ABSTRACT
I’m going to talk about the same subject about which W. 2 talked at the first meeting this term, because there are still things which puzzle me about it. I start from this: that it’s perfectly absurd or nonsensical to say such things as ‘I don’t believe it’s raining, but as a matter of fact it is’ or (what comes to the same thing) ‘Though I don’t believe it’s raining, yet as a matter of fact it really is raining’. I’m just assuming that it is absurd or nonsensical to say such things. But I want it noted that there is nothing nonsensical about merely saying these words. I’ve just said them; but I’ve not said anything nonsensical. And W. pointed out another proof that there isn’t. He pointed out (I think) that there’s nothing nonsensical in saying ‘It’s quite possible that though I don’t believe it’s raining, yet as a matter of fact it really is’ or ‘If I don’t believe it’s raining, but as a matter of fact it really is, then I am mistaken in my belief’. In all these cases the very same identical words are said, but they are said in a context with other words, so that there is nothing nonsensical about them.
