Wittgenstein is painting a fascinating picture in his analysis of Moore's claims of knowing certain things. It seems to me that he is asking quite simple questions about matters of certainty, knowledge, beliefs, etc. It flies in the face of Descartes, at some point (most especially 115). But now that I write this, Wittgenstein is compelling me to consider what I mean when I say that they are 'simple' questions. They seem to be the sorts of questions that the idealist might have perhaps asked of the realists, of people like Descartes or Spinoza, in arriving at their ideas and claims about the world and how we operate within it. I know that these are questions I have asked of the same folks. I find myself nodding a lot while reading this, as if I understand his lines of thought and the points he's trying to make; the questions of doubting systems, whether we can actually know if what someone believes is true, are questions I have grown more and more accustomed to, especially this last year. I spent all of last semester in my feminist epistemology course learning about ignorance and how these relate to systems of oppression and to racism. The question of whether beliefs are well-grounded was something that we started off asking (albeit in a disguised sort of way). Considering the ways I have been brought up, conducted myself and been taught throughout my years of education both in schools and out of, the challenges posed to the status of objectivity and the validity of science was somewhat shocking. While I had been questioning science myself (as a budding mathematician I find myself becoming more and more agitated by physicists and chemists), the idea that objectivity itself is a feature of white epistemology itself and runs deeply throughout colonialist traditions was amazing. I guess it is for this reason I find myself agreeing with Wittgenstein and believing myself to understand where he is going with all of this. I'm not certain (oops) if he actually will arrive at a final conclusion for all this - I'm slowly making my way through it, taking digestive breaks that are perhaps too long - but I feel as though I may already know the answers to some of these questions reading later stuff. After all, if a lion could speak, we would not understand him. But does that mean we cannot be certain what he would say is true? ________________________________________________________________________________ Dilyn Corner (C) 2020-2022