108. “But is there no objective truth?
Isn’t it true, or false, that someone has been on the moon?” If we are thinking
within our system, then it is certain that no one has ever been on the moon.
Not merely is nothing of the sort ever seriously reported to us by reasonable
people, but our whole system of physics forbids us to believe it. For this
demands answers to the questions “How did he overcome the force of gravity?”
“How could he live without atmosphere?” and a thousand others which could not
be answered. But suppose instead of all these answers we met the reply: “We
don’t know how one gets to
the moon, but those who get there know at once that they are there: and even
you can’t explain everything.” We should feel ourselves intellectually very
distant from someone who said this.
Wittgenstein says ‘If we are thinking
within our system it is certain that no one has ever walked on the moon.’
the issue here is authority – the ‘system’ per
se is irrelevant
Wittgenstein accepts the ‘authority’ of
science circa 1950 on this matter
all this authority as such comes to – is
its assertion –
and any argument for it – is no more than
its reassertion
when Wittgenstein speaks of reasonable
people I assume he is talking about those who accept the authority of this
science on such matters
anyone who has an entirely different view –
i.e. a magical view of the nature of the physical world –
will be regarded by Wittgenstein and his
reasonable people as being without any authority for their views
and Wittgenstein says –
‘we should feel intellectually very distant
from someone who said this’ –
that is true – and it is a fair way of
putting it
people do operate with different systems of
thought
nevertheless they have this in common –
that they believe in the authority of their system – of their ‘knowledge’
the question can always be asked – what is your authority based on?
if someone decides to put an end to this
line of questioning –
they are forced to accept that all they
have is their assertion
and that this is all their ‘knowledge’
comes to
in the business of arguing for our beliefs
we will propose if we have to – some authority
this is really no more than a rhetorical
move –
nevertheless it is a mainstay of
propositional practice
it is however philosophically healthy to
realize that whatever argument we put –
and however forcefully we put it –
and however useful and productive it may
turn out to be –
it is no more than one of many ways of
describing and interpreting the unknown –
the world we live in
© greg t. charlton. 2009.
