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    This document discusses a famous quote by F.P. Ramsey regarding Wittgenstein's Tractatus. There is a widespread legend that Ramsey's quote criticizes Wittgenstein's treatment in the Tractatus of what cannot be said. However, the author argues that this legend has no basis in reality. When examined in its original context, Ramsey's quote actually meant something different than the legend claims. As such, the legend provides no evidence to support interpretations of the Tractatus that view its nonsensical propositions as conveying what cannot be said. The quote is best understood in the context of Ramsey's own discussion of generality, not as a criticism of Wittgenstein.

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    Diamond 021910 Opening

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    B Rhie
    494 views1 page
    This document discusses a famous quote by F.P. Ramsey regarding Wittgenstein's Tractatus. There is a widespread legend that Ramsey's quote criticizes Wittgenstein's treatment in the Tractatus of what cannot be said. However, the author argues that this legend has no basis in reality. When examined in its original context, Ramsey's quote actually meant something different than the legend claims. As such, the legend provides no evidence to support interpretations of the Tractatus that view its nonsensical propositions as conveying what cannot be said. The quote is best understood in the context of Ramsey's own discussion of generality, not as a criticism of Wittgenstein.

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    This document discusses a famous quote by F.P. Ramsey regarding Wittgenstein's Tractatus. There is a widespread legend that Ramsey's quote criticizes Wittgenstein's treatment in the Tractatus of what cannot be said. However, the author argues that this legend has no basis in reality. When examined in its original context, Ramsey's quote actually meant something different than the legend claims. As such, the legend provides no evidence to support interpretations of the Tractatus that view its nonsensical propositions as conveying what cannot be said. The quote is best understood in the context of Ramsey's own discussion of generality, not as a criticism of Wittgenstein.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    494 views1 page

    Diamond 021910 Opening

    Uploaded by

    B Rhie
    This document discusses a famous quote by F.P. Ramsey regarding Wittgenstein's Tractatus. There is a widespread legend that Ramsey's quote criticizes Wittgenstein's treatment in the Tractatus of what cannot be said. However, the author argues that this legend has no basis in reality. When examined in its original context, Ramsey's quote actually meant something different than the legend claims. As such, the legend provides no evidence to support interpretations of the Tractatus that view its nonsensical propositions as conveying what cannot be said. The quote is best understood in the context of Ramsey's own discussion of generality, not as a criticism of Wittgenstein.

    Copyright:

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    of 1

    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0378.2010.00398.

    ‘We Can’t Whistle It Either’: Legend and


    Reality
    Cora Diamond

    Abstract: There is a famous quip of F.P. Ramsey’s, which is my


    second epigraph. According to a widespread legend, the quip is a
    criticism of Wittgenstein’s treatment in the Tractatus of what cannot
    be said. The remark is indeed Ramsey’s, but he didn’t mean what
    he is taken to mean in the legend. His quip, looked at in context,
    means something quite different. The legend is sometimes taken to
    provide support for a reading of the Tractatus according to which
    the nonsensical propositions of the book were intended to convey
    what cannot be said. But, since the legend has no basis in reality, it
    provides no evidence in favor of any such reading of the Tractatus.
    The quip has great interest if it is read in the context of Ramsey’s
    discussion of generality; it is closely related to issues of importance
    in the development of Wittgenstein’s thought.

    Mr. Wittgenstein has perceived that, if we accept this account of truth-


    functions as expressing agreement and disagreement with truth-
    possibilities [of their arguments], there is no reason why the arguments
    to a truth-function should not be infinite in number . . . Mr. Wittgenstein
    maintains that all propositions are . . . truth-functions of elementary
    propositions. (Ramsey 1925: 7, 9)
    But what we can’t say we can’t say, and we can’t whistle it either.
    (Ramsey 1929a: 238)

    1. Introduction

    A legend is a story told and retold, passed on as true, although no one bothers to
    check whether there is anything to it. Nowadays there is a website devoted
    entirely to evaluating contemporary urban legends, of crocodiles eating golfers in
    Florida and Dobermans choking on fingers bitten off burglars. But the legend of
    Ramsey’s ‘what we can’t say we can’t say, and we can’t whistle it either’ gets
    passed on without question. According to the legend, Ramsey was responding to
    Wittgenstein’s general treatment in the Tractatus of what cannot be said, and to
    Wittgenstein’s supposedly attempting in the book to convey what cannot be said.

    European Journal of Philosophy ]]]:]] ISSN 0966-8373 pp. 1–22 r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road,
    Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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