josh blog

Ordinary language is all right.

One could divide humanity into two classes:


27 Jul '04 01:48:10 AM

A question for my German-speaking readers - please drop me a note if you can offer any help:

Anscombe translates a sentence of Wittgenstein's, 'Ich kenne mich nicht aus', as 'I don't know my way about'. I'm curious to know how literally the sentence is understood in German. The presence of 'aus' inclines me to translate the sentence in terms of the English 'way', especially since the verb is 'kennen'. But if I were trying for a more literal translation than Anscombe's, I might try 'I don't know my way out', so that the sense is less of being lost and more of feeling trapped (if you're familiar with Wittgenstein's tendency to question pictures, like that of thoughts going on in a space in someone's head, that are felt to be inescapably necessary, then perhaps you see why I am interested in this).

So, how should this be translated? Along the same lines, I'm wondering how it is that a sentence like 'Ich kenne mich nicht' is thought to be related to 'Ich kenne mich nicht aus', and to what extent it is appropriate or preferable to say something like 'Ich kenne nicht meinen Ausweg'.

(I feel sure that the ordering, especially, of my made-up sentences is goofy somehow. Sorry about that.)

24 Jul '04 10:03:44 AM

Today I heard John Fahey in two different public places, and (probably) Stephane Grappelli soloing over Django Reinhardt, in two other different public places.

One of these was the sidewalk in front of someone's house.

I even heard the same Fahey song in both places, though it was a different recording the second time.

22 Jul '04 12:03:01 PM

The moral here being, that is: fuck that shit.

22 Jul '04 11:58:35 AM







18 Jul '04 09:50:07 AM

My one successful act of defiance today was to read this:

I Know a Man

As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, - John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.

8 Jul '04 10:45:36 PM


7 Jul '04 10:10:42 AM

'Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except action.'

29 Jun '04 11:23:55 AM

Depression blurs the line between trying and not trying.

24 Jun '04 10:08:23 AM
