2012
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Anne Le Goff, « Vivre avec les animaux, vivre comme animal », HAL-SHS : philosophie, ID : 10670/1.teften
There is a whole bestiary to be found in Wittgenstein's writings. Grasshoppers, for example, appear in the Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology (II). The way they are used is quite representative for the part played in general by animals in Wittgenstein's writings: 23. "Human beings think, grasshoppers don't." This means something like: the concept 'thinking' refers to human life, not to that of grasshoppers. And one could impart this to a person who doesn't understand the English word "thinking" and perhaps believes erroneously that it refers to something grasshoppers do. 24. "Grasshoppers don't think." Where does this belong? Is it an article of faith, or does it belong to natural history? If the latter, it ought to be a sentence something like: "Grasshoppers can't read and write." This sentence has a clear meaning, and even though it is perhaps never used, still it is easy to imagine a use for it. 1 The point is not about grasshoppers themselves; rather, it is about human psychology and