Our modern world offers us many strange superstitions, ideas and beliefs. However, I believe that Wittgensteinian “grammatical” or ordinary language philosophy can dispel bad ideas and beliefs simply by exposing the confused grammar that has brought them to their sorry state. It would be interesting to hear which of these modern beliefs you think can be tackled by Wittgensteinian analysis, and which cannot.
Here are a few to try out:
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We believe that giving birth is better lying on your back.
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We believe that genes can survive death by replicating.
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We believe that there are parallel universes created by quantum events.
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We believe that life is driven by intrinsic selfishness.
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We believe that light of wavelength 650nm really IS, itself, red.
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We believe in the existence of psychological forces like “disorder” and “imbalance” that move around and affect the brain.
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We believe that, in evolution, thoughts can directly move or influence matter.
8 ) We believe that science can tell if material is conscious just by examining or looking at it.
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We believe that we can advance as a species but we don’t consider ourselves as apes, sea squirts or single celled.
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We believe that a TV has a unique identity that makes it a TV.
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We believe that matter causes consciousness.
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We believe that an experiment can tell us if the universe is expanding or not.
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We believe in animism - robots and Artificial Intelligence.