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
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