Thus it can come about that we aren't able to rid ourselves
of the implications of our symbolism, which seems to admit of a question
like, “where does the flame of a candle go to when
it's blown out?”, “Where does the
light go to?”, “Where does the past go
to?”.
We have become obsessed with our symbolism.
We may say that we are led into puzzlement by an analogy which
irresistibly drags us on. ‒ ‒
And this also happens when the meaning of the word
“now” appears to us in a mysterious light.
In our example 55) it appears that the function of
“now” is in no way comparable to the function of an
expression like “five o'clock”,
“midday”, “the time when the sun sets”,
etc.
This latter group of expressions I might call
“specifications || “determinations
of times”.
But our ordinary language uses the word “now” and
determinations of time in similar contexts.
Thus we say
“The sun sets now”. || “The sun sets
at six o' clock”.
We are inclined to say that both “now” and
“six o'clock” “refer to points of
time”.
This use of words produces a puzzlement which one might express in
the question, “What is the ‘now’?
– – for it is a moment of time and yet it can't be said to
be either the ‘moment at which I speak’ or the
‘moment at which the clock strikes’ etc.,
etc.”‒ ‒
Our answer is: The function of the word
“now” is entirely different from that of a
specification of time. ‒ ‒
This can easily be seen if we look at the r
ole this word really plays
in our usage of language, but it is obscured when instead of looking at
the
whole language-game, we only look at the contexts, the
phrases
50.
of language in which
the word is used.
(The word “today” is not a date, but it
isn't anything like it either.
It doesn't differ from a date as a hammer differs from a
mallet, but as a hammer differs from a nail; and
surely we may say there is both a connection between a hammer and a
mallet and between a hammer and a nail.)