Avrum was there in the audience, I believe, in Berkeley on the afternoon in 1941 when, in conformity with the law subsequently enu...nciated by Murphy, what could go wrong, epistemologically, did. G.E. Moore was delivering the Howison Lecture in Wheeler Auditorium, which had a handsome coffered ceiling inset with glass panels. Giving a local angle to his defence of common sense, Moore declared that among the things he knew there and then was that light from the sun was streaming through the roof. Most in the audience were aware, however, that the glass panels were diffusers for electrical illumination; the roof of the building was solid and opaque. Someone had the temerity to point this out to Moore in the question period. He responded, "Oh dear me!" and went on to the next question.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Every sign by itself seems dead. What gives it life?--In use it is alive. Is life breathed into it there?--Or is the use its life?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.--The func...tion of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Here the term 'language-game' is meant to bring into prominence the fact that the speaking of language is part of an activity, of ...a form of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact... that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »