Soren Overgaard, Wittgenstein and Other Minds

t is, I think, misleading to describe the genuine expression as a sum of the expression and something else,
though it is just as misleading [! if "e sa# that the genuine expression is a particular behavior and nothing
besides $%O, &'()
*ut that "hich is in him, ho" can I see it+ *et"een his experience and me there is al"a#s the expression,
-ere is the picture. -e sees it immediatel#, I onl# mediatel#/ *ut that0s not the "a# it is/ -e doesn0t
see something and describe it to us/
$1W II 2&3 %O &443 5%% II, 677)
.
In general I do not surmise fear in him/ 8 I see it/ I do not feel that I am deducing the probable existence of
something inside from something outside3 rather it is as if the human face "ere in a "a# translucent and that
I "ere seeing it not in reflected light but rather in its o"n/ $5%% II, 679)
:he characteristic sign of the mental seems to be that one has to guess at it in someone else using external
clues and is onl# acquainted "ith it from one0s o"n case/
*ut "hen closer reflection causes this vie" to go up in smoke, then "hat turns out is not that the inner is
something outer, but that for us direct inner and indirect outer evidence no longer exist/ $1W II, '6;&)
It is a help here to remember that it is a primitive reaction to tend, to treat, the part that hurts "hen someone
else is in pain [/!/
*ut "hat is the "ord <primitive< meant to sa# here+ %resumabl# that this sort of behavior is pre-
linguistic. that a language;game is based on it, that it is the protot#pe of a "a# of thinking and not the result
of thought $=, >?9;?6)
:he game doesn0t begin "ith doubting "hether someone has a toothache [!/ In its most primitive form it is
a reaction to someone0s cries and gestures, a reaction of s#mpath# or something of the sort/ We comfort him,
tr# to help him/ $%O, (46)
@t the end of m# lecture on ethics I spoke in the first person. I think that this is something ver# essential/
-ere there is nothing to be stated an# more3 all I can do is to step forth as an individual and speak in the first
person $Wittgenstein 6272a, 667)
Someone "ho [! opens his heart to Aod in remorseful confession opens it for others too/ -e thereb# loses
his dignit# as someone special and so becomes like a child/ :hat means "ithout office, dignit# and aloofness
from others/ $BC, >&)