16:51 .11 LTE 2. Meeting a friend in a corridor, a philosopher named Wittgenstei

Question

16:51 .11 LTE 2. Meeting a friend in a corridor, a philosopher named Wittgenstein said: "Tell me, why do people always say that it was natural for men to assume that the sun went around the earth rather than that the earth was rotating?" His friend said, "Well, obviously, because it just looks as if the sun is going around the earth.'" To which Wittgenstein replied, "Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as if the earth was rotating?" What point do you think Wittgenstein is making here and how does it bear on the content of the reading? Blu Yes Q W E R T YUI O P A S DFG HJ KL ZXCVBNM? 123 space return

Explanation / Answer

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The fact is that if the sun were revolving around the earth (which it doesn’t) and if the earth were rotating around the sun (which it does) would bear the same effect that we experience every day. The effect is that the sun rises from the east, sets in the west, day and night occur at different times for different places and the sun looks as if it is moving from east to west.

When Wittgenstein’s friend says that people of old, assumed that the sun revolved because it simply looked as if it did, Wittgenstein means to point out that it would have looked the same even if the earth was rotating around itself. That is why Wittgenstein asks, “Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as if the earth was rotating?”

The answer is that it would have looked the same.

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