← See the axis · The point of philosophy
ArgumentDissolving pseudo-problems
Philosophy delivers no truths about the world: it clarifies thought, and shows that many of the great problems are knots of language to be dissolved rather than solved.
Supports
Wittgenstein · Philosophical Investigations, §109, §309 · 1953
- The sciences discover facts; what remains proper to philosophy? Not a further domain of facts, but a work on our concepts, our ways of speaking and reasoning.
- Now many problems reputed insoluble are born of a misuse of language: one spins out a metaphor, one treats a word as if it named a thing, and one gets locked in a question with no way out. 'Philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday.'
- The task, then, is not to settle these questions but to dissolve them: show where the confusion comes from, and the problem vanishes, like a knot undone, 'to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle'.
Therefore So philosophy brings not more theses but clarity: it teaches us to think, and is measured by the illusions it dispels, not by the doctrines it builds.
How far does this reasoning convince you?
Not at all
Entirely