If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.
Ludwig WittgensteinRead
The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, that is what makes him a philosopher.
Interpretation
A philosopher's uniqueness lies in their independence from conventional ideas and communities.
This quote by Ludwig Wittgenstein emphasizes that true philosophers do not confine themselves to prevailing thoughts or beliefs within specific communities. Instead, their role is to question, explore, and develop unique perspectives that may challenge societal norms, reflecting their deeper understanding of ideas beyond established dogmas.
In practice
In a lecture about the role of philosophers in society.
If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.
One cannot guess how a word functions. One has to look at its use and learn from that. But the difficulty is to remove the prejudice which stands in the way of doing this. It is not a stupid prejudice.
No one likes having offended another person; hence everyone feels so much better if the other person doesn't show he's been offended. Nobody likes being confronted by a wounded spaniel. Remember that. It is much easier patiently - and tolerantly - to avoid the person you have injured than to approach him as a friend. You need courage for that.
It's impossible for me to say one word about all that music has meant to me in my life. How, then, can I hope to be understood?
Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.
My day passes between logic, whistling, going for walks, and being depressed. I wish to God that I were more intelligent and everything would finally become clear to me - or else that I needn't live much longer.
What is it that you contain? The Dead. Time. Light patterns of millennia. The expanding universe opening in your gut. Are your twenty-three feet of intestines loaded with stars?
What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.
This is something everyone knows: A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.
And no renown can render you well-known:_x000D_ For if you think that fame can lengthen life _x000D_ By mortal famousness immortalized,_x000D_ The day will come that takes your fame as well,_x000D_ And there a second death for you awaits.
Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-
Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal - that there is no human relation between master and slave.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.