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2 ideas
6591 | Doubts can't exist if they are inexpressible or unanswerable [Wittgenstein] |
Full Idea: Doubt can exist only where a question exists, a question only where an answer can exist, and an answer only where something can be said. | |
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1921], 6.51) | |
A reaction: I don't agree with any of that. It is typical of the phase when philosophers were mesmerised by language. Cats look puzzled sometimes. A glimmering of doubt may be pre-linguistic, inexpressible and unanswerable, but still feels like a doubt. |
22780 | It is a rejection of intellectual dignity to say that we cannot know the truth [Hegel] |
Full Idea: The assertion that human beings cannot know the truth, but have to do only with appearances …deprives the spirit of intellectual dignity. | |
From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Elements of the Philosophy of Right [1821], 132) | |
A reaction: It is a relief to find Hegel making this assertion. His later followers seem to have slid into an extreme cultural relativism. I'm not sure that 'intellectual dignity' is a very secure foundation for his claim. |