“What we are destroying is nothing but houses of cards and we are clearing up the ground of language on which they stood.”

—  Ludwig Wittgenstein , book Philosophical Investigations

§ 118
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What we are destroying is nothing but houses of cards and we are clearing up the ground of language on which they stood." by Ludwig Wittgenstein?
Ludwig Wittgenstein photo
Ludwig Wittgenstein 228
Austrian-British philosopher 1889–1951

Related quotes

Hans-Georg Gadamer photo

“The real being of language is that into which we are taken up when we hear it — what is said.”

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) German philosopher

Man and Language (1966)
Context: The more language is a living operation, the less we are aware of it. Thus it follows that from the forgetfulness of language that its real being consists in what is said in it. What is said in it constitutes the common world in which we live. … The real being of language is that into which we are taken up when we hear it — what is said.

Tom Stoppard photo

“We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Niels Bohr photo

“We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word "reality" is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly.”

Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist

Quoted in Philosophy of Science Vol. 37 (1934), p. 157, and in The Truth of Science : Physical Theories and Reality (1997) by Roger Gerhard Newton, p. 176
Context: What is it that we humans depend on? We depend on our words... Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. We must strive continually to extend the scope of our description, but in such a way that our messages do not thereby lose their objective or unambiguous character … We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word "reality" is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly.

Bill Mollison photo

“What is proposed herein is that we have no right, nor any ethical justification, for clearing land or using wilderness while we tread over lawns, create erosion, and use land inefficiently. Our responsibility is to put our house in order. Should we do so, there will never be any need to destroy wilderness.”

Bill Mollison (1928–2016) Australian permaculturist

Source: Permaculture: A Designers' Manual (1988), chapter 3.10

Northrop Frye photo

“It seems clear that the Bible belongs to an area of language in which metaphor is functional, and where we have to surrender precision for flexibility.”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

Source: "Quotes", The Great Code: The Bible and Literature (1982), Chapter Three, p. 56

Cesare Pavese photo

“A consoling thought: what matters is not what we do, but the spirit in which we do it. Others suffer too; so much so that there is nothing in the world but suffering; the problem is simply to keep a clear conscience.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

This Business of Living (1935-1950)

Kathleen Norris photo

“Home ought to be our clearing house, the place from which we go forth lessoned and disciplined, and ready for life.”

Kathleen Norris (1880–1966) American writer

Home http://books.google.com/books?id=XEVKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Home+ought+to+be+our+clearing+house+the+place+from+which+we+go+forth+lessoned+and+disciplined+and+ready+for+life%22&pg=PA48#v=onepage (1928)

Barack Obama photo

“We will keep pounding ISIL and taking out their leaders, and pushing them back on the ground. And united with a global coalition, we will destroy this barbaric terrorist group. They will be destroyed.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2016, Convention (August 2016)

Jenny Han photo

“We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

“I conclude that there is no such thing as a language, not if a language is anything like what many philosophers and linguists have supposed. There is therefore no such thing to be learned, mastered, or born with. We must give up the idea of a clearly defined shared structure which language-users acquire and then apply to cases. And we should try again to say how convention in any important sense is involved in language; or, as I think, we should give up the attempt to illuminate how we communicate by appeal to conventions.”

Donald Davidson (philosopher) (1917–2003) scriitor amator

Davidson, Donald. " A nice derangement of epitaphs http://www.hf.uio.no/csmn/english/research/news-and-events/events/davidson_derangement.pdf." Philosophical grounds of rationality: Intentions, categories, ends 4 (1986): 157.

Related topics