Excerpt of a Conversation...
...between a Pyrrhonian and a young logician, from a long lost text of a very young Wittgenstein.*
"So you position is that we don't know anything to be true?"
"Yes."
"But how do you know that? What I mean to say is, how do you know that you don't know anything to be true?"
"I don't know that. That's what I'm saying, I don't know."
"But then how can you make that claim in the first place?"
"Well, how do you know that I claim to know that I don't know?"
"That's dodging the question. But to answer you anyway, I can understand what you're saying and its relation to truth because of the language system we use."
"Oh? And what of this 'language system'?"
"Our language is part of a logical system to describe the world. As long as we are the ones who create the rules for the system, we create the standards of truth within it. By way of this system, we try to discover the truth of claims about the world through lining up a true logical system with the world. If what our system describes is the same as the world, we have achieved our goal and can speak truth. If we reach some inconsistency between our system and the world, the system must go, since the world is our only standard for truth. Something is true if it one with the world. If our language can completely line up with the world at all times, we have reached the pinnacle of truth.
"As far as you are concerned, the way you say, "We cannot know anything" indicates that you believe it to be so. Even if you say, "I think we cannot know anything," or, "It may be that we cannot know anything," you are still making claims about your thoughts and the possibilities of events, respectively. So long as you use language for anything, you are making an assumption about your language and those you assume to be hearing and understanding it. If you were a real skeptic, it would be best to say nothing at all."
"You have a point. However, before I take my vow of silence, I have one more question for you: how do you know what that wonderful little system of yours lines up with the world?"
"That, my friend, is where people like you come from."
*if only
"So you position is that we don't know anything to be true?"
"Yes."
"But how do you know that? What I mean to say is, how do you know that you don't know anything to be true?"
"I don't know that. That's what I'm saying, I don't know."
"But then how can you make that claim in the first place?"
"Well, how do you know that I claim to know that I don't know?"
"That's dodging the question. But to answer you anyway, I can understand what you're saying and its relation to truth because of the language system we use."
"Oh? And what of this 'language system'?"
"Our language is part of a logical system to describe the world. As long as we are the ones who create the rules for the system, we create the standards of truth within it. By way of this system, we try to discover the truth of claims about the world through lining up a true logical system with the world. If what our system describes is the same as the world, we have achieved our goal and can speak truth. If we reach some inconsistency between our system and the world, the system must go, since the world is our only standard for truth. Something is true if it one with the world. If our language can completely line up with the world at all times, we have reached the pinnacle of truth.
"As far as you are concerned, the way you say, "We cannot know anything" indicates that you believe it to be so. Even if you say, "I think we cannot know anything," or, "It may be that we cannot know anything," you are still making claims about your thoughts and the possibilities of events, respectively. So long as you use language for anything, you are making an assumption about your language and those you assume to be hearing and understanding it. If you were a real skeptic, it would be best to say nothing at all."
"You have a point. However, before I take my vow of silence, I have one more question for you: how do you know what that wonderful little system of yours lines up with the world?"
"That, my friend, is where people like you come from."
*if only
posted by Derek at 7:01 PM
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