TOPICS FOR PAPER #3
24. Assess the Wittgensteinian Use theory as we have sketched it. If you can, defend it against the Placard objection, the Twin Earth objection, the Novelty objection, or others that have come up in class.
26. Can a red/green color-blind person understand the word "red"? Expound.
27. When the second American edition of Wittgenstein's
Philosophical Investigations appeared, his executor G.E.M. Anscombe frothed
at the mouth and demanded that Macmillan recall all copies immediately.
A main reason for her demand was that the diagram in §48 was not printed
in color instead, each square was done in this manner:
_____
/_ red /
(I.e., if your browser doesn't display that correctly, each square in the diagram was black-and-white and had just a color word such as "red" inside it.) Why should that have been so upsetting? What is really the main point of §s 48 and 49? And would Anscombe have been similarly upset with me for having produced monochrome copies to give you?
28. Can you help out Hempel with the Formulation problem?
29. Can you defend the Verification theory
against one or more of our other umpteen objections? (Surely a theory
that has claimed the allegiance of so many brilliant philosophers has more
to be said for it than I've allowed.) Or, if you can think of a still
further objection, kick the theory while it's down.