Thank you for the compliment but I could write a whole 3 volume book on the request you just made, not on Wittgenstein, on the request to go read that article and all it implies to responsibly do so.
First realize that the article is about what someone thinks Wittgenstein meant to say. It is written by a third party, Victor Rodych. Reading the article is about like watching MSNBC or CNN report the “news”. To know what really happened concerning any news, you really have to go to the source because in the case of CNN, the truth will invariably be different than what was reported, MSNBC a little less so even though they read from the same scripts. They depend very heavily on us not having the time or inclination to check their sources.
That might not be so much the case with Victor Rodych but until I go read Wittgenstein himself, I couldn’t trust what someone else interpreted from him. And that takes a lot more time than I have, much like trying to untwist the true story from whatever CNN might have said. You have to take the time to go to the source (which they often hide if it existed at all).
That is what I am doing regarding James. And it takes a great deal of effort to try to see the world from another person’s perspective just to ensure that you are not mis interpreting what they are trying to say. What was their environment? Who were they speaking or writing to? What were they trying to accomplish? What words did they use? What references? And finally, what did they really intend to relay to their audience at that time? And that isn’t even getting into who the person really was all about.
So who is this Victor Rodych and why should I believe what he says about anything? He was raised to be a liberal in England, got his BA at Brandon, Phd at York. He seems to have focused primarily on Wittgenstein and Popper, both notable anti-logic promoters - “one can only believe the witnessed” , pro-mindless science. And that should be expected from a well published liberal now associated with the elitist Lethbridge University.
So what did the man report that Wittgenstein was trying to say? By just a quick scan of the article, I run across this quip, “the only genuine propositions that we can use to make assertions about reality are contingent (‘empirical’) propositions, which are true if they agree with reality and false otherwise”. Immediately I observed a “contingent” issue - ,“we can only make true assertions about reality if they are true”. And is what we witnessed what was really there?
Without the ability to reason, to use logic, even what we think we see is dubious, especially if it is some video or TV program. A hundred scientists can witness something that never happened. The senses can be easily fooled. And the instruments can be very easily misinterpreted. That is what skeptics and critical thinkers are for. But critical thinking involves logical and rational thinking, not instantly assuming that you have seen the truth.
I noted that James stated that the “Godwannabes” are the cause of ALL the world’s problems. I have always felt that it is assumption that is doing so. But then James also states that “presumption is the seed of all sin.” So in that regard I guess we actually we agree.
But note the reasoning assumed in that one statement, “genuine propositions are empirical and true only if they agree with reality”. Sounds fair upon simpleminded viewing, but there is a problem. He is saying that logical reasoning is not genuine, supposedly then to not be accepted as true (whether reality agrees or not). The only things we should have any faith in is what we see directly. But does what we see directly agree with reality? How could we know? Well that is easy, “if it is true, then believe it, otherwise don’t”. Yeah.
I think as it turns out, we can only know if our empirical evidence agrees with reality through logical thinking. But logical thinking is not allowed, it is mere “pseudo-proposition”, not to be taken seriously.
What it amounts to is that if you try to take logic out of witnessing and observing to discern truth, you can never know if you have discerned truth. But maybe that is the goal, to be never sure to be always in doubt, always insecure. That does sound like things I have heard about Wittgenstein. And it was a part of the political arena during that era.
I really don’t have the time to go find out what Wittgenstein really meant to say. But what our “sources tell us” is that Wittgenstein thought that people should not think (largely paraphrased) but believe whatever they see on face value.
Apparently Wittgenstein proposed (I guess that was a “pseudo-proposition”) that “2+2=4” is only a pseudo-proposition proposed by mathematics advocates and might not actually be true. We must empirically test the proposal before we can believe it. And if we multiply 947 times 627294, we should only believe our calculation after we go count the empirical items on display.
“Wittgenstein maintains that “mathematical propositions” are not real propositions” - Victor Rodych
In essence, he is saying that maths and logic are not to be trusted.
It appears that his argument is that maths and logic are merely language and thus don’t really mean anything because we invent language, implying that we could have invented it differently and caused “2+2=5”. If it is true that Wittgenstein really believed that, I would have to say that the man, as a philosopher, wasn’t very bright (despite his reputation, which is ALWAYS a product of politics, not performance).
As far as the infinities, one particular paragraph stands out in
It seems that early in his philosophical endeavors Wittgenstein rejected the very idea of an infinity (which to me would have been dumb). But later he expressed more acceptance, although insufficient for certainty. Again, that quote indicates that I would have to go read and investigate the mind of Wittgenstein myself in order to MAYBE discern what he eventually ended up believing about something, infinities, that I don’t really have any doubts about. So it is seriously not worth my time. I have a real life to worry about. Normally, I wouldn’t even be taking the time for these discussions.
I always try to keep in mind that reputation is strictly and entirely about politics, not performance.