Just as it is not impossible that a man who has used a ladder to climb up to a high place should overturn the ladder with his foot, so it is not unlikely that the Skeptic, having used the argument that shows that there is no proof as a kind of scaffolding to establish his thesis, should then destroy that argument itself.
Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians. Translated by Striker.
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 up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.)
ReplyDeleteHe must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.