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Antony Nickles

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Aren't we--as you point out with global warming--strictly talking about the use of the scientific method and the limits upon that (or, as it were, the...
May 12, 2022 at 06:15
I would suggest not worrying so much about boxing things into a "philosophy" that we just defend or attack. It seems to get in the way of even startin...
May 10, 2022 at 05:22
“Psychological underpinnings” sounds like you think it is not a rational (analytical) claim or argument. As to learning about our motives, philosophy ...
May 10, 2022 at 00:29
I do take those who need to put something a particular way (say, Emerson, the later Heidegger, Wittgenstein (and Austin), Nietszche) to be as analytic...
May 09, 2022 at 06:19
We are beyond being merely stymied and reflecting on our history and practices to problem-solve; we are lost and don't know how to continue (having co...
May 09, 2022 at 02:51
Well we should probably leave Witt out of this, but I was only in a way agreeing with your conclusion that there is ultimately nothing "essential", no...
May 08, 2022 at 16:44
The gist of this sentence is misread. The battle is not against language, language is the means by which the battle is conducted--he uses what we say ...
May 07, 2022 at 23:26
If we call this a hypothesis, then it gives it the framework of a problem with thus an answer. But if we look at it as an analogy, it would be to illu...
May 07, 2022 at 18:01
Witt is not examining how we judge a whole language game (say, the practice of cannibalism) so much as an act or expression within such a practice (a ...
February 13, 2022 at 03:10
Well that's disappointing, but I remain willing to elaborate. Bottom line my point is that rules are an example he uses, not an explanation of how eve...
February 12, 2022 at 09:00
Well, as with @"Metaphysician Undercover" requiring that following and obeying be subject to the same necessity--not seeing that we may follow, for in...
February 11, 2022 at 07:09
This takes Witt's realization as the discovery of a paradox which importantly impacts our ability to have any certainty at all (Kripke will call this ...
February 07, 2022 at 07:57
Here, the analogous world of trees and plantations would be animals and cattle, wildlife and product. As I have said, for Wittgenstein, to swing from ...
December 08, 2021 at 09:09
In Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein examines why we want the certainty of picturing language as words connected to objects (including a "mea...
December 07, 2021 at 05:19
I did attach the texts to the original post, and they are very short so I wouldn't be deterred. As well, the antipathy of philosophy is a parred down ...
December 06, 2021 at 01:47
I made a mistake: the reference to "passionate utterances" in the essay on animals is just a mention of an essay called "Performative and Passionate U...
December 05, 2021 at 00:50
I attached the Philosophical Investigations section XI on aspects and the Companionable Thinking essay by Cavell to my original comment, though the bo...
December 04, 2021 at 23:48
@"Caldwell" @"James Riley" @"baker" @"Wayfarer" Cavell has an essay in the book Philosophy and Animal Life, in response to a fictionalized speech maki...
December 04, 2021 at 07:47
In: Intuition  — view comment
Emerson will call it the genius that each of us have, but it is more in relation to an opportunity than something innate. Is it unobjectionable to say...
November 21, 2021 at 08:13
This actually catches some of what is important that Witt is pointing out, particularly that the grammar of a thing (the way it works, or not) express...
November 17, 2021 at 06:50
This is a description of a cat; these are facts about a cat for identifying a cat, say, from a dog, or a tiger. These are not the essence of a thing t...
November 10, 2021 at 07:13
(emphasis added) In the PI, Witt is trying to get us to see why we want there to be such a thing as a "literal, conventional meaning" (a "meaning"). I...
November 10, 2021 at 05:42
I don't want to run off topic here but the term "use" captures that language can not be meaningful beforehand (as if in a "meaning" or by anticipated ...
November 06, 2021 at 06:10
In this case, as I said earlier, that "I know I have a headache" is "know" in the sense of being aware. To decide what we can "sensibly say" is to ima...
November 06, 2021 at 03:59
Oh good, you figured it out! Enjoy your Kant; we're done.
