Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Wittgenstein

People say again and again that philosophy doesn’t really progress...It is because our language has remained the same and keeps seducing us into asking the same questions...As long as we continue to talk of a river of time, of an expanse of space, etc. etc., people will keep stumbling over the same puzzling difficulties and find themselves staring at something which no explanation seems capable of clearing up...And what’s more, this satisfies a longing for the transcendent, because in so far as people think they can see the “limits of human understanding”, they believe of course that they can see beyond these.

3 comments:

astrid said...

wow, how cool -- i jotted down this exact paragraph the other day -- and noted that there's a zephyr poem in the same book. have you read it? fuck the river of time!

Permapoesis said...

#3. i got this witt quote from joan's jacket piece on 'why experimental poetry'. what's the book?

astrid said...

it's from culture & value -- i have it at my desk at uni. i'll send you the zephyr poem.