In the first case, the picture I draw of X may look to you like something else — Fooloso4
in the second, it cannot look to you like something else because you cannot see it. — Fooloso4
In that case, sentence 2 is true. Why do you say W rejects it? — Luke
Cannot see what? — Luke
Why do you say W rejects it? — Luke
If I draw a picture or take a photograph of X, it is not a picture of anything else. Whether someone thinks it is a picture of something else makes no difference. It is a picture of X. — Fooloso4
a) The picture I draw of X it is an image of X. I know because I drew it. — Fooloso4
A second person in involved in 2 but no one else can be involved in my mental image. If 2 and 3 are to be compared on an equal bases then a second person should not enter into the comparison. — Fooloso4
For however similar I make the picture to what it is supposed to represent, it may still be the picture of something else. — PI 389, sentence 2
But it is an intrinsic feature of a mental image that it is the image of this and of nothing else. — PI 389, sentence 3
Why do you say W rejects it?
— Luke
a) The picture I draw of X it is an image of X. I know because I drew it.
b) My mental image of X is an image of X.
What is the difference between a and b with regard to being an image of X? — Fooloso4
It does make a difference, because you could be wrong. You might think you've taken a photo of the Eiffel Tower when you've actually taken a photo of the Arc de Triomphe. — Luke
If you want to compare 2 and 3 "on an equal basis" then, in order to remain faithful to the rest of the text, this should be done from a public perspective, not from a private one. — Luke
From a public perspective, and in accordance with my argument above, this would make sentence 2 true: — Luke
But it isn't only up to you, and others may interpret it as something other than what it is "supposed to represent". — Luke
I don't see why sentences 2 and 3 should be compared "on an equal basis". — Luke
You seem to read sentence 2 as being from the private perspective and sentence 3 as being from the public perspective, — Luke
How can sentence 3 make any sense if a mental image cannot be seen by anyone (from the public perspective)? — Luke
The same can be said of a mental picture. I might think my mental image is of the Eiffel Tower when it id actually a mental image of the Arc de Triomphe. — Fooloso4
This is why the comparison between a mental image and a physical image is misguided. — Fooloso4
In the case of 2 the image "I make" may be seen by others as a picture of something else. In the case of 3 no such ambiguity arises because no one else can see the image. If they could, the same ambiguity might arise. The mental image is not a superlikeness. — Fooloso4
If I mistakenly think that my mental image is of the Eiffel Tower, what does that have to do with a superlikeness? — Luke
On my reading, I think that my mental image is of this (imagined or real) object before my mind and of nothing else. I cannot possibly mistake the content of this mental image — Luke
My (or the interlocutor's) inference is erroneous because the mental image is not a representation of the object. — Luke
If I mistakenly think that my mental image is of the Eiffel Tower, what does that have to do with a superlikeness?
— Luke
It shows that the mental image need not be more like the object than a physical picture. — Fooloso4
The mental image is not of the object before your mind. The mental object is the object before your mind. The mental object is an image of the same object that the picture is. The claim is that the mental image is more like this object than the physical picture is. — Fooloso4
My (or the interlocutor's) inference is erroneous because the mental image is not a representation of the object.
— Luke
Of course it is! Both the mental image and the physical image are images of the same object. — Fooloso4
The interlocutor is claiming that the mental image is more like that object than the physical image is. — Fooloso4
Are you saying the mental object is a teapot but that my mental image is not of a teapot? — Luke
But you said that the mental image is not of the object? — Luke
If I mistakenly think that my mental image is of the Eiffel Tower — Luke
No comparison can be made between their mental image and the object that their mental image is of. — Luke
The mental object and mental image are the same thing.
But you said that the mental image is not of the object?
— Luke
It is not of the object if:
If I mistakenly think that my mental image is of the Eiffel Tower
— Luke — Fooloso4
The mental image is not of the object.... — Fooloso4
They can make the comparison. We can't. If they have this mental image of what they think is an image of the Eiffel Tower and then visit the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe they might realize their mistake. — Fooloso4
If they have this mental image of what they think is an image of the Eiffel Tower and then visit the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe they might realize their mistake.
— Fooloso4
Again (assuming normal mental functioning), there will not be any mismatch between their mental image(s) and the object(s) they see in front of them, so what is the mistake? — Luke
The point of the example is that the mistake is corrected when the objects are in front of them. Before seeing them the mental image of the Eiffel Tower is a stone arch. — Fooloso4
And they would be mistaken. It is not the Eiffel Tower. The mistake can be corrected when the two objects are correctly identified. — Fooloso4
Therefore, the objects are not correctly identified by comparing one's mental image to the object. — Luke
But it is an intrinsic feature of a mental image that it is the image of this and of nothing
else.
Therefore, the objects are not correctly identified by comparing one's mental image to the object.
— Luke
A misnomer can be corrected by linking the correct name to the object. If I am told that this object I am standing in front of is the Eiffel Tower then I can see that my mental image was not what I thought it was. What I was picturing was not the Eiffel Tower. — Fooloso4
But it is an intrinsic feature of a mental image that it is the image of this and of nothing else.