November 05, 2021 at 06:29
The emphasis is being able to show a context; in this way we can see the implications of the expression, the way in which it works (it's grammar) and ...
November 04, 2021 at 00:30
I knew there was a more definitive criteria of the sense of knowledge I was trying to contrast with that of being aware for @"Olivier5", but I couldn'...
November 04, 2021 at 00:22
Earlier, here, I said: The method Witt uses in imagining a context for an expression is to show that the sentence is meaningful, that there are ordina...
November 03, 2021 at 19:38
We could say we "perceived via the senses"(empirically) and can explain pain "rationally" as neurons firing and tissue swelling and brain processes (t...
November 03, 2021 at 18:54
Well I took this up above, but the idea that a sentence like "I know I am in pain" looks like it is meaningful in the abstract is because words can be...
November 03, 2021 at 07:41
@"Banno" It might save time to find the phrase "Essence is expressed by grammar" on the first page and see if that post makes sense. But I would say t...
November 03, 2021 at 07:13
@"Banno" This is really one you have to read with the larger context of the whole discussion of rule-following, but I did another discussion of Cavell...
November 03, 2021 at 07:09
@"Srap Tasmaner" Maybe it would help with some examples. Let's say, making an apology. Now, I can judge that what someone else is saying is not an apo...
November 03, 2021 at 06:48
I specifically said that knowledge in this case is its sense as awareness (thus sometimes it can not be "reliably acquired" as we are not aware of it,...
November 03, 2021 at 06:07
To, clarify: words can be defined, as in, they have that possibility, unlike sentences.
November 03, 2021 at 05:52
That's a good point. I said it to emphasize the fact that each thing, like knowing, believing, pointing, has different criteria and grammar than other...
November 03, 2021 at 05:39
Is this the "context" in which he said it? Saying it is incorrect doesn't even say how it is incorrect, much less why this is the statement that he fe...
November 02, 2021 at 18:16
Nothing I can say will tell you anything so that you won't have to see for yourself. Can everyone please stop thinking philosophy is like facts; that ...
November 02, 2021 at 17:16
That's a bit harsh. He changes the direction of philosophy and he isn't entitled to a term to generally refer to what takes him a whole book to set ou...
November 02, 2021 at 05:12
I believe we just disagree. I was making a different claim about "use" and showing the limitations of correctness (and rules; as if to say: there are ...
November 02, 2021 at 04:09
Well yes, it's a technical term the way he uses it. He is getting at what expresses the essence of a particular "concept" (another technical term, but...
November 02, 2021 at 01:41
To the extent my pain goes away with the same medication, my pain is the same as your pain (as it were, essentially--a grammatical claim on the sense ...
November 01, 2021 at 22:53
I was not paraphrasing what you wrote. I am pointing out the lack of necessity of a context--all that is needed is a definition of pain and of knowled...
November 01, 2021 at 22:29
I'm interested in how we affirm that we do know sensations (me mine, you mine). Of course there is not always a opposite direct negation of an epistem...
November 01, 2021 at 21:00
Except that you could be lying, and we may never know; or, we might see your pain, and reject it/you as dramatization, posturing. Or you have expresse...
November 01, 2021 at 09:00
"When I have a headache, I know I have a headache." @"TheMadFool" I agree. There is something true in this expression, but it is not what this reactio...
November 01, 2021 at 08:07
. TMF: "Obvious", "perfect sense". Mine: "pretending", "absurd", "disingenuous" Succinct. TMF's statement does not need a context--that's been the poi...
November 01, 2021 at 05:53
I agree that the sense of forgetting associated with awareness is maybe not the first sense one would think of (that I should have thought of a better...
November 01, 2021 at 03:04
Wittgenstein looks at belief in the Philosophical Investigations. He lands on the claim that belief operates like a hypothesis: "I believe it's going ...
October 31, 2021 at 05:27
Of course. All I was adding is that is only half the battle; Witt goes on to show a legitimate logic of pain in the alternative; in what sense I know ...
October 31, 2021 at 00:13