There is this
case || game: I say to someone,
“I shall explain to you the word ‘w’ by
shewing you various objects.
What's in common to them all is what
‘w’ means.”
I first shew him two books, and he ask
s himself,
“Does ‘w’ mean
‘book’?”
I then point to a brick, and he says to himself,
“Perhaps ‘w’ means
‘parallelepiped’”.
Finally I point to glowing coal, and he says to himself,
“Oh, it's ‘red’ he means, for all
these objects had something red about them.”
It would be interesting to consider another form of this game where
the person has at each stage to
draw or
paint what he
thinks I mean.
The interest of this version lies in this, that in some cases it would
be quite obvious what he has got to draw, say, when he sees that all
the objects I have shewn him so far bear a certain trademark (;
he'd draw the trademark). ‒ ‒
What, on the other hand, should he paint if he recognizes that there is
something red on each object?
84.
A red patch?
And of what shape and shade?
Here a convention would have to be laid down, say, that
painting a red patch with ragged edges does not mean that the objects
have that red patch with ragged e
dges in common, but
something red.