Chasing Chimeras: Wittgenstein Unleashed
1. This is so cool.
2. This is totally ridiculous.
3. Am I missing something from the German? What the #&*$ is this guy talking about?
4. This is so cool.
5. Can I write my dissertation like this? How about pass my OQE's?
6. Wittgenstein breaks out of the "iron cage" of the perfectly logical binary/reductionist language of the Tractatus. He removes his dark helmet, disconnects the cyborg-gadgetry and decides once and for all that he's human, not a machine. Wittgenstein II is downright playful sometimes; the book is full of humor, of color, of emotion. It's not by coincidence he compares philosophical method with therapy (#134) and medicine (#255), and concentrates on the communication of pain (#244 among many others) --this book seems to have been Wittgenstein's catharsis. Is it science? Its greatest moments are much more like poetry.
7. The introduction, knowing that he died a few years later while this book was still a mess of papers on his desk, is heartbreaking.
8. I know you cynical bastards are mocking my sentimentality.
9. Does anybody remember our "truth-statements" from the first class? I said "If I staple my thumb, it hurts." I swear I didn't plagiarize it from #288.
10. Despite the literary genius of leaving everything a mess, the rawness, the blessed absence of editing, homogenizing, dilution--maybe you can't get inside someone's head, except by invitation--maybe this is a great work because he brings you so far into his thought process--despite the excitement of encountering these puzzles which were only partially solved and mostly scattered when mortality interrupted--I hate to ask this question because I think the work has so much value in stimulating thought--what are the implications of Wittgenstein's language games for game theory and the other methods we have (not) been trained to use? What does this mean for social science research? What would Wittgenstein do, if he were one of us, evaluating research methodologies?
"The fundamental fact here is that we lay down rules, a technique for a game, and that then when we follow the rules, things do not turn out as we had assumed. That we are therefore as it were entangled in our own rules."
What Would Wittgenstein Do? Is he a methodological anarchist? Can one support an existing methodology, any methodology from the ones we've learned, on the basis of any of the 301 separate post-its Wittgenstein left scattered on his desk for us to read? Or is he playing an entirely different game?
(TRIVIA QUESTION: Name the Pulp Fiction quote that just popped up in my head)
2. This is totally ridiculous.
3. Am I missing something from the German? What the #&*$ is this guy talking about?
4. This is so cool.
5. Can I write my dissertation like this? How about pass my OQE's?
6. Wittgenstein breaks out of the "iron cage" of the perfectly logical binary/reductionist language of the Tractatus. He removes his dark helmet, disconnects the cyborg-gadgetry and decides once and for all that he's human, not a machine. Wittgenstein II is downright playful sometimes; the book is full of humor, of color, of emotion. It's not by coincidence he compares philosophical method with therapy (#134) and medicine (#255), and concentrates on the communication of pain (#244 among many others) --this book seems to have been Wittgenstein's catharsis. Is it science? Its greatest moments are much more like poetry.
7. The introduction, knowing that he died a few years later while this book was still a mess of papers on his desk, is heartbreaking.
8. I know you cynical bastards are mocking my sentimentality.
9. Does anybody remember our "truth-statements" from the first class? I said "If I staple my thumb, it hurts." I swear I didn't plagiarize it from #288.
10. Despite the literary genius of leaving everything a mess, the rawness, the blessed absence of editing, homogenizing, dilution--maybe you can't get inside someone's head, except by invitation--maybe this is a great work because he brings you so far into his thought process--despite the excitement of encountering these puzzles which were only partially solved and mostly scattered when mortality interrupted--I hate to ask this question because I think the work has so much value in stimulating thought--what are the implications of Wittgenstein's language games for game theory and the other methods we have (not) been trained to use? What does this mean for social science research? What would Wittgenstein do, if he were one of us, evaluating research methodologies?
"The fundamental fact here is that we lay down rules, a technique for a game, and that then when we follow the rules, things do not turn out as we had assumed. That we are therefore as it were entangled in our own rules."
What Would Wittgenstein Do? Is he a methodological anarchist? Can one support an existing methodology, any methodology from the ones we've learned, on the basis of any of the 301 separate post-its Wittgenstein left scattered on his desk for us to read? Or is he playing an entirely different game?
(TRIVIA QUESTION: Name the Pulp Fiction quote that just popped up in my head)
posted by Anonymous at 11:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home