metonymy4u

Rationalism is the age old project of trying to defend the truth of words. It has appeared again and again throughout western history in various guises. For example, the verificationism of the logical positivists can be re-described as simply an alternative (“a posteriori”) method of anchoring words to an objective reality. This is why they loved the picture theory of language presented in the Tractatus. But they did not understand that Wittgenstein was in fact writing an intellectual Trojan horse designed from beginning to end to attack all forms of logical rationalism. As if he meant to say, look: the project was just as empty when it began as it was when I finished it.