Wittgenstein (Arguments of the Philosophers) by Robert J. Fogelin

Author:Robert J. Fogelin [Fogelin, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

It seems that we can replace the statement about the broom with another concerning the broomstick and the brush and their relationships to one another. Shall we then say that we have provided an analysis of the original statement in the sense of breaking its meaning down into its constituent parts? As soon as the question is made explicit, there is probably little temptation to answer it affirmatively. The assumption here is that, given the proposition S is P, a further description of the object named by “S” will give further knowledge of the meaning of the proposition concerning it. The assumption is incredible. A detailed knowledge of how the bristles are arranged in the brush will, of course, increase our knowledge of the broom, but it will not increase our understanding of the meaning of the assertion that the broom is in the corner.

But who, it might be asked, ever held a view subject to this criticism? Well, G.E. Moore for one. In the first chapter of Principia Ethica he explains what he means by saying that good is indefinable. He tells us that in defining a horse we may present: (i) an “arbitrary verbal definition” (or stipulation); (ii) a “verbal definition proper” (or lexical definition); or

(iii) “we may, when we define horse, mean something much more important.”

We may mean that a certain object, which we all of us know, is composed in a certain manner: that it has four legs, a head, a heart, a liver, etc., etc., all of them arranged in definite relations to one another.12

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