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Introduction Notes Introduction 1 . See, for example, Sahlin (1990), Marion (1998), Holton and Price (2003). 2 . See McGuinness (1985) for discussion. 3 . But see Sahlin (1997) for an excellent elaboration of the kinds of influence that Ramsey’s thought may have had on the later work of Wittgenstein. 4 . Interpretive questions regarding the way in which TLP ought to be read have dominated the literature on the matter for decades now. For guides from all sides regarding the nature of the distinction, see Goldfarb (1997), Williams (2004), Sullivan (2004), Conant and Diamond (2004) amongst many others. It should be noted that the distinction between resolute and traditional (or irresolute) readings of the Tractatus should be held apart from the distinc- tion between realist and non-realist interpretations of the work. A resolute reading certainly implies an abandonment of a realist interpretation of the work (indeed, of any interpretation of the work), but that same abandonment certainly need not imply resolution. These are orthogonal issues: as long as non-realist interpreters consider the seemingly metaphysical propositions of the Tractatus to have a content at all, they cannot be subsumed to the resolute programme. 5. See Diamond (1986) for one characterization of the realistic. 6. For persuasive arguments in favour of the positive answer, see Misak (forthcoming). 7. I mean by ‘linguistic representation’ not only utterances but thought as well, which Wittgenstein took also to occur in a language: ‘I don’t know whatt the constituents of a thought are but I know thatt it must have such constituents which correspond to the words of Language. Again, the kind of relation of the constituents of the thought and the pictured fact is irrelevant. It would be a matter of psychology to find out’ (McGuinness 2012, p. 98). 8. Peter Sullivan (2005) attributes the former view to Kenny and the latter view to Anscombe. I have been careful to remark that the objection to the latter view holds only on one conception of what a sign is. Sullivan’s view, which draws on TLPP 3.32 and diffuses the objection that I (and Kenny) make, is that a sign is the visible part of a symbol. If that is right, then there may be ‘a secondary notion’ of meaning that attaches to signs since a sign can no longer be conceived of as a mere e string but rather as something distinguishable only as a part of a meaning-bearing entity. I confess that I am suspicious of this idea: if one regards the relation of signs to symbols as something established by convention, then it seems that there must be a sense in which a sign has an existence which is independent of the symbol with which it is ultimately associated. That is, in establishing some conventional relationship between this sign and this symbol, the sign must be already distinguishable prior to its conventional correlation with the symbol. Sullivan’s article takes on renewed importance in Chapter 6; see also Kenny (1973) and Anscombe (1959). 238 Notes 239 9. Readers who are interested in more biographical detail regarding Ramsey than I have been able to incorporate into this book should see Mellor (1995), Taylor (2006), Paul (2012). I also very much recommend Mellor’s wonderful ‘Better than the Stars: a radio portrait of F.P. Ramsey’, located at http://sms.csx.cam. ac.uk/media/20145. 1 The Realistic Spirit 1 . There is a large literature on the nature, extent and commitments of realism. See Brock and Mares 2006, for an overview. Fine 2001 offers an alternative characterisation. Dummett proposed a controversial account of realism, according to which the defining mark of realism is a commitment to biva- lence for the sentences of X, anti-realism about X thus entailing the rejection of that semantic claim. See Dummett 1978 Ch. 10, 1993. See also Devitt 1983 and 1991, and Wright 1993. This meaning theoretic view of the distinction between realism and anti-realism defers questions of metaphysics, preferring an initial determination of whether or not a realist construal of the sentences in question, upon which grasp of their meaning is to be characterised by grasp of their truth conditions, makes unreasonable demands on speakers. 2 . Ramsey raises the issue of non-synonymy in F&P, p. 154. Clearly, someone might believe that ‘Lorna voted and Rob voted ... ’ was true without assenting to ‘Everyone in Cambridge voted’, simply because they do not know that the names in the conjunction exhaust the domain. That is, only if they assented to ‘Lorna voted and Rob voted and ... and Lorna, Rob, ... , are everyone in Cambridge’ would they assent also to the generalization. But all that Ramsey needs in order to support his claim is that, for any such generalization over a finite domain, there is a materially (though not logically) equivalent conjunc- tion available. It is, in general, extremely important to remember that nobody would suggest that a sentence S that expresses the truth-conditions of some sentence T is synonymous with T. 3 . TLPP 4.4221, 5.535. 