on certainty 113

113. When someone is trying to teach us mathematics, he will not begin by assuring us that he knows that a + b = b + a

mathematical propositions are instructions –

instructions for games –

games of sign substitution –

nevertheless –

the propositions on which theses games are based –

are like any propositions – open to question –

open to doubt

and as Wittgenstein suggests –

because we are not dealing with knowledge here –

but rather game playing –

any claim to know mathematical propositions –

is obviously irrelevant –

and out of place

© greg t. charlton. 2009.