We will continue our very slow, very cooperative stab at Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations - one of the densest, most idiosyncratic, and most rewarding philosophical texts ever composed. This time we will be starting at Remark 290. No prior reading or background is expected.
In this part of the book, Wittgenstein presents one of his most famous thought experiments considering minds and subjective experiences: "imagine a community in which the individuals each have a box containing a 'beetle'. 'No one can look into anyone else's box, and everyone says he knows what a beetle is only by looking at his beetle.' If the 'beetle' had a use in the language of these people, it could not be as the name of something - because it is entirely possible that each person had something completely different in their box, or even that the thing in the box constantly changed, or that each box was in fact empty. The content of the box is irrelevant to whatever language game it is used in."