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Ideas for 'Lectures 1930-32 (student notes)', 'From an Ontological Point of View' and 'Varieties of Meaning'

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3 ideas

1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis
We don't need a theory of truth, because we use the word perfectly well [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: It is nonsense to try to find a theory of truth, because we can see that in everyday life we use the word quite clearly and definitely in various different senses.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], C V B)
     A reaction: This was a year before Tarski published his famous theory of truth for formal languages. Prior to that, most philosophers were giving up on truth. Would he say the same about 'gravity' or 'inflation'?
If you begin philosophy with language, you find yourself trapped in it [Heil]
     Full Idea: If you start with language and try to work your way outwards, you will never get outside language.
     From: John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], Pref)
     A reaction: This voices my pessimism about the linguistic approach to philosophy (and I don't just mean analysis of ordinary language), though I wonder if the career of (say) John Searle is a counterexample.
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 7. Limitations of Analysis
We already know what we want to know, and analysis gives us no new facts [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: In philosophy we know already all that we want to know; philosophical analysis does not give us any new facts.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], B V.1)