Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge, 1939, Edited by Cora Diamond
Wittgenstein: What a mathematician gives you is a model which can then be used for certain purposes.
What is the relationship between trying to solve it and solving it? How would it be intelligible to say, “He looked for it and then found it”? Isn’t it absurd to say that?
Turing: Is it not at all absurd. It is like “He looked for a white lion” or “a white animal between a lion and a horse”.
Wittgenstein: But it is not like that. The very point of this discussion is to see the great difference…Have you found a white animal if you’ve drawn it? Could I draw the construction of the heptagon before I find it?
Turing: One could explain how to recognize the construction of the heptagon.
Wittgenstein: Yes, but that is very different from the description of a white lion. In the case of the white lion you can say what it will be like when you’ve found it. But not so in the case of the heptagon…The result of one’s search for the construction is that one finds that the question is meaningless.
Isn’t it queer–you look for something by drawing things. What the hell? You’re not looking for something.
Personal interest.
Dude, reading the dialogue between Turing and Wittgenstein is like watching two Olympic fencers go at it.
You nail it on the the head with the way that Wittgenstein’s skepticism and curiosity complement each other. He starts out the seminar listing all the things they won’t talk about, and why. I’ll have to put up another quote for that.
Comment by noel — Tuesday, June 12, 2007 @ 11:03 pm