519. Admittedly if you are obeying the
order “Bring me a book”, you may have to check whether the thing you see over
there really is a book, but then you do at least know what people mean by the
term “book”; and if you don’t you can look it up, – but then you must know what
some other word means. And the fact that a word means such-and-such, is used in
such-and-such a way, is in turn an empirical fact, like the fact that what you
see over there is a book.
Therefore, in order for you to be able to
carry out an order there must be some empirical fact about which you are not in
doubt. But doubt itself rests only on what is beyond doubt.
But since a language-game is something that
consists in the re-current procedures of the game in time, it seems impossible
to say in any individual case that
such-and-such must be beyond doubt if there is to be a language-game – though
it is right enough to say that as a rule
some empirical judgment or other must be beyond doubt.
an ‘empirical fact’ –
is always open to question –
is therefore uncertain
you don’t need certainty –
to carry out an order
doubt is the rational response –
to any claim of certainty
any rule you make –
will be open to question –
open to doubt
© greg t. charlton. 2010.