4 . Note that Ramsey does not construe this as merely a subjective matter, for rules can be better or worse as they conform to ‘known psychological laws’, that is, the psychological laws governing our expectations about how people will infer on the basis of their singular experience. Further, particular matters of fact might be brought into such a disagreement, insofar as they may be used to explain why one rule for judging is better supported than another. 5 . I am aware that this is not the best way in which to express the Tractarian view of universal generalisations, and I give that view more careful exposition in Chapter 9. Nonetheless, it is how Ramsey expresses the view, and as it makes no material difference to the elucidation of Ramsey’s view at this early stage, I shall continue to express thus also. 6 . In the passage, Ramsey does use the term ‘realistic’, but it is obvious from the context that he intends one of a range of views for which I am using the label ‘realist’, that is, a view which may be described as a form of realism. 7 . To be more precise, it would be a conjunction of conjunctions, each of the latter consisting of a conjunction of propositions asserting the non-toxicity of each strawberry for some particular human. The main conjunction would 240 Notes then have as its conjuncts infinitely many conjunctions, each of which concerned an object in the infinite domain of humans. These domains are infinite because the content of a statement of law is not exhausted by the actual instances of the objects in question. ‘Arsenic is poisonous’ is not taken to mean only that the sum total of arsenic in the actual world is poisonous; we would assert it even if, for instance, there were no arsenic in nature, but the properties given by its position in the periodic table assured us that, were it to exist, it would be poisonous to us. 8 . Leaving aside, that is, cases of deception, confusion, misunderstanding and such. 9 . ‘What causes hesitation is the fact that, after all, Mr. Wittgenstein manages to say a good deal about what cannot be said’. TLPP p. xxiii. 10 . TLPP 5.4731, 5.5563. In a 1929 note, Ramsey wrote ‘“All our everyday prop[osition]s are in order” is absolutely false, and shows the absurdity of interpreting logic as a part of natural science’. Ramsey 1991a, p. 277; HL 002–30–01. 11 . It is not known who Mr C is – the name is illegible in the original document. 12 . This claim is hard to generalise; obviously, one is, at some point, playing bridge, even if muddling along and making some mistakes. Where one goes from learning to really playing may be, on such a view, a matter of one’s own expectations and those of the other players, as well as what oneself and others take one to be committed to in undertaking the activity. 13 . Robert Trueman has pointed out the limits of the analogy in respect of certain games, such as video games played on a console. In order to play such games, one inputs instructions via a controller, and no combination of inputs is illegitimate in any way that might be considered a contravention (though they may be stupid, counterproductive, etc.). Rather, an illegitimate input would simply be one on which nothing happened. Of course, there are ways of cheating in such games – hacking the code, for instance – and it seems at least plausible that such cheats would count as a contraven- tion in my sense, as opposed to an illegitimate activity which was not a contravention. For imagine that the aim of the game is to complete a course in a certain amount of time. Then, whether the hack that slows the clock counts as a contravention or not will depend on whether one credits oneself (or whether one would allow someone else to credit one) with having won thatt game (as opposed to a new game in with a slower clock) in completing the course against the hacked clock. If the goal is to complete the course in 30 seconds, but one has deceived an observer, actual or potential, into thinking that 45 seconds is 30 seconds, and makes no effort to relieve him of that misapprehension, then I should say that that would be to commit a contravention in the relevant sense. For what remains are the commit- ments that one has undertaken and the expectations of the other players (or observers).
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