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Wittgenstein on ‘Mistrusting One's Own Belief’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Béla Szabados*
Affiliation:
University of Regina

Extract

Can one mistrust one's own belief? Wittgenstein says ‘No.’ He remarks: ‘One can mistrust one's own senses, but not one's own belief.’

It is natural to think that this is not meant merely as a remark about our psychological abilities or inabilities; viz., that one can not, as a matter of psychological fact, help but trust one's own belief. Rather, one is inclined to take it as a ‘grammatical remark’ to the effect that it makes no sense to speak of trusting or mistrusting one's own belief.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1981

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References

1 Wittgenstein, Ludwig Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1963), p. 190.Google Scholar

2 Mayo, BernardBelief and Constraint,’ in Phillips-Griffiths, A. ed., Knowledge and Belief (Oxford U. P. 1967) 160.Google Scholar

3 Malcolm, Norman Thought and Knowledge, (Ithaca: Cornell U.P. 132).Google Scholar

4 Wittgenstein, p. 221.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid., p. 154.

7 Ibid., p. 192.

8 Ibid., p. 188.

9 Ibid., p. 190.

10 Ibid.,

11 Ibid., p. 188.

12 Ibid.,p.190.

13 In rewriting this paper I have learned from the comments of Norman Malcolm, John Hunter, John King-Farlow, Steven Patten, Trudy Govier, Steven Burns and Roger Shiner.