Antony Nickles

There are two different senses of “know” here at p. (246), one being: with certainty, the other being knowing as acknowledging, recognizing. The part ...

Me, I do. In a sense he is recognizing that everyone (and not just philosophers) wishes to side-step our part in our lives and our lives together. All...

Philosophy has always been about making explicit, or reflecting on, what is normally not considered or examined (the “unconscious” in a sense). Witt c...

The insight is based on the fact that certain philosophy has a special requirement for knowing (identity), while ordinarily we would just say we know ...

Well now the walls are truly up and the gate is closed, and without any explanation of what they are and why. As I pointed out here, this claim doesn’...

I walked into that. But at the start of the sentence he says “If we are using the word ‘to know’ as it is normally used…” (emphasis added) which is to...

The critique of “psychological”, as I understand it, is not to say: affected by the unconscious (neurosis or insecurity, etc.), but on par with “emoti...

Thank you Manuel. Now let me explain how you’ve framed that incorrectly.

@"Leontiskos" @"schopenhauer1" @"Count Timothy von Icarus" @"Sam26" @"Janus" @"Srap Tasmaner" @"Paine" I also have a list of irks with how Witt is tak...

I agree that Plato’s writing is better and more engaging. Witt is abrasive and speaking only really to hardcore analytic philosophers. My hope is that...

Well you hit the nail on the head with this. Unapologetically arrogant. And, on the face of it, inexplicably so. It comes off as personality, but ther...

@"Sam26" @"Leontiskos" @"Wayfarer" @"Tom Storm" @"Joshs" emphasis added His conclusion would be for you to see what is being pointed out, which in thi...

The same way we interpret other philosophical terms: context, distinction, implication, comparison to other senses of the words, and all our other tim...

I do think we are circling the gist of the grievance, but you frame it as: “Wittgenstein is either saying something or else he is not.” First, wanting...

I’m not sure if this is meant to mean my description (then, where) but I would not say he is not making claims, just claims about the implications of ...

This is a shame. I do not find as important what he is telling us (nor what he might be “showing” us), but more the example he sets during his investi...

But if you’re not doing a thorough reading of a philosopher (pointing to textual evidence, taking into account their terms, etc.), how can you be sure...

This is off-topic, but yours is a common and understandable question. Witt isn’t “privileging” “common usage”, he is looking at examples of a time and...

@"Wayfarer" @"Joshs" One more thing I think is happening sometimes is people take everything Witt writes as if it was a statement, like a claim to kno...

Interestingly, perhaps, though for another time, as we do in the PI (#139).

Getting someone to see something differently is harder than getting someone to admit something true, because the denial is a shutting out, rather than...

Witt can be very dismissive (calling things “nonsense”) and high-handed (unceremoniously judgey), but what he’s interested in is the motivation of the...

I do think this is a thing, for a number of reasons. One is that he can come off as arrogant (Austin even more so). His basic claims are: what the imp...

I think we might be assuming a lot without looking around a bit. We seem to be equating “socialism” to entitlement spending (non-discretionary social ...

Thanks. Austin to the rescue.

@"Banno" Always a pleasure Sam. Maybe we sometimes project our doubts to create a framework that only accepts an “answer” (and one of a particular kin...

And I agree with you here. Austin has a way of putting it that we project a self that has “intention” back into a situation, but only when it doesn’t ...

Well, yes, the brain/body does things on its own, or there are “empty code triggering reconditioned responses”. We may make a “snap judgment”, be unco...

Thank you for the understanding and appreciation. I should try to remember to phrase it that: “this is how I am taking what you are saying”, as what I...

It was, just not only in the way it wanted to be, so just be a little less judgey and bullying, yeah?

Oh… you just wanted to point out something clever? Well done you.

You mean clear to you. Picture instructions are clear to everyone; do you want me to draw you a map? What words should I use? What dichotomies do you ...

Oh please. Get over yourself. I shouldn’t have wasted my time trying to explain philosophy to you; I’m gonna be able to convince you how you’re a jerk...

Is cruelty the level of insult it would have to rise to? Really? Not just dismissive, mocking, superior, flippant… you’re gonna have to give me a minu...

Not self-aware either! I think the start of that might be the dizzying part for you. It was me who started saying rude things? (Your miss-using “conte...

Because you think your way of looking at things is obvious and mine is nonsense, like the world revolves around you. Because I spent my valuable time ...

Step away from the philosophy.

You don’t have to admit it. I know.

No, he nailed it. I made it able to be understood without needing to stretch one’s worldview.

Sorry, seemed pretty straightforward. I must have just made up that interpretation.

I made this confusing. When I said my determination of whether you are in earnest “instilled faith”, I did not mean faith, as in: belief, as if blindl...

Well, that might be because of the historical picture of belief as a lesser version of knowledge, but I take it as a lack of interest (not a lack of a...

I’m not saying he doesn’t trust his own reasoning, I’m saying that there is more involved than “reasoning”. The “stories” he is talking about are thin...

I’m not suggesting you are speculating, but this is a categorical issue—a matter of the type of reasons we use in different cases. Sometimes we “trust...

If we aren’t going to call determining good science from bad a skill—say, that anyone competent could perform—and we take it as a matter of instilling...

The other does not “interpret” earnestness, as if it were a matter of confusion or seeing correctly. Because of the way earnestness works, the other j...

Well, yes, it is a matter of knowledge, though I’m not sure it is a problem with knowledge. I wouldn’t say we have an issue with our criteria to tell ...

Yes, I worded that poorly. Of course they are doubting their ability to decide whether the science is done well. This is different though than the kin...

But that is not a case of distrusting ourselves, but of not trusting science, specifically our ability to tell good science from bad. What makes a sci...

And I did not mean to suggest that you were “wrong”, only to point out something overlooked generally in these cases. And this is exactly why the unfo...