is the Augustinian view of ostensive definition, wh...
February 11, 2026 at 16:39
I agree that some concepts can be rules, such as “do not touch”, but some concepts are not rules, such as freedom, tree, happiness, colour or more/les...
February 11, 2026 at 15:10
I’m curious how Wittgenstein can reduce the third realm of sense (presumably language) to an interaction between the second realm of psychology (presu...
February 11, 2026 at 13:32
That there is a rock lying on the floor is not proof that the rock caused the window to break. It may be evidence, but not conclusive evidence. That s...
February 11, 2026 at 09:33
On the one hand, a rock can hammer in a nail, such that what a rock is is different to what a rock can do. On the other hand, as you point out, a hamm...
February 11, 2026 at 09:08
Let the concrete principle be “don’t touch a hot stove” and the abstract concept be “touching a hot stove causes pain”. A logical structure can be tho...
February 11, 2026 at 08:48
In PI 43, Wittgenstein wrote “the meaning of a word is its use in the language.” We could apply this to chess and say “the meaning of the rule of cast...
February 10, 2026 at 17:49
From Wikipedia - Concept I have never thought of a concept as a logical structure with formal rules. For example, if I think of the concept of a slab,...
February 10, 2026 at 13:02
It is possible to refer to hidden things. For example, if I see a broken window, I can say that something caused it to break. What caused the window t...
February 10, 2026 at 12:45
Person A sees a beetle in the world which causes a thought in their mind of a beetle. It may be that when they see a beetle in the world they also see...
February 10, 2026 at 11:31
If I understand: My concept of “slab” must be similar to yours, but cannot be the same as yours, because we have experienced different Forms of Life. ...
February 10, 2026 at 08:44
That is true, there needs to be a learning process in order to learn what an utterance means. On the first day, the builder says “niletee ubamba” to t...
February 09, 2026 at 17:43
I see what you mean. There is the universal aspect, in that the function (meaning) of a word is to be used in a language game and there is the particu...
February 09, 2026 at 15:06
If some says to you “niletee ubamba", how do you use that statement, act on that statement, if you don’t know what it means? Can you give a practical ...
February 09, 2026 at 12:45
If someone says to you “niletee ubamba”, how do you know If you are meant to act, and if you know you are meant to act, how do you act? Because I know...
February 09, 2026 at 11:42
There is a problem here with language, similar to Cargo Cult Thinking, where a person might mimic the usage of a word without understanding the underl...
February 09, 2026 at 11:07
P2 was intended to be Wittgenstein’s view, but I can reword: P2 Language is a set of words having meanings, where the meaning of a word is its use in ...
February 09, 2026 at 11:06
I agree that when we are in pain we do not need to decide the truth of the statement “I am in pain”. Being in pain can cause the behaviour of grimacin...
February 09, 2026 at 10:15
P1 - “The meaning of a word is its use in the language” P2 - Language is a set of words having meanings. C1 - The meaning of a word is its use in a se...
February 08, 2026 at 17:38
That is how I see it. Part of our thinking is innate and part of our thinking derives from language and society, meaning that some circularity is unav...
February 08, 2026 at 13:34
In our Form of Life is going to the theatre, but we only go because of our inner feelings, not because other people are going to the theatre, or becau...
February 08, 2026 at 13:12
As I see it, your approach leads into the problem of circularity, whereby the meaning of the statement “I am in pain” is fixed by the language game, a...
February 08, 2026 at 11:41
There are inner feelings, language and social life. But we would not have any language if we did not have inner feelings and we would not have any soc...
February 08, 2026 at 09:58
====================================================================== We can only understand language extra-linguistically. When someone tells me “br...
February 08, 2026 at 09:33
Wittgenstein's and the Phenomenologist’s approaches are quite different. For Wittgenstein, he starts from the viewpoint of a public community and asks...
February 08, 2026 at 08:27
Without inner feelings there would be no Form of Life. There would be no social activities such as playing football, no cultural events such as going ...
February 07, 2026 at 11:18
If we felt no xyz, pain, hunger, thirst, fear or love, then there would be no need for a language. In language, we say things such as “I feel xyz”, “I...
February 07, 2026 at 09:43
As you say, both Criteria and Cause are important I agree that if a person is motionless and says “I am in pain”, we can often assume the Cause, their...
February 07, 2026 at 08:42
If people had no inner feelings, then there would be no language games. It follows that we have language games because we have inner feelings. Therefo...
February 06, 2026 at 17:37
I touch a hot stove, flinch and say “I am in pain” There is the hidden cause, an unobservable mental state, being in pain and there is observable beha...
February 06, 2026 at 16:13
The builder says to the assistant “bring me a slab”, which is part of a Language Game and whose meaning is in a particular Form of Life. On a construc...
February 06, 2026 at 15:44
Language can be philosophically misleading as language uses figures of speech which within philosophical investigation should not be taken literally. ...
February 06, 2026 at 13:16
Thank you for your new Thread. A thought that I have had for a while about Wittgenstein. If a person said “I am in xyz” and did nothing, the word “xyz...
February 06, 2026 at 09:29
Seems clear. If people had no private sensations - having a headache, feeling pain, feeling hot, smelling something, seeing something, tasting somethi...
January 24, 2026 at 15:48
A thermometer is put into water. When the thermometer reads 10deg C, the water is given the public name “cold”. When the thermometer reads 30deg C, th...
January 24, 2026 at 10:43
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January 23, 2026 at 17:03
Step 1 - If I perceive the Sun, and my perception is veridical, there must be a Sun in the world Step 2 - If a DR perceives a Sun, they know that the ...
January 23, 2026 at 17:01
Philosophy is also about the brain and how it relates to the mind.
January 23, 2026 at 16:03
I don’t think that neurologists or brain scientists can currently observe thoughts in the mind. At the moment it is up to philosophy.
January 23, 2026 at 14:39
DR says that they directly perceive the Sun If the DR says that they directly perceive the Sun, then it logically follows that it is their belief that...
January 23, 2026 at 14:35
When the IR says “I see the ship indirectly” the word “indirectly” is not referring to the space between the person and the ship but rather is referri...
January 23, 2026 at 13:14
As far as I know, DR is exactly the claim that they know what initiated the causal chain. In our example, they claim that they know the Sun initiated ...
January 23, 2026 at 13:07
Yes, I had never heard of Direct and Indirect Realism ten years ago.
January 23, 2026 at 11:16
As an IR, I agree. But how does the DR know what initiated a causal chain when such knowledge is a logical impossibility? ============================...
January 23, 2026 at 11:14
Yes, Direct and Indirect Realism are just names which need further explanation.
January 23, 2026 at 10:43
In Ordinary Language, we say “I see a ship”. In Philosophy Language, the Direct Realist says “I see a ship directly” and the Indirect Realist says “I ...
January 23, 2026 at 10:25
How does that work? I am acquainted with an apple in the world even if I cannot describe it? ============================================== If the law...
January 23, 2026 at 10:17
:up: Ordinary language As the SEP article on Fictionalism points out, ordinary language uses figures of speech, metaphors, exaggerations and fictions ...
January 23, 2026 at 09:33
That is why posts on the Forum get confused when people mix up ordinary language and philosophical language. The expression “I am a Direct Realist” wo...
January 23, 2026 at 09:27