Wittgenstein's Beetle in a Box Analogy

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  • čas přidán 6. 08. 2015
  • You can't know exactly what it is like to be another person or experience things from their perspective. Wittgenstein had an analogy for this.
    Narrated by Aidan Turner. Scripted by Nigel Warburton.
    From the BBC Radio 4 series about life's big questions - A History of Ideas.
    This project is from the BBC in partnership with The Open University, the animations were created by Cognitive.

Komentáře • 159

  • @johnkinsey2735
    @johnkinsey2735 Před 8 lety +145

    Fantastic. Never thought I'd see an explanation of this analogy that did it justice in under 2 mins. Well done.

  • @guiyeoullim6400
    @guiyeoullim6400 Před 3 lety +39

    It’s mainly about how different people can talk about the beetle in the box. He is a philosopher focused on language analysis.

  • @Barisius
    @Barisius Před 8 lety +80

    It's signing Gregor Samsa with Kafka; Beetlejuice; Volkswagen Beetle that founded by Nazi Party that connected with Martin Heidegger; Beatles through pronunciation of the word and finally Schrödinger's cat in the box analogy related somewhat in the box metaphor. Marvellous.

  • @jaymayhoi
    @jaymayhoi Před 8 lety +7

    Loving this History of Ideas series

  • @TheDarth24
    @TheDarth24 Před 3 lety +1

    Great visual explanation. Thank you

  • @aliceweirdopants4297
    @aliceweirdopants4297 Před 2 lety +2

    this is so well made holy moly

  • @baraaalqudah7560
    @baraaalqudah7560 Před 8 lety +1

    awesome works

  • @jacksonfolly
    @jacksonfolly Před 2 lety +5

    The length of this video suggests that my lecturer was wrong when he said that the Beetle in the box would extend beyond the remaining time we had left in our lecture. Great video! Good Job!

  • @omererenl2879
    @omererenl2879 Před 8 lety +1

    Please make more of these videos.

  • @kmaca6391
    @kmaca6391 Před 3 lety

    For more on Wittgenstein and a bit of philosophical trivia, check out

  • @ilPitproductions
    @ilPitproductions Před 8 lety +31

    this channel is amazing!

  • @alijoyce2169
    @alijoyce2169 Před 6 lety +6

    I know that feeling bro...

  • @maksimnikiforovski2034

    Great animation!

  • @HermeticAscetic22
    @HermeticAscetic22 Před 6 lety +1

    Interesting!

  • @Donteatacowman
    @Donteatacowman Před 3 lety +6

    Yes!! The color experiences!!! So it sounds like this is mostly about how language is an imperfect tool for communicating ideas. But I'm not sure based on the wording. ;P

  • @f1sk8mm
    @f1sk8mm Před 8 lety

    mind blown

  • @Tenebryon
    @Tenebryon Před 4 lety +11

    Let's complete this view : the ideas and thoughts are a dynamic process, they change. How do they change : by the interaction that these shared use of words (the situated view presented by the beetle-in-the-box analogy) have with personal experience (the very thing that Wittgenstein says is inaccessible and therefore have no influence whatsoever). But sometimes the difference between personal experiences will lead to paradoxical situations, where things would not seem at all so obvious for some people in the use of these words and ideas. For a difference in the view of colours, this is kind of "physics", people will not see things the same way, just look at the UV pictures of flowers (just like the bees do), and to the question "do you see this", one may say yes, the other may say not really. For difference in the understanding of words and ideas, well, imagine a beetle is 1:(an insect) for somebody, 2:(an annoying disgusting spirit that lives in your house) for another, or just 3:(an empty word that is to be used when it's meant to be so in conversation) for the last one ; they may agree on the fact that it just makes the house such a nasty place to live in, but they will disagree on the ways to get rid of it, the way it feeds itself or reproduces, and disagree also on any new ideas that may come about around this word "beetle". The idea is that personal experience is a driving force to the life of ideas in society, and that knowledge is a discriminating factor that connects both our experience and our language to the real world, which is a nice way to look at life altogether I'd say.

  • @williamfrost3554
    @williamfrost3554 Před 3 lety +1

    We cannot be someone else but we communicate well enough.

  • @gertrudelaronge6864
    @gertrudelaronge6864 Před 2 lety

    Yes!!!

  • @wynstansmom829
    @wynstansmom829 Před 5 lety +2

    Thank you BBC Radio 4. Now how many John Malkovich's can you spot in this video?