It is clear that Our examples – to
Let us ask the ˇfollowing question: “
supose
If
on any of ˇone such ground or another B had sa[y|id] ‘I can [g|c]ontinue the series’ & if A had on being asked to continue it had stoped & shown himself unable to go on should we say that this proved that his ˇprevious statement that he could
continue
go on
was wrong or should we say that he could continue when he said he could but that he can't now? Should B himself say “I see I was wrong” or “I was wright at the time I said it [| but]”. There are cases in which he would correctly say the one & cases – – – other.
  Suppose he said the formula & forgot it later. Or he continued & can't continue the same numbers now. Or he sa[i|y]s I now know the numbers I got then but I couldn't get them now. Or then I felt I could continue. Or My arm didn't hurt then.
  In other cases we shall say, I thought I could lift this weight but I
was mistaken
couldn't
. I thought I
could say it
knew it
by heart but I couldn't. was mistaken. We may say that then it was a conjecture that I could.
  Another class of cases is: I can but I wont. I can if I try hard but I wont.
  One might also say I could then do it if I actually did it, otherwise
only
I ought to say
“I could do it as far as … was concerned”.) survey the cases of trying & forgetting.
  This is the use of such a phrase as that if something happens it can happen. One of the
most useless phrases there are. It sounds as though it had a very clear & deep meaning but is like most of these general philosophical props. meaningless except in very special cases.
  Immagine this language it has two expressions for ‘I lift a weight” one of it is used as a test, one otherwise.
  We see how in the use of can the elements of conjecture,
  We see how in the use of can various elements are blended.
¥
There is the
feature
element
of conjecture, that of the description of a state, that of an account of certain tests passed & others.
  We see that the cases uses of ‘can’ form a large have a vast net of family likenesses & that certain features can be said to be blended in the different cases in various degrees.
There are on the other hand various ˇobvious reasons why we
are
should be
inclined to look at the fact of someone being able to do something etc as the fac[k|c]t that he is in a peculiar state. And this way of looking at it or this particular metaphor is embodied in such expressions as he is capable of, ˇin the present tense he is in the state of … We talk of states of mind not meaning conscious mental occurrences. We regard as the memory under the picture of a storehouse etc.

     ↘ (If a metaphor is◇ embodied in one of our typical sayings that shows how immensly natural it comes to us.)
  And we now see that it wasn't at all a final answer to say that a man is lead by the signs
– ∙ ∙ if he could also have followed other signs. In fact if we immagine this to describe a state we could make clear to ourselves what we have in mind by constructing this kind of example. Consider this mechanism.