From: Elizaphanian (Elizaphanian@members.v21.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jan 22 2003 - 04:45:05 GMT
This didn't seem to get through the first time.
> Hi people,
>
> Had to give my two cents on this (well, two thoughts.)
>
> 1. On Wittgenstein and the logical positivists: Ray Monk (the biographer
of
> W) tells the wonderful story of how when he was invited to speak to the
> Vienna Circle, Wittgenstein would sometimes "turn his back on them and
read
> poetry. In particular - as if to emphasise to them... that what he had not
> said in the Tractatus was more important that what he had - he read them
the
> poems of Rabindranath Tagore... whose poems express a mystical outloook
> diametrically opposed to that of the members of [the] circle.... To the
> positivists, clarity went hand in hand with the scientific method, and, to
> Carnap in particular, it was a shock to realise that the author of the
book
> they regarded as the very paradigm of philosophical precision and clarity
> was so determinedly unscientific in both temperament and method." I love
> the image of a bunch of positivists gathered at the feet of the master,
who
> turns his back on them and forces them to listen to poetry. Of course, if
> Struan is right about the positivists, that anecdote has no point :o)
>
> 2. On Wittgenstein and pragmatism: a new book has just been published by
> Russell Goodman on Wittgenstein and William James; I haven't got it -
yet -
> but the first chapter, on W and the pragmatists (showing how W was NOT a
> pragmatist, although he accepts that he is arguing something that 'sounds
> like' pragmatism) is available on-line at
> http://assets.cambridge.org/0521813158/sample/0521813158WS.pdf
>
> Goodman is arguing that James had a big influence on Wittgenstein - which
is
> assuredly true, and not commonly enough understood - but if he goes
further
> (by saying that W actually *was* a pragmatist) I think he is on dodgy
> ground. As - despite my usual agreement with him - I think Matt was when
he
> said (and I don't understand the grammar here): "the later Wittgenstein is
> his turn towards pragmatism."
>
> Sam
>
> "We are actually leaving the world a better place than when we got it and
> this is the really fantastic point about the real state of the world: that
> mankind's lot has vastly improved in every significant measurable field
and
> that it is likely to continue to do so."
> (Bjorn Lomborg)
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