(erbarmelijke vertaling van vorige blogpost - pitiful translation of previous blogpost)
In Flemish, there is an expression "It's as good as I have had it".
According to the Flemish dictionary, it is a polite rejection of the question whether someone wants to eat or drink something.
- Would you like to drink something?
- No, thank you. It's as good as I have had it.
In my neighborhood, the expression has evolved into a polite rejection tout court, often with an ironic undertone. So if you absolutely do not feel like responding to something: "No thanks, it's as good as I have had it.".
Epistemology, for example.
A philosopher who is often associated with epistemology is Ludwig Wittgenstein.
New publications on his views appear with the regularity of a clock.
An innumerable number of studies have been published in the specialized trade press on some of Wittgenstein's concepts such as "Familienähnlichkeit" (family resemblance) and "Lebensform" (form of life).
In the most recent "Cambridge elements" the authors concentrate mainly on the theme of "hinges".
Judging by the hallucinatory number of articles and books that have been published on "Angeln" (hinges), you have to conclude that it is a central theme in Wittgenstein's work.
To put that immediately into perspective: in all of Wittgenstein's writings the term appears two, -two !-, times.
The scribbles from Wittgenstein's notebooks were published after his lifetime under the title "On Certainty"
341. The questions that we raise and our doubts depend on the fact that some propositions are exempt from doubt, are as it were like hinges on which those turn.
342. That is to say, it belongs to the logic of our scientific investigations that certain things are in deed not doubted.
343. But it isn’t that the situation is like this: We just can’t investigate
everything, and for that reason we are forced to rest content with
assumption. If I want the door to turn, the hinges must stay put.
344. My life consists in my being content to accept many things.
341. D. h. die Fragen, die wir stellen, und unsre Zweifel beruhen darauf, daß gewisse Sätze vom Zweifel ausgenommen sind, gleichsam die Angeln, in welchen jene sich bewegen.
342. D. h. es gehört zur Logik unsrer wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen, daß Gewisses in der Tat nicht angezweifelt wird.
343. Es ist aber damit nicht so, daß wir eben nicht alles untersuchen können
und uns daher notgedrungen mit der Annahme zufriedenstellen müssen.
Wenn ich will, daß die Türe sich drehe, müssen die Angeln feststehen.
344. Mein Leben besteht darin, daß ich mich mit manchem zufriedengebe.
I would like to make some remarks on that.
And that under the motto of "slow reading"
"Man ist nicht umsonst Philologe gewesen,
man ist es vielleicht noch, das will sagen, ein Lehrer des langsamen
Lesens: - endlich schreibt man auch langsam."
Friedrich Nietzsche, Morgenröthe – Gedanken über die moralischen Vorurtheile
"It is not for nothing that one has been a philologist, perhaps one is a philologist still, that is to say, a teacher of slow reading: - at last one also writes slowly."
Wittgenstein himself was a fan of this, by the way.
Manchmal kann ein Satz nur verstanden
werden, wenn man ihn im richtigen Tempo liest.
Meine Sätze sind alle langsam zu lesen.
Ms 134, 76
“Sometimes a sentence
can be understood only if it is read at the right tempo. My sentences are all supposed to be read slowly” (CV, 57e).
Ich möchte eigentlich durch fortwährende || meine häufigen Interpunktionszeichen das Tempo des
Lesens verzögern. Denn ich möchte langsam
gelesen werden. (Wie ich selbst
lese.) ∣
Ms 136,128
"I really want my copious punctuation marks to slow down the speed of
reading. Because I should like to be read slowly. (As I myself read)"
(CV, 68e).
Man muß da bedenken daß das
So-Sehen eine ähnliche Wirkung haben kann, wie ein
Verändern des Gesehenen, z.B. durch ein
Setzen von Klammern, ein Unterstreichen, Zusammenfassen auf die
oder jene Art, etc., & daß das
So-Sehen in dieser Weise wieder
mit dem Vorstellen Ähnlichkeit hat.
Niemand wird doch leugnen daß ein
Unterstreichen, ein Setzen von Klammern, || ,
dem Erkennen einer Ähnlichkeit günstig
sein kann.
Ms 135,1
One must remember that seeing something in this way can have a similar effect to changing what is seen, e.g. by putting brackets, underlining, summarizing in this or that way, etc., and that seeing something in this way is again similar to imagining it.
Nobody will deny that underlining, putting brackets, || , can be beneficial to recognizing a similarity. (google translate)
We should be able to manage the "slow reading"
After all, it's only a handful of sentences.
Let's start with underlining.
You would expect that if something were to be underlined, it would be "Angeln".
Not so.
"Fragen, Zweifel, in der Tat, können en Leben" are the words that are underlined.
"In der Tat" is the one I like the most of all.
"Indeed", the "certainty" is to be found "in deed".
The text is notable for its wonderfully "senseless" sentences.
"Some propositions are exempt from doubt" would be a clear statement by the author.
But in German it says something different.
"Certain propositions are exempt from doubt" ("gewisse Sätze sind vom Zweifel ausgenommen").
That is a wonderful sentence in the order of "water is wet".
"Certainty is indeed not doubted."
Gewisses ("Gewisses" with a capital letter is a noun) wird
in der Tat nicht angezweifelt.
Wittgenstein's position seems lucid.
"But it is not that we cannot investigate everything and therefore must necessarily be content with the assumption. If I want the door to turn, the hinges must be fixed."
In that respect, there is nothing to be said against Danièle Moyal-Sharrock's conclusion:
"It should be clear, then, that Wittgenstein's conception of knowledge is the traditional one: knowledge as justified true belief" (page 10).
Only problem is then that we conveniently ignore the last, crucial sentence.
It should be clear, then, that there is an unmistakable connection between the last sentence and the penultimate sentence, between "zufriedenstellen" and "zufriedengeben".
All knowledge can and must be preceded by investigation.
But my life consists in my being content to accept many things (without investigation).
No, thanks. It's as good as I have had it.
