A clip of James Conant discussing a philosophical problem about meaning and rule-following that was famously discussed by the later Wittgenstein and many others, including various interpreters of Wittgenstein (e.g. Kripke). Note, Wittgenstein himself does not endorse the radical skeptical paradox that arises, but it was a problem that he discussed and thought many people fall into. The problem starts out as an epistemic one involving knowing, but when fully thought through, it ends up giving rise to a much deeper problem about the very possibility of there being determinate meaning at all.

This comes from James Conant's course on varieties of philosophical skepticism (what he calls Cartesian skepticism and Kantian skepticism). The clip has been edited.

Some quotes:

"But how can a rule show me what I have to do at this point? Whatever I do is, on some interpretation, in accord with the rule...Any interpretation still hangs in the air along with what it interprets, and cannot give it any support. Interpretations by themselves do not determine meaning." Wittgenstein

"This was our paradox: no course of action could be determined by a rule, because any course of action can be made out to accord with the rule." Wittgenstein

#philosophy #wittgenstein #skepticism

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