333. I ask someone have you ever been in China?”
he replies “I don’t know”. Here one would surely say “You don’t know? Have you
any reason to believe that you might have been there at some time? Were you for
example ever near the Chinese border? Or were your parents there at the time
when you were going to be born?” – Normally Europeans do know whether they have
been in China or not.
all Wittgenstein can really say here –
is that his ‘someone’ – didn’t answer his question –
the question as put
the answer to Wittgenstein’s question –
‘have you been to China?’ –
will be either –
‘yes I have been in China’ –
or – ‘no – I haven’t’
note – in these answers –
the question of knowledge does not arise –
and the reason is that it is not relevant
on the other hand –
if the question was to fit the answer – ‘I
don’t know’
it would have to be –
‘do you know
if you have ever been in China?’
this question renders the real question –
(‘have you been to china?’) –
irrelevant –
if you answer the ‘do you know’ question –
you’ll be talking about the nature of
knowledge –
not where you’ve been –
and yes your answer here could well be –
‘I don’t know’ –
but that’s got nothing to do with China –
and you might just be annoyed –
that ‘someone’ –
has sidetracked you down a blind alley –
on the pretense of asking you –
where you’ve been
