Thursday, March 9, 2017

Wittgenstein writes the following: In philosophy no hypotheses are formed, no inferences drawn, no assertions made. One does not say: 'this is the way it has to be', but how things are shown. The overcoming of misunderstandings happens by means of description. 'In philosophy we do not draw conclusions. "But it must be like this!" is not a philosophical proposition. Philosophy only states what everyone admits (...). Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it. 'For it cannot give it any foundation either. 'It leaves everything as it is (...). 'Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything. --Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain. For what is hidden, for example, is of no interest to us. 'One might also give the name "philosophy" to what is possible *before* all new discoveries and inventions' (PI 599, 124, 126). It is difficult to find the proper beginning or rather not to want to go once again behind this beginning when one has found it (see OC 471). The difficulty is to accept something as a solution which first looks like a preliminary step towards it. The difficulty is: to stop (see Z 312, 314...). Copied from Brand, Gerd. The Central Texts of Wittgenstein. Robert E. Innis, trans. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,1979. p. 173. Print.

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