Your example shows why this is not true. — Fooloso4
This correction is not made by comparing or associating a mental image with an object, but by comparing or associating a name with an object. — Luke
A misnomer can be corrected by linking the correct name to the object. — Fooloso4
Sentence 3 does not mention any names. Sentence 3 only makes an ostensive reference to this. — Luke
The point of the example of the Eiffel Tower is not that the names are mixed up, but that the mental image I have is actually an image of something else, the Arc de Triomphe. — Fooloso4
"This" refers to some object. At PI 389 there is only one object. There is no need to name it. — Fooloso4
Then why do you say the correction is made by linking the correct name to the object, instead of saying the correction is made by linking the correct mental image to the object? — Luke
If the correction is made by linking the correct name to the object, then there is a need to name the object. — Luke
Therefore, the Eiffel Tower example does not show that sentence 3 is false, because sentence 3 does not name the object. — Luke
How is the correction between the mental image and the object to be made? In the example of the Eiffel Tower I need to become aware that the mental image I have is the image of something else. Pointing to the object my mental image is an image of I might say: "See, this is the Eiffel Tower and my mental image looks just like it". — Fooloso4
Comparing my mental image to what I mistakenly think is the Eiffel Tower does not correct the problem. — Fooloso4
The point of the example of the Eiffel Tower is not that the names are mixed up... — Fooloso4
In the example of the Eiffel Tower there is, but at PI 389 there is no confusion as to what object is being referred to, and so, no need to name it. — Fooloso4
Therefore, the Eiffel Tower example does not show that sentence 3 is false, because sentence 3 does not name the object.
— Luke
It is not an intrinsic feature of my mental image of the Eiffel Tower that it is the image of "this" (the Eiffel Tower) and of nothing else. — Fooloso4
Or, the Eiffel Tower may be slightly different to how you imagined it, but you say it's exactly how you imagined it. — Luke
Moreover, why suppose that a mental image is required in order to use the name "Eiffel Tower" correctly — Luke
Comparing my mental image to what I mistakenly think is the Eiffel Tower does not correct the problem.
— Fooloso4
You seem to be suggesting that you can "correct the problem" by comparing your mental image to (what you correctly think is) the Eiffel Tower. — Luke
What object is being referred to at PI 389? — Luke
And the same goes for any other mental image (M) that one has; it is the image of (M) and of nothing else. — Luke
My mental image of the Eiffel Tower need not be an image of the Eiffel Tower. — Fooloso4
Moreover, why suppose that a mental image is required in order to use the name "Eiffel Tower" correctly
— Luke
You seem to have lost track of the argument. It is not required. The question is whether the mental image must of the Eiffel Tower and nothing else. — Fooloso4
Why would you think I am suggesting that when I said the opposite? — Fooloso4
What object is being referred to at PI 389?
— Luke
According to the interlocutor (and you(?)), whatever object the mental image is of is what the object is. — Fooloso4
If M is the mental image then M is not the image of M. — Fooloso4
Despite what Wittgenstein says about the ordinary it is often an overlooked aspect of his philosophy. All the focus remains on the same few linguistic tangles. — Fooloso4
Though we may doubt whether such-and-such physical conditions make this
movement possible, we never discuss whether this is the possibility of this or of that movement: 'so the possibility of the movement stands in a unique relation to the movement itself; closer than that of a picture to its subject'; for it can be doubted whether a picture is the picture of this thing or that. We say "Experience will shew whether this gives the pin this possibility of movement", but we do not say "Experience will shew whether this is the possibility of this movement": 'so it is not an empirical fact that this possibility is the possibility of precisely this movement'. We mind about the kind of expressions we use concerning these things; we do not understand them, however, but misinterpret them.
When we do philosophy we are like savages, primitive people, who hear the expressions of civilized men, put a false interpretation on them, and then draw the queerest conclusions from it. — PI, 194
1. W. concludes this part of the discussion by pin‐pointing one deep aspect of the illusions that beset us here. We think of our mental images as pictures which only we can see, in fact as ‘super‐pictures’ which cannot be misinterpreted. For an ordinary picture, though it is a picture of X, may look like (and be wrongly taken to be) a picture of Y. But it is essential to a mental image of X that it is of X and nothing else. So it comes to seem like a super‐likness. Yet this is confused, for that the mental image of X is an image of X is not determined by its likeness to X. We are prone to think that it is a picture which needs no interpretation, so closely does it resemble what it is a picture of. It is true that it needs no interpretation and also that it makes no sense to suppose that I might be mistaken in my characterization of my mental image. But that is not because it looks more like its object than any picture. It is rather that it neither looks like nor fails to look like its object. It is not a picture at all. How does one know that one’s image is of X and not Y (which looks like X)? One does not know, nor can one be mistaken. One says so, without grounds, as one says what one means or what one thinks.
2. The relation between an image and what it is an image of is comparable not to the relation between a portrait and its subject (where the portrait may resemble someone or something else), but to the relation between an expectation and what fulfils it (BB 36), a thought (or proposition) and what makes it true (PG 161), or a possibility and what it is a possibility of (PI §194). It is not an image of X in virtue of a method of projection or in virtue of a similarity, let alone a ‘super‐likeness’. (Cf. LA 67.) — PMS Hacker, Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind (Volume 3 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations), Part 2: Exegesis, Section 243-427
When does one have the thought that a machine already contains its possible movements in some mysterious way? Well, when one is doing philosophy.
Though we do pay attention to the way we talk about these matters, we don’t understand it, but misinterpret it. When we do philosophy, we are like savages, primitive people, who hear the way in which civilized people talk, put a false interpretation on it, and then draw the oddest conclusions from this.
And what lures us into thinking that? The kind of way in which we talk about the machine. We say, for example, that the machine has (possesses) such-and-such possibilities of movement; we speak of an ideally rigid machine which can move only thus-and-so.
... We talk as if these parts could only move in this way, as if they could not do anything else. Is this how it is? Do we forget the possibility of their bending, breaking off, melting, and so on? Yes; in many cases we don’t think of that at all.
But it is not just the engineer who know such possibilities. The ordinary person familiar with machines knows this. Rather than the philosopher's ideal picture of a machine as something rigid, the ordinary picture of a machine is of something that will require maintenance and repair in order to move in the ways it was designed to. — Fooloso4
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