Single Idea 7392

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 3. Privacy]

Full Idea

I think that if a lion could talk, that lion would have a mind so different from the general run of lion minds, that although we could understand him just fine, we would learn little about ordinary lions from him.

Gist of Idea

If a lion could talk, it would be nothing like other lions

Source

comment on Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], II.xi) by Daniel C. Dennett - Consciousness Explained 14.2

Book Reference

Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Consciousness Explained' [Penguin 1993], p.447


A Reaction

This is rather more sensible than Wittgenstein's famous enigmatic utterance.