Somewhere Over A Black Hole
(Tales from the Undiscovered Country)
© Chris Port, 29th
April 2012
The mind climbs down into Conrad’s darkness
on Wittgenstein’s Ladder, an astronaut;
crossing the horizon of existence,
beyond all events, like a watch tick caught;
where every atom is torn apart from
the world above us, forever forgot;
love is left behind with its beaten heart,
here in perfect dark, there’s no thought of God;
being then nothing then stranger by far;
time starts again; we are born as a star.
'A lie-to-children, sometimes referred to as a Wittgenstein's ladder... is an expression that describes the simplification of technical or difficult-to-understand material for consumption by children. The word "children" should not be taken literally, but as encompassing anyone in the process of learning about a given topic, regardless of age. It is itself a simplification of certain concepts in the philosophy of science.' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie-to-children)
ReplyDelete"My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them - as steps - to climb beyond them. He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it." (Wittgenstein, 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus', 1922).
"Philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry." (Wittgenstein, 'Culture and Value').
'Wittgenstein's Ladder: Introduction' by Marjorie Perloff http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/perloff/witt_intro.html