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If we don't see that there is a
multitude of
language games, we are inclined to ask: “What
is a question?” Is it the statement that I
don't know so and so, or
is it the statement
that I wish the other person would tell me …?
Or is it the description
of my mental state of
uncertainty? – And is the cry
“help!”
a description of that
sort || a description? || such a
description? Think of what widely
different things we call
“
description” || descriptions”:
the description of the position of a body by means of its
coordinates: the description of
the course
of || changes in a sensation of pain.
One can of course put instead of the
usual form of the question || Of course one can replace the
usual form of a question by that of
the || a statement or
a description:
such as “I want
to know whether …”, or “I am in
doubt
as to whether …”
– but one hasn't thereby brought the different
language games any nearer to one another.
The
s
ignificance of
such
possibilities || this possibility of transforming,
for instance, all
declarative
sentences || assertions into sentences that
begin
17
¤ with the
clause || words “I
think” or “I believe”
(i.e. so to speak into descriptions of my
inner life || mental states)
will appear later.