430. I meet someone from Mars and he asks
me “How many toes have human beings got? – I say “Ten. I’ll shew you”, and take
my shoes off. Suppose he was surprised that I knew with such certainty,
although I hadn’t looked at my toes – ought I to say: “We humans know how many
toes we have whether we can see them or not”?
in expressing surprise here the Martian
shows he has a better grasp of epistemology than Wittgenstein –
what Wittgenstein ought to say to the
Martian is –
‘we humans pretend knowledge – pretend
certainty – we do this when we don’t face reality – when we don’t deal with
reality – if you want to understand human beings you need to understand
pretence and deception’
