Wittgenstein's joke

August 29, 2009 2:04 AM

Looking for a joke by Wittgenstein, something like "Are they crazy?" "No, they're just doing philosophy."

It's not a joke per se, but it's funny. Wittgenstein imagines a philosophical dialogue between two people, someone else walks into the room and says "are they crazy" and is told: no, they're just doing philosophy. I thought it was in the PI but I just re-read that and didn't find it. I'm also pretty sure it's not in Philosophical Remarks, Philosophical Grammar, Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Blue and Brown Books, Culture and Value, Zettel, or the Wiener Kreis notes, because I just looked through all those in the past half-year. Maybe On Certainty?

I couldn't have made this up, it's exactly the sort of thing Wittgenstein would write, but for the life of me I can't find it.

posted by creasy boy to religion & philosophy (3 comments total)

"I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again 'I know that that's a tree', pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell them: 'This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy.'" -- Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Cited here.
posted by rokusan at 2:37 AM on August 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yeah that's it! Hmm...too bad it's not nearly as funny as I remember. Yep, it's from On Certainty. Thanks!
posted by creasy boy at 2:46 AM on August 29

Damn! Too late!
posted by wittgenstein at 1:25 PM on August 29 [7 favorites has favorites]