Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Re-imagining Wittgenstein’s Hut at Skjolden

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Wittgenstein resonates with me. So when I encountered the phrase "Walk criss-cross over the landscape" attributed to him in a Twitter tagline I felt compelled to go looking for it. It's a paraphrase, as it turns out, but the search unearthed this gem, a description of a trek to find Wittgenstein's hut in the Norwegian wilderness, and an attempt to unravel aspects of his thinking in the process. They both speak to me. From the Investigations: "The best that I could write would never be more than philosophical remarks; my thoughts soon grew feeble if I tried to force them along a single track against their natural inclination. And this was of course connected with the very nature of the investigation. For it compels us to travel criss-cross in every direction over a wide field of thought. The philosophical remarks in this (newsletter) are, as it were, a number of sketches of landscapes which were made in these long meandering journeys."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 10:11 a.m.

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