Analysis Of Augustine's Puzzle

This essay discusses Wittgenstein’s response to Augustine’s puzzle of measuring time. The paper begins by explaining Augustine`s puzzle. From here the paper explains Wittgenstein’s explanation for the origin of the puzzle, the usage of the wrong definition of measure. The essay, then explains how using the wrong definition leads to the problem. After this the essay gives the rules for measuring time. The paper then concludes that it has been successful in dissolving the puzzle. Augustine’s puzzle proceeds as follows. Augustine notices that as humans we have the capacity to measure intervals of time, as we are able to say how long an interval was . However, he cannot explain how we measure time. The events in time flow from the future into the present, and once they pass through the …show more content…
Wittgenstein holds that it is rarely the case that a word has only one meaning. Rather, a word can have many meanings. Philosophical problems arise when we when we treat words as though they have a single meaning. In doing this, we force a single definition of a word onto all cases of the word’s usage. But, this single definition is not applicable to all cases of the word. So there will be cases in which what we are saying will be nonsensical since the definition of the word will not fit with what we are saying. What we are doing then is creating a paradox, since we are using the correct word but what we are saying nonsensical, since the definition doesn’t fit with what we are trying to articulate. This is what Augustine is doing. In trying to measure time, he uses the wrong definition of measure, and as a result creates a paradox for himself. Wittgenstein holds that Augustine is using a variation of measure which refers to measuring lengths rather than a measure that refers to time. Using the right definition of measure should allow for Augustine’s puzzle to be