15.3.51
347. “I know that that’s a tree.” Why does it strike me as
if I did not understand the sentence? though it is after all an extremely
simple sentence of the most ordinary kind? It is as if I could not focus my
mind on any meaning. Simply because I don’t look for the focus where the meaning
is. As soon as I think of an everyday use of the sentence instead of a
philosophical one, its meaning becomes clear and ordinary.
‘I know that that’s a tree’ –
perhaps you don’t understand the sentence –
because the ‘I know’ –
which could well be seen as the focus of the sentence –
is irrelevant
the claim of knowledge is a claim of authority –
the only authority is authorship –
claiming the authorship – of your sentence –
which is just what ‘I know’ amounts to –
is irrelevant
if ‘I know’ is to be a claim of authority –
other than the claim of authorship –
it is false
perhaps it has rhetorical effect –
if so that effect –
can only be based on deception
meaning is not a ghost in the syntax –
the meaning of the non-rhetorical sentence –
‘that is a tree’ –
is the use the
sentence is put to –
be that a sentence of ‘an everyday use’ –
or one of a ‘philosophical use’
and yes – just what that amounts to –
how it is interpreted –
will be uncertain –
it will be a matter open to question –
open to doubt –
and never in any final sense –
resolved
© greg t. charlton. 2010.